TRENTON — A pair of Republican state lawmakers is looking to do away with tenure for state Supreme Court justices, proposing a constitutional amendment that would have voters give them a thumbs-up or thumbs-down every four years.
State Sens. Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen) and Michael Doherty (R-Warren) say the move would make the justices accountable to New Jersey voters, but some worry the move would further inject politics into the state’s highest court.
Currently, New Jersey’s seven justices are appointed by the governor and approved by the state Senate with an initial term of seven years. Then, if the governor reappoints and the Senate again approves, a justice gets tenure until hitting a mandatory retirement age of 70.
By Jonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on March 08, 2017 at 1:23 PM, updated March 08, 2017 at 4:43 PM
WASHINGTON — Emirates Airline, owned by the United Arab Emirates, is about to launch flights between Newark Liberty International Airport and Athens.
Members of the New Jersey and New York congressional delegations want to block them.
The reason? They say Emirates and two other non-union Middle Eastern airlines, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways have gotten $50 billion in government subsidies in violation of the Open Skies agreements removing limits on international flights to and from the U.S.
“While we support expanding flight options and greater connectivity, we do not support subsidy-enabled flights that cost American jobs and could violate U.S. trade agreements,” a bipartisan group of 25 New Jersey and New York lawmakers wrote to President Donald Trump in advance of Emirates’ maiden flight on Saturday.
Special interests spent $68.3 million last year lobbying the public, state lawmakers and Gov. Chris Christie’s administration. While total spending was down 2.5 percent from 2015, “spending to promote more funding for state transportation improvement kept lobbying expenditures relatively high,” according to the Election Law Enforcement Commission, which compiled the data.
You remember that one: the fight to replenish the broke fund that pays for road and rail improvements by hiking the gas tax for the first time since Ronald Reagan was president.
Health care was another issue that prompted lots of lobbying.
By The Associated Press
on January 04, 2017 at 7:00 AM, updated January 04, 2017 at 7:46 AM
ATLANTIC CITY — Billionaire investor Carl Icahn says his shuttered Trump Taj Mahal casino is not for sale, and he appears content to sit on it for a while.
Icahn told The Associated Press Tuesday night he does not want to sell the casino, which he closed on Oct. 10 after a bitter strike with Atlantic City’s main casino workers’ union.
But he plans to surrender its casino license, and wants to make sure that anyone who might buy it in the future can’t use it as a casino unless they pay his company an unspecified fee.
Icahn’s company filed a deed restriction preventing a future purchaser from using the Taj Mahal as a casino.
By Spencer Kent | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on October 16, 2016 at 1:24 PM, updated October 16, 2016 at 1:31 PM
EDISON — After a felon had made it on this year’s township school board ballot, lawmakers introduced bills that would require all board of education candidates to “certify under oath they have never been convicted of crimes that would disqualify them from campaigning for school boards.”
State Sen. Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex) and Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak (D-Middlesex) have introduced identical bills in the state Senate and state Assembly.
Currently, felons convicted offirst- and second-degree crimes cannot serve in school district positions, according to state Department of Education regulations. But those felons can serve as candidates and have their names on the ballot since criminal background checks are not conducted until after the election.
If enacted, the bills would “require school board candidates to file a formal certification — along with their nominating petition — affirming they were never convicted of any disqualifying crimes,” according to a statement from Karabinchak’s office.
It’s not likely to gain much traction, but boosting the state sales tax could go a long way to easing the Transportation Trust Fund crisis. Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff, NJSpotlight Read more
Senate President Stephen Sweeney defended his proposal to constitutionally mandate billions of dollars in public-sector pension contributions on Friday from a Republican budget officer who argued that without union concessions New Jersey would go bust. Samantha Marcus, NJ.com Read more
By Samantha Marcus | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 07, 2016 at 7:31 PM, updated January 08, 2016 at 8:19 AM
TRENTON — State Senate President Stephen Sweeney and labor leaders on Thursday defended his proposal to constitutionally enforce payments into the public pension system against arguments it’s a gift to special interests that will shackle New Jersey’s finances.
The scrap between Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and labor leaders vs. Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union) and business lobbyists centered on what would be worse: a mandated pension contribution that would eat up so much money the state couldn’t respond to fiscal emergencies, or a pension system that continues hurtling toward insolvency.
Sweeney, the Democrat leading the charge on the amendment, told the Senate state government committee it’s in everyone’s interest to pay the bill now. Should a pension fund run out of money, the state would have to pay retirees’ pension benefits out of pocket, he said.
“If we don’t do this, by 2026 or 2027, when the pensions go broke, it’s nine or ten billion dollars. And that’s coming out of the budget. Directly out of the budget,” Sweeney said. “That’s armageddon.”
Unlike the ARC tunnel the Gov Christie cancelled the Gateway Project will go direct to Penn Station and will not be entirely funded by NJ tax payers
N.J. lawmakers present a united front for new rail tunnel
JANUARY 4, 2015, 10:32 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, JANUARY 4, 2015, 10:39 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
RECORD COLUMNIST |
THE RECORD
With both houses of Congress about to be controlled by Republicans, whose hard-liners denounce expensive federal projects as wasteful pork and have banned lawmakers from earmarking funds for pet projects, a bipartisan delegation from New Jersey is gearing up to win support for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.
Both Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, a Republican, said they are hopeful they can get a commitment at least to start Amtrak’s Gateway project when Congress takes up a multiyear transportation financing bill next spring.
Frelinghuysen, of Harding, said he thought the chances of some success are “pretty good.” Menendez, of Paramus, said he was “cautiously optimistic.”
“I’m not saying it’ll be the whole kit and caboodle … but once we are committed to the project, then we have a better chance to ensure its totality,” Menendez said.
Rail access to New York City has taken on a new urgency following Amtrak’s revelation last year that the existing two-track tunnel, built 104 years ago, will fail within 20 years because of damage from Superstorm Sandy flooding. Before then, delays will become common for Amtrak and NJ Transit, which uses Amtrak’s Hudson tunnel, because of periodic closures to stabilize it.
Gateway calls for a new two-track tunnel under the river and other construction, including new or rebuilt bridges in the Meadowlands, to provide four tracks between Newark and New York City. The next few months will be critical in determining whether the project moves off the drawing board, because Congress faces a May deadline for a new transportation bill.
