APP: Public contracts should be online. Why not public notices?

This morning The Asbury Park Press argues in an editorial that public labor contracts should be posted online.  They argued that municipalites that don’t have websites that can handle such postings should post them on the Department of Community Affairs’ site.

We agree.   While we’re at it, why not public notices that municipalities, school boards and private sector zoning and planning applicants now pay millions per year to advertise in newspapers where very few people see them?

During the last legislative session a bi-partisan bill that would have given jurisdictions the option of advertising legal notices  in newspapers or online was passed in committee and scheduled for a vote in both houses of the legislature on the last day of the session.  It met fierce resistance from the newspaper industry in committee and before that scheduled vote.

The corporate welfare recipients of the newspaper industry argued that politicians would use the choice to punish newspapers who didn’t give them favorable coverage, and that the savings wasn’t that much, if anything.  In their final push to kill the bill, which worked, they argued that some towns don’t have websites that could handle the ads.

The legislature’s Democratic leadership, Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver, killed the bill by not letting their chambers vote on it.

Well, thanks to the good nudniks of Neptune, The Asbury Presseditorial board, we now have a solution to the problem of a small number of towns not having websites that can handle posting legal notices.  Notice publication could be a shared service hosting by the Department of Community Affairs or by the counties.

Sweeney has already announced that the legal notice bill will not be a priority in the legislative session that just started, signaling to the reformers that support they bill that they shouldn’t bother.  Now that The Asbury Park Press has come up with a solution to the newspaper industry’s latest objection, maybe Sweeney will reconsider.

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Bill Spadea Can Win In November

By Harold Kane, Monroe Township

There is an old cliché in New Jersey Politics. The cliché states “When it is the Republicans to lose, they will lose.” The district 16 special election this year will be theirs to lose unless they wake up. The electoral composition of the district has radically changed since the 2010 census. In 2007 the Republican Assembly candidates won 58-42. With the elimination of parts of Somerset and Morris counties and the inclusion of South Brunswick and the Princetons the Republicans managed to win the 2011 Assembly race 52-48, a drop of 12 points. The special election will be to replace the deceased Peter Biondi. At first the Republican “leadership” offered William Mennen of Tewksbury, but he didn’t live in the district. Mennen said that he would move, but then changed his mind. They then offered Donna Simon, a councilperson from Readington. Ms. Simon has absolutely no name recognition outside of Readington. The name recognition becomes even more important in the 2012 general election in that the Democrats will have Barack Obama at the top of their ticket. With Obama every Democrat and Democrat leaner in Middlesex and Mercer counties will be coming out of the woodwork to vote. The Republicans have a candidate that can overcome the Democrat advantage in the special Assembly Election. That candidate is Bill Spadea of Princeton. Spadea has run for Congress garnering 40% of the vote which is twice what the “experts” said that he would get. He is a party activist with great name recognition in precisely the portion of district 16 where it is needed most. Spadea has already assembled a campaign team with many years of experience. This is in comparison to Simon. Exactly when was the last time the Somerset/Hunterdon Republican parties had to fight for an Assembly seat? A Democrat victory in the 16^th would further impede Governor Christie from achieving his goals.

The Republican chairpersons in Somerset County (Al Gaburo), Hunterdon County (Henry Kuhl), and Mercer County (Dave Fried, Maria Bua) need to put their support behind Spadea at the special convention this month. Spadea can win in November, Simon cannot!

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Alex DeCroce Dies While Doing The Job He Loved

Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce died last night shortly after the final voting session of the 214th legislature.  He was 75 years old.

DeCroce collapsed after 11PM in the legislative wing of the statehouse.

Governor Chris Christie said, “Tonight I lost a dear friend, colleague and mentor -– Assembly Republican Leader Alex De Croce.

“I have known Alex for nearly 20 years,” the governor said. “He helped to give me my start in elective politics in Morris County in 1993. He was one of the most kind, considerate and trustworthy people I have ever had the pleasure to know. He was an enormously accomplished legislator and a tremendous servant to the people of New Jersey.

“Mary Pat and I offer our heartfelt condolences to his wife, Department of Community Affairs Deputy Commissioner Betty Lou De Croce, and to Alex’s entire family,” Christie said. “This is an enormous loss for our state and for me personally.”

The ceremonial swearing in of the 215th legislature and the Governor’s State of the State address scheduled for today have been canceled.   There will be an informal swearing in and the Governor will briefly address both houses of the legislature in order to fulfill the constitution requirement that he address them today.

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No Vote In Assembly On Legal Ads Bill

S2072/A2082 will not be voted on in the Assembly today according to a report by State Street Wire, Politickernj’s pay site.

As today is the last day of the legislative session, Speaker Sheila Oliver and other Democratic caucus members have killed the bill.

Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-29, Newark), a former sponsor of the bill told State Street Wire that he would introduce a similar bill in the new session that also addresses concerns of those who opposed this bill.

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Call Your Legislators: Stop Corporate Welfare For Newspapers

Legislation that ends the requirement of “Legal Ads” being published in newspapers, in favor of the ads being posted on government websites, is on the calendar in both the Senate and Assembly on Monday, the last day of the current legislative session.

Call or email your legislators right now and ask them to vote YES on S-2072 in the Senate and A-2082 in the Assembly.  You can find your legislators contact information here.

Classified ads in newspapers have gone the way of the horse and buggy.  The Internet has made them obsolete.  On most days Legals Ads make up the vast majority of the once thick classified section.  The private sector has already voted.  Taxpayers and those with proceedings before a court or board should not have to subsidize an antiquated practice.

Posting Legal Notices on municipal, county and state websites will lead to more people seeing them and will save the public between $12 and $70 million per year, depending upon who you believe.  The newspaper industry says they ads cost only $12 million per year.  Proponents of the bill says they cost $70 million.

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Bye Bye Mennen. Really

Hunterdon County Freeholder William Mennen, heir to the Mennen deodorant fortune, has dropped his bid to to run for the 16th district Assembly seat vacated by the untimely death of Assemblyman Peter Biondi, according to a report on Politickernj.

Mennen was the GOP establishment choice for the seat.  He does not live in the district.  A proposed legal challenge from Bill Spadea, Princeton, also running, doomed Mennen’s candidacy.

Spadea still faces competition.  Donna Simon, a Readington Township Committeewoman announced her candidacy upon Mennen’s withdrawal, according to Politickernj.  South Brunswick Health Board Member John Saccenti is also running.

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Attack On Belmar Homeless Man Spurs Legislation

The horrendous attack of a Belmar homeless man, David Ivins, has already resulted in new legislation being proposed.

Monmouth County Republican Assembly Members Dave Rible and Mary Pat Angelini, along with Assembly Republican Conference Leader Jon Bramnick of Westfield, Union County, announced that they will sponsor legislation that will increase penalities for recording and distributing an assault:

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Bye Mennen

By Harold Kane

Hunterdon County Freeholder William Mennen wants to run for the NJ State Assembly from the 16^th district. However Mr. Mennen has a problem in that he does not live in D16. To rectify this situation he plans to move shortly into the 16^th district.

There is one other issue he must face that a moving van cannot resolve. That is the NJ State constitution requirement that the candidate live in the district for one year before Election Day. Since the election is less than one year away, Mennen is not-qualified to run in the 16^th district. However, Mennen does not plan to let some minor irritant such as the constitution get in the way of his run for office.

Mennen has used his inherited fortune to hire Alan Zakin to be his spokesperson. According to Zakin, the 14^th amendment to the US Constitution is violated when voters cannot vote for who they want. The Equal Protection clause of the 14^th amendment was written to preclude voter suppression of former slaves. In this case no one in the 16^th district is being denied the right to vote. Voting is being encouraged. Zakin’s argument is a perversion of the US Constitution. The state of NJ is well within its rights to set a reasonable time frame for a candidate’s residency. If Mennen had a grasp on reality he would have moved into the 16^th district before November 2 since the new districts were determined this past spring. But he didn’t, and now he thinks that he can buy a nomination.

The Republican parties in the 16^th district portion of Hunterdon, Somerset, Mercer, and Middlesex counties have the opportunity to nominate a highly qualified candidate for the 16^th district Assembly seat and that candidate should be Bill Spadea of Princeton.

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Keeping New Jersey’s Tax Structure Competitive

By Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, Republican Budget Officer

It’s a simple question loaded with political appeal: “With so many people hurting, and income disparities rising, shouldn’t we ask New Jersey’s millionaires to a ‘fair share’ in taxes?”   

OK. What’s a “fair” share?  If the current share of state income tax paid by the top 1% of New Jersey’s taxpayers — about 37 percent — isn’t high enough, what is?  Would 80 percent be fair?  90 percent?  Taxpayers earning $1 million pay an effective tax rate this is about four times what taxpayers earning $100,000 pay.  When and how will we know when we’ve achieved “fairness”? 

Unfortunately, intense partisanship feeding on visceral emotions has made it virtually impossible to have a rational conversation about taxes in America.  As a senior member of the State Assembly’s Budget Committee, I think those of us in positions of leadership have a responsibility to do more than stoke emotions, and instead adopt tax policies that generate the revenue needed to support the State’s budget priorities on a fair and sustainable basis. 

Piling taxes on the “rich” may be great politics, but it’s lousy public policy.  New Jersey already has a “progressive” income tax system which, thanks to high-income households receiving a greater proportion of their income from investments and capital gains, has made our revenue base highly volatile.  Additionally increasing our relative reliance on high-income taxpayers will increase volatility, making it more difficult to engage in prudent long-term financial planning. 

Most experts believe increased volatility is a problem because fiscal stability is a condition precedent to sound policymaking.  Wild fluctuations in revenues fuel an inefficient boom-and-bust approach to budget-making that mismanages popular expectations. The impact of emergent budget cuts on New Jersey residents is regressive – those at middle and lower income levels experience the pain of budget cuts disproportionately since they more often benefit from state programs. 

Some editorialists have suggested Governor Cuomo’s recent decision to embrace higher rates for high income New Yorkers should serve as an example for New Jersey.  Perhaps they should read the fine print.  New York’s “tax increase” is no such thing.  New York’s current high rate is 8.97%, the same as New Jersey’s.  Instead of letting the rate go down to 6.85%, as scheduled, Cuomo is saying he’ll let the rate fall to 8.82% for taxpayers at $2 million or more, but let the rate fall to 6.85% for taxpayers between $300,000 and $2 million.  Everyone in New York will get a tax cut, but folks above $2 million will get less of a tax cut than they had expected.  If that’s the standard of “fairness,” maybe the editorialists are right and we should follow New York’s example!  Here’s the critical point: the top marginal rate in New York will soon fall below the top rate in New Jersey; that’s not good news for our competitive position. 

New Jersey Treasury’s Chief Economist’s review of national IRS data confirmed a statistical connection between tax increases enacted under former Governor McGreevy and an increase of affluent taxpayers who moved out of, or never moved into, New Jersey.  The Chief Economist also conducted a survey confirming a significant proportion of tax advisors had discussed moving out of New Jersey with their relatively affluent clients.  Contrary to the often inaccurate summaries in the popular press, the study and the separate survey were modest in scope and merely confirmed what we already know: yes, Virginia, taxes matter.

Are they the only competitive consideration? Absolutely not. Infrastructure, regulations, climate, educational levels and other factors play a major role.  But there’s no denying taxes figure into investment and location decisions. 

Instead of asking “what’s fair?” we should be asking “what’s in our long-term self-interest?”  I suggest it’s in New Jersey’s self-interest to pursue policies that support sustainable and growing revenue collections over time.  Although New Jersey cannot expect to compete globally on the basis of low taxes alone, we should avoid negative “outlier” status and with it the kind of reputation that once prevented New Jersey from getting into the starting blocks when companies and leaders make site selections.

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Senatorial Courtesy

Senatorial Courtesy, an oft written about unwritten rule of the legislative confirmation process that is in the news in New Jersey due to a battle that Governor Chris Christie is having with the Essex County senate delegation over the confirmation of Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf.

On the federal level, both U.S. senators of a state, or the senior senator of the presidents party, can block the confirmation of a presidential appointee  who resides in the state the senators represent. 

In New Jersey, a senator can block the confirmation of a gubernatorial appointee who resides in the senator’s home county.

On both the federal level and in New Jersey, the senators don’t need a reason to block the confirmation.

The Democrats who control the New Jersey Senate are apparently stung by Governor Christie’s campaign against senatorial courtesy and the Essex County Democrats that Christie has targeted with criticism.  Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) has instructed the Office of Legislative Services to restrict access to the data base of who is exercising senatorial courtesy to only the Senate President and top staffers, thereby preventing Republicans from finding out who is blocking the governor’s appointments, according to The Star Ledger.

We don’t hear much about the Monmouth County delegation invoking senatorial courtesy.  The last time I can recall it the tradition being discussed publicly regarding a Monmouth County nominee was when Democratic County Chairman Victor Scudiery asked then Republican Senator Joe Palaia to block Luis Valentin’s appointment as prosecutor in 2005.  Palaia declined and Valentin was confirmed.

Just because we don’t hear about it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

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