Governor Christie Moves Horse Racing Closer to a Self-Sustaining Model with Legislation to Expedite Off Track Wagering

Trenton, NJ – Governor Chris Christie today moved forward with his commitment to making horse racing in New Jersey a self-sustaining industry by signing legislation to expedite the establishment of off-track wagering facilities in New Jersey. Another step forward comes early next week, when the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority will issue a request for proposals to bring a long-term solution to Monmouth Park through private operation. 

On December 17, 2010, Governor Christie announced a break-through agreement to end public subsidies of operations and purses for Standardbred racing at the Meadowlands Racetrack through the lease of that facility to the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association (SBOA). Governor Christie is looking forward to similar progress with Monmouth Park and Thoroughbred racing there with the RFP for a private operator. 

“We were successful in the Meadowlands, and we can do the same for Monmouth Park to the benefit of New Jersey taxpayers,” Governor Christie said.  “I want to see a vibrant but self-sustaining horse racing industry in New Jersey, but that can be accomplished without tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies every year.” 

Assembly Bill 1705, which Governor Christie conditionally vetoed on January 31 and the Legislature subsequently amended to include the Governor’s recommended changes, removes barriers to the establishment of OTWs by permitting persons other than racetrack operators to run OTW facilities, making OTWs a permitted use in all municipal land use zones, and increasing the accessibility to liquor licenses for OTW operators. 

Despite enactment of an original OTW law nearly a decade ago, only three of the 15 facilities allowed by law were established. Governor Christie’s conditional veto was necessary to preserve the NJSEA’s ability to transfer licenses in connection with the sale or lease of the state’s racetracks.  It also eliminated a 1 percent fee on OTW operators, but expressly noted that the Administration will work with the Legislature to find an alternative source of revenue for OTW host municipalities

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Freeholder Nomination Race Update

By Art Gallagher

The municipal chairs of western Monmouth County are hosting a candidates forum for those seeking the GOP nomination for Monmouth County Freeholder tomorrow at 9:30am at the county library on Symmes Road in Manalapan.  The chairs from the region are scheduled to meet following the forum to discuss endorsing a candidate.

Manalapan Mayor Andrew Lucas will have the home field advantage.  Wall Committeeman George Newberry and Spring Lake Councilman Gary Rich are rallying their supporters to attend the event.

With the screening committee meeting to choose a candidate for the party line a month away, it might be early for a block on chairmen to announce an endorsement.   The field currently consists of Lucas, Newberry and Rich.  None of the three are considered a lock for the nomination in what is shaping up to be a very competitive race.

Rich, who is making his third bid for a Freeholder nomination, now has the backing of former Red Bank Chairman Jim Giannell.  Giannell’s relationships with chairs in the Two Rivers region and the Bayshore are a significant boost to Rich this time around.

In the fight for the 2006 nomination, Giannell threw his support to Lucas during a wild and contentious nominating convention.  Lucas won the nomination but he and Giannell later had a failing out when Lucas did not support Giannell against Adam Puharic in the race for county chairman.

To a certain extent, Rich vs Lucas is a battle for influence between Giannell and Manalapan Chairman Steve McEnry and his loosely aligned western Monmouth chairman’s group.

Newberry has the strong support of the Wall Township Republicans.  County Clerk Claire French’s support of Newberry is significant.   The Rich camp and the Lucas camp both consider Newberry to be County Chairman Joe Oxley’s choice, despite Oxley’s efforts to remain neutral through the process.  Oxley is the Wall Township Borough Attorney.

All three candidates are counting votes and think they have enough support to win a race that like last year’s contest is looking to be closely divided.  Last year Tom Arnone beat  Tom Wilkens of Middletown by 4 votes.  Rich came in third, but only 12 votes separated him and Arnone.

However, the field of three candidates may expand or change.

Lucas has been telling people, including MoreMonmouthMusings, that he will not ask the screening committee for the nomination unless he is confident that he has the votes to win.  He told MMM that at this point he thinks he has the votes and has no intention of dropping out.

But some have heard Lucas’s words to mean that he might drop out.   This has led others to consider entering the race.  Howell Mayor Bob Walsh is the most notable potential candidate. 

Walsh, a Republican who was elected as an Independent in Howell, declined to enter the Freeholder nominating race earlier due to an family matter concerning his son’s health.  That situation is now managable and Walsh has his family’s support to run if he so chooses.  Walsh told MMM that he won’t run against Lucas with whom he is very friendly, but that he will run should Lucas drop out.

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Menna Supko & Nelson LLC Wins Turnpike Bid Protest

Forces Rescission of Pre-Qualification Previously Granted By Authority In
Relation To Extra Heavy Duty Towing and Recovery Services Contract

On February 23, 2011, Menna Supko & Nelson LLC attorneys Brian M. Nelson and Michael P. Supko, Jr. won a bid protest before the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (“the Authority”) on behalf of our client, B&L Towing & Recovery of Carteret, which had bid on a highly valuable contract to provide extra heavy duty towing and recovery services on one of the busiest sections of the New Jersey Turnpike.
 
There is a very difficult burden to overcome in such proceedings.  Not only must the Authority essentially admit error in accepting unqualified contractors or bids, but the law provides the Authority extraordinary discretion in making determinations interpreting its own bid specifications and needs.  Nevertheless, through a hearing conducted by the Authority in which its own witnesses testified against our client’s position, we were able to demonstrate that the Authority overlooked important written interpretations of its own specifications resulting in a determination that our client’s primary competitor was not qualified to bid.
 
The New Jersey Turnpike is one of the most heavily travelled roadways in the nation upon which millions of dollars in interstate commerce takes place every day.  To keep things moving when accidents occur, the Authority privately contracts for extra heavy duty towing and recovery services that must be provided on a 24/7/365 basis by only the most experienced contractors with millions of dollars of specialized equipment that can quickly and safely remove large tractor-trailers and their loads from the roadway.  Accordingly, the Authority drafts highly detailed pre-qualification and bid specifications to ensure that only the most highly qualified contractors with the proper equipment are pre-qualified to bid on such contracts.
 
Like many pre-qualification or bidding proceedings, there is a period for written questions to be submitted with written answers being provided by the contracting entity that become part of its specifications.  Frequently this valuable process is overlooked by both bidders and contracting entities, which can use it to their competitive advantage to clarify vague or ambiguous specifications.  While contracting entities have significant discretion, they must still play by the rules they are subject to and the specifications they establish. Further, all too often government entities and private bidders fail to conduct adequate due diligence regarding the growing body of laws and regulations governing public bidding processes. Specifications are also frequently overlooked and merely copied from other entities without a complete understanding of the terms and conditions contained therein that reduce competitiveness or cause other problems, outdated or inapplicable forms are used, and most State and local pay-to-play regulations continue to be misunderstood.
 
New Jersey has hundreds of public entities, authorities and commissions that have been subjected to increased scrutiny recently by the State Comptroller, which has through numerous reports now, highlighted poor or improper bidding practices by many governmental entities.
 

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How Chris Christie Did His Homework

Matt Bai’s article on Governor Chris Chrisite in the NY Times Magazine is a MUST READ.

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The Lincoln Club of New Jersey is Launched

Newly Constituted Political Club Plans Greater Engagement and Relevance

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Gate Crasher

Guess who showed up uninvited to an intimate gathering of Monmouth County Republican leaders at the home of Diane and Mickey Gooch on Tuesday evening.

The invitation only event was first intended to introduce those invited to Sam Raia, the new NJ GOP chairman.  Raia cancelled on Monday, but the Gooches went ahead with the event in order for their friends to get to meet Monmouth County Freeholder contenders Andrew Lucas, George Newberry and Gary Rich.

Someone showed up uninvited.  I bet you guess who it was on the first try.

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Is Dupont Sayreville’s Borough Attorney Or Isn’t He?

By Art Gallagher

Red Bank Councilman and NJ Turnpike Authority Treasurer Michael Dupont told Red Bank Green that he is still the Borough Attorney in Sayreville and that he’s humbled that he got the appointment.

Sayreville Mayor Kennedy O’Brien saysthat Brian Nelson is the Borough Attorney for the duration of the temporary 30 day appointment that O’Brien made on February 14th.  The Sayreville mayor intends to appoint Nelson for the remainder of the year.

O’Brien also said that the reported savings of $115 thousand that Sayreville taxpayers would enjoy due to DuPont’s appointment at $7500 per month, compared to the prior attorney’s $19,000 per month fee is exaggerated because DuPont’s fee does not include the costs of litigation.  Nelson’s bid of $12,500 per month does include litigation.

O’Brien said that DuPont was ineligible to be appointed because his pay to pay paperwork was not submitted on time.  DuPont told RedBankGreen that his paper work was fine and that he personally reviewed it.

MMM has calls into DuPont and Nelson.  More to follow as we pull of the threads of this tangled web.

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Governor Christie Releases Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Proposal

Trenton, NJ – Advancing his vision for a New Normal in state budgeting, Governor Chris Christie today presented a $29.4 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2012 that cuts real spending for a second consecutive year. The Governor’s Budget proposal includes $200 million in focused tax cuts, provides additional property tax relief, increases school aid and funds a reformed state pension system, while preserving or increasing funding to protect our state’s most vulnerable citizens. The Fiscal Year 2012 Budget marks a departure from the Trenton tradition of budgeting to meet deficit projections that embrace wish-list spending by legislators and assume continuous funding increases that irresponsibly ignore actual revenue sources and the fiscal health of the state. 

The Governor’s Budget – which reduces real spending by 2.6 percent from the current fiscal year – hits the reset button on the state budgeting process and starts with the refreshing assumption that budgeting and spending must be reality-based and zero-based. The New Normal means developing a bottom-up approach – establishing priorities and funding them based on revenue that is actually available and predictable versus the old approach of assuming every line item and program will automatically be funded at the same or higher level than prior years.

“The old way of budgeting and thinking must be stricken from our collective minds if we are to successfully emerge from this fiscal crisis with permanently reformed budgeting and spending habits,” Governor Chris Christie said.  “This is a new paradigm for state government – a New Normal – that cuts and spends responsibly, incentivizes our local governments to do better with what our taxpayers entrust to them, and causes businesses to feel welcome and want to stay and expand or relocate to our state.” 

The Governor’s Budget proposal adheres to necessary spending and budgeting discipline, but also meets New Jersey’s most vital spending priorities.  Among those priorities in the budget:

·         Increases education aid to every school district in New Jersey by a total of $250 million;

·         Fulfills the statutory commitment to make a $506 million payment to a reformed state pension fund, representing the first funding to the defined benefit plans since fiscal year 2009;

·         Provides $200 million in job-creating, strategic tax cuts that are responsible and sustainable;

·         Doubles funding for the Homestead Rebate to provide direct property tax relief in the form of a property tax credit under the newly named Homestead Benefit program;

·         Protects municipal aid and keeps funding at fiscal year 2011 levels to help towns meet the new 2 percent property tax cap (while decreasing by 10 percent the category of Special Transitional Aid to cities, in keeping with the Governor’s pledge to end cities’ reliance on the aid as they adopt best-practices budgeting to improve fiscal and management reforms); and

·         Increases and secures New Jersey hospital funding by a total of $20 million, and increases funding for student financial aid by the same amount.

The Governor’s Budget takes all possible steps to maintain the safety net for New Jersey’s most vulnerable and at-need individuals and families.  From prescription drug aid for seniors to helping low-income tenants stay in their homes, the Governor’s Budget includes billions of dollars and:

·         Preserves critical spending and fully funds the fiscal year 2011 increases to the Pharmaceutical Assistance to the Aged and Disabled (PAAD) and Senior Gold Prescription Assistance Programs without increases in co-pays or eligibility – keeping it one of the most generous such benefit programs in the nation;

·         Allocates $20.4 million to help the developmentally disabled lead richer, happier lives through new community placement and services, and funds day programs and other services; similarly, the budget continues and expands funding for the requirement that the state expand the number of residential and community settings for New Jersey’s mentally ill;

·         Preserves the current level of support for higher education, after years of cuts, while increasing student aid programs by $20 million and providing $15 million for capital improvements at community colleges;

·         Provides resources to keep 4,300 low-income citizens in their homes and apartments, including $25 million from the New Jersey Affordable Housing Agency Trust Fund and $9 million from the Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency; and

·         Avoids an increase in NJ Transit fares and expands bus service to select growth markets.

The damage caused by years of fiscal mismanagement, coupled with the lingering effects of the national recession, will continue to restrain state spending for years to come. The reality is that the New Normal of the current economic and fiscal climate necessitates more painful choices in how the state allocates finite taxpayer dollars.  Facing up to those realities, the proposed budget continues on the path of making difficult, often painful choices in nearly every department.  Funding in even worthwhile, popular programs is reduced or eliminated in order to fund priorities.

Governor Christie will continue to insist that the shared sacrifice be spread among state employees as well, including in payment of a fair share of medical costs.  By increasing co-payments and premiums to levels still below what federal employees pay, the state will save $323 million that will be used to pay for other critically important programs – and prevent increases in some of the highest sales, income and property taxes in the nation.

Finally, to pave the way for the best possible outcome for our state and its people as we deal with the New Normal and emerge from recession, the Governor intends to better position our businesses and attract new ones with tax cuts, reform and incentives to spur job growth and business expansion. To that end, he proposes a comprehensive but phased-in program of $2.5 billion in job-creation incentives over the next five years.  As part of the program, Governor Christie is proposing for Fiscal 2012  tax cuts and reforms resulting in approximately $200 million in savings for businesses. 

The package outlined by the Governor increases the state’s competitiveness in a responsible and sustainable manner by providing critical tax reform and incentives across a variety of tax-policy areas, including: loss carry-forward relief for small businesses, a reduction of the S-corporation minimum tax, increasing the credit allowed for research and development investments, exemptions for business software technology reinvestment, increasing funding for economic development programs, and the phasing-out of the Technology Energy Facility Assessment to provide needed relief from New Jersey’s already-high energy costs.

Governor Christie has committed to only putting in place tax cuts and incentives that are paid for within the context of a Constitutionally-balanced state budget.  By providing for a phase-in of the program, the fiscal impact rises with the expected expansion of the state’s economy while minimizing the impact on the state budget each year.

The budget proposal, a representation of the Governor’s commitment to maintain fiscal discipline, also outlines a bold reform agenda to take on the big issues facing New Jersey, including the Governor’s comprehensive reform plans to restore fiscal sanity to out-of-control pension and health benefits systems, make 2011 the Year of Education Reform to bring the opportunity of a high-quality education to every child, and the pro-growth, responsible package of tax reforms and incentives to create Jersey Jobs and increase New Jersey’s competitiveness, as outlined above.

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The Cheese Heads Are Coming! The Cheese Heads Are Coming!

By Art Gallagher

Wisconsin public employees will join their New Jersey comrades in Trenton on Friday to protest fiscal discipline, representative government, and the right to work.

Standing for New Jersey’s taxpayers in a counter protest will be the Bayshore Tea Party Group and American’s For Prosperity-NJ.

The AFP/Tea Party group will meet at the State House, 125 West State Street, Trenton, at noon on Friday.

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The Public Employee Union Problem

By Art Gallagher

Yesterday in Government of the unions, by the unions and for the unions I said that “public employee unions are as serious a threat to Americans’ freedom as is radical Islam. Maybe more so. ”   That wasn’t hyperbole.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Meany, the first president of the AFL-CIO, warned of the dangers of public employee collective bargaining.  From Daniel DiSalvo’s The Trouble with Public Sector Unions:

The emergence of powerful public-sector unions was by no means inevitable. Prior to the 1950s, as labor lawyer Ida Klaus remarked in 1965, “the subject of labor relations in public employment could not have meant less to more people, both in and out of government.” To the extent that people thought about it, most politicians, labor leaders, economists, and judges opposed collective bargaining in the public sector. Even President Franklin Roosevelt, a friend of private-sector unionism, drew a line when it came to government workers: “Meticulous attention,” the president insisted in 1937, “should be paid to the special relations and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government….The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.” The reason? F.D.R. believed that “[a] strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable.” Roosevelt was hardly alone in holding these views, even among the champions of organized labor. Indeed, the first president of the AFL-CIO, George Meany, believed it was “impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”

In New Jersey, the unions run our governments on the state, county and municipal levels.  Fortunately, Governor Chris Christie is fighting to correct some of the economic imbalances the unions have imposed upon the people with the cooperation of their lap dogs…previous governors and legislatures that the unions elected and shared the largess with.   Yet Christie is fighting to only tame the beast while killing the beast is appropriate. 

Examples of unions dictating government policy, spending and even risking public safety are so prevalent that we don’t even notice.  The unions tyranny is so complete that we just surrender rather than fight.

A minor example is Christie choosing not to layoff government workers during the current budget cycle.  Governor Corzine signed a no layoff contract with the unions just prior to his reelection campaign kickoff.   Vice President Joe Biden told Corzine that he wouldn’t cross a union picket line to appear at Corzine’s event.  Corzine caved to the unions demands and signed a deal that tied his successor’s hands. 

Much more serious examples come from our cities of Newark and Camden.   Both cities are in serious fiscal trouble.  Both cities, already high crime areas, are experiencing increases in violent crime.   In both cities unions forced police layoffs.  The most senior and highest paid members of the police department got to keep their jobs while younger junior officers were let go.  The younger officers are being recruited to join police departments in other states for less pay.  The unions didn’t even give them the option of accepting less pay to keep working at home.  Our leaders, the governor and the cities mayors accepted this situation because they had no choice.

The police situation in Newark and Camden is insane.  It is not government of the people, by the people and for the people.  It is government of the unions, by the unions and for the unions.

Unions, and their lap dog lawmakers have designed a system that trumps the economic law of supply and demand.  There is a huge supply of labor available.  Millions of those people are getting by with checks from the government.  The government can’t put these people to work, as police officers or in other functions, because of union rules and contracts.  This situation is insane.  We are living it.

This is not a system that protects the middle class, as the unions are protesting.  This is a system that rewards the few at the expense of, and literally to the detriment to the safety of us, the many.

Is there any doubt that Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Camden Mayor Dana Reed would hire as many police officers as they could and pay them the wages they could afford if “the system” allowed them to?  Is there any doubt that those jobs would be filled and that there would be a waiting list to fill vacancies?  I think not.

Newark and Camden are extreme but real examples of unions controlling our government and public safety.  There are less extreme but just as real examples all over New Jersey.   Our elected leaders throughout the state on all levels of government are constrained primarily by union contracts and civil service rules in their efforts to reform their jurisdictions and deliver government services efficiently.

It is insanity and we are living it.  It is tyranny and we are subject to it.

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