Self Service or Full Service, You’ll have to get out of your car before getting gas starting in 2017

Some Independent Gasoline Retailers Are At Odds With Their Lobbyist Who Is Pushing Self Service

O’Scanlon: Self Service bill will give consumers and retailers a choice.  Will decriminalize a harmless convenience

Starting in October of 2017 New Jersey drivers will have to get out of their cars, swipe their own credit or debit card and enter a PIN before an attendant can can pump gas into their car, according to a report at NorthJersey.com.

Consumers will no longer be allowed to hand their cards gas station employees due to new credit card security requirements, The Record quotes Sal Risalvato, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline C-Store Automotive Association (NJGCA), an independent gas station owners group, as saying.

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O’Scanlon: When pumping gas, DON’T SET YOURSELF ON FIRE

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon is offended by the argument that New Jerseyans are not capable of pumping their own gas without setting themselves on fire.  But in order to get his legislation that would decriminalize consumer gas pumping passed he in inserting language into the bill that would require signs on gas pumps for the protection of the mentally challenged and members of the Jersey City Council.

“I am offended by people that argue that New Jerseyans are mentally incapable of pumping their own gas without setting themselves on fire. But I hear them.  For that reason I am recommending language be inserted in the final bill that mandates signs at all self serve pumps, in bold red and blue flashing neon lettering, that reads “Do not, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, set yourself on fire!!”   I think that should resolve these concerns” O’Scanlon said when introducing the legislation.

O’Scanlon’s bill, which mirrors a bill in the Senate sponsored by Bergen County Senators Paul Sarlo and Gerald Cardinale, except for the signage language, would decriminalize gas pumping by consumers and provide for self-service islands at New Jersey gas stations. Each facility would be required to operate at least one island full service for three years following enactment, and the bill also allows for gas retailers to charge a lesser price for self-service gasoline.

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Where are those traffic cameras when you need them? | Mulshine

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N.J. Assembly Republicans accuse NJEA of ‘pandering’ to members in pension talk pullout

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Monmouth Legislators Ask DHS To Justify Ebola Facility At Fort Monmouth

The 11th and 13th district legislators representing much of Monmouth County including the communities host Fort Monmouth sent a letter to Department of Human Services Commissioner Jennifer Valez Esq. this afternoon asking for the legal and practical justification for quarantining individuals that may have been exposed to the Ebola virus at Fort Monmouth at a time when New Jersey is marketing the property as a place for businesses to grow, create jobs and to serve as an area for new housing opportunities for people who have not been exposed to Ebola.

The letter signed by State Senators Joseph Kyrillos and Jennifer Beck and Assembly Members Amy Handlin, Declan O’Scanlon, Mary Pat Angelini and Caroline Casagrande was printed on Kyrillos’s letterhead.  The letter can be viewed here.

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Red-light camera bottom line: Only cops should write tickets | Di Ionno

Government -sanctioned theft. That’s the phrase state Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) has used like a ubiquitous bumper sticker to rail against red-light cameras. A story by njadvancemedia reporter Bill Wichert shows just how much “theft” was going on in the city of Newark. In five years, Newark collected $34 million from about 400,000 tickets doled out… Read the rest of this entry »

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Red-light cameras generated $16M for Newark, $13M for traffic company

NEWARK — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Essex County legislators have been pushing for a renewal of New Jersey’s red light camera program on the grounds it reduces car crashes and promotes public safety. But the cameras also have generated millions in fines paid to the city, the state and the company that maintained the devices.… Read the rest of this entry »

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Winners and Losers of 2014

Winners

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon led the effort to terminate New Jersey’s Red Light Camera Program.

O’Scanlon and Co. have been relentless in monitoring the Red Light Camera Program and telling the truth about it. They have hired independent experts to investigate complaints and document fraud within the program.  They have sorted through data that has regularly been obfuscated by the red light camera companies (and bureaucrats friendly to them) to reflect improved safety conditions at RCL intersections where in fact conditions had often worsened.   They have worked hard in getting the word out about the program’s failure and corruption. They have countered expensive advertising campaigns by the red light camera companies and countered expensive lobbyists working the halls of the Statehouse, without the benefit of the profits the red light camera companies stole from the motoring public to fund their efforts.

In thwarting the Red Light Camera Program’s renewal, O’Scanlon has proved himself to be “the real deal”….a leader who fights for the right thing because it is the right thing. He is an example of what a “public servant” should be.

Christine Giordano Hanlon 

Dubbed The Architect by Monmouth GOP Chairman Shaun Golden, Hanlon designed Golden’s defeat of John Bennett for leadership of the County Party, avenging her razor thin 3 vote defeat by Bennett in 2012.  By building a coalition of previous regional rivals and splitting Bennett’s 2012 coalition, which he failed to nourish, Hanlon demonstrated strategic leadership without seeking the limelight or accolades.

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O’Scanlon: There’s no silver bullet to resolve New Jersey’s budget issues

By Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon

Politicians like to talk about budgetary issues and challenges in pieces -ignoring the big-picture, and inconvenient,  collateral effects of their proposed solutions. Even the public, and well-meaning editorial boards, fall prey to this segmentation mentality hoping there is an answer that doesn’t eviscerate their particular sacred cow.  Throw in the fact that there is a general belief in a magic bullet that will fix our budget problems and you have a dangerous mix of ignorance and irrational expectation.  It is time to clear that up.  Governor Christie is right when he says our budget problems are serious. The solutions are going to be painful.

First, let’s understand that the causes of the problem are rooted in the actions, over the last 20 years, of legislators and governors – Republicans and Democrats – who were either well-meaning, but ultimately ill-informed, or those who consciously opted for political expediency knowing their actions would ultimately bankrupt the state.  The former motivation is sad, the latter reprehensible.

Making certain assumptions about things we can and can’t fund, our structural deficit is around $6.75 billion – inclusive of $1.6 billion in transportation investment per year but exclusive of things we’d love to do like cut property taxes.

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Red Light Camera Requiem

New Jersey’s State Government and 23 of its municipal governments will recover a morsel of integrity at midnight tonight when state sanctioned theft in the form of red light cameras cease to operate at 73 intersections.  New Jersey’s Red Light Camera Program, authorized as a five year pilot during the lame duck session of the 2006-2008 legislature and signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine, expires tonight.

The fact that the Red Light Camera Program has not been renewed is due in large measure to the efforts of Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and his staff.  Their efforts have been heroic.

O’Scanlon and Co. have been relentless in monitoring the Red Light Camera Program and telling the truth about it. They have hired independent experts to investigate complaints and document fraud within the program.  They have sorted through data that has regularly been obfuscated by the red light camera companies (and bureaucrats friendly to them) to reflect improved safety conditions at RCL intersections where in fact conditions had often worsened.   They have worked hard in getting the word out about the program’s failure and corruption. They have countered expensive advertising campaigns by the red light camera companies and countered expensive lobbyists working the halls of the Statehouse, without the benefit of the profits the red light camera companies stole from the motoring public to fund their efforts.

In thwarting the Red Light Camera Program’s renewal, O’Scanlon has proved himself to be “the real deal”….a leader who fights for the right thing because it is the right thing. He is an example of what a “public servant” should be.

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