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Asbury Park Press - Gov. Christie against constitutional convention on taxes, schools “...Gov. Chris Christie does not, for now, support the idea advanced by a Democratic power broker that New Jersey should hold a constitutional convention to address taxes and school-funding issues.... George E. Norcross III, in interviews published Sunday by New Jersey Press Media, called for a constitutional convention that could change how taxes are raised and how government is organized in New Jersey.

NJ Spotlight - New List Of SDA School Projects Will Face Tough History Lesson

Asbury Park Press - Gov. Christie against constitutional convention on taxes, schools 

5:49 AM, Feb. 15, 2012 |  Written by Jason Method Statehouse Bureau

 

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie does not, for now, support the idea advanced by a Democratic power broker that New Jersey should hold a constitutional convention to address taxes and school-funding issues.

“I don’t think we’re there yet,” Christie said. “I’m not convinced. I think a constitutional convention is a significant step. I don’t think we’re at the point where we need to do that.”

But, Christie added, the proposal “could be something in the future.”

George E. Norcross III, in interviews published Sunday by New Jersey Press Media, called for a constitutional convention that could change how taxes are raised and how government is organized in New Jersey.

The convention also could deal with the state’s contentious school-funding issue, said Norcross, a South Jersey Democratic boss who has broad influence with a key group of state lawmakers.

“There’s a lot to be said for a constitutional convention that will allow the public to be directly engaged in debate to discuss alternative forms of funding education, public safety and government in general,” Norcross said.

Christie and Norcross have been sharply critical of the state Supreme Court, especially about the long-running series of school funding decisions in the Abbott case, named after the original plaintiff.

In that case, the court singled out what would later become 31 specific school districts to receive massive annual school aid and subsidies for school construction. The first major decision was issued in June 1990.

Asbury Park, Camden, Keansburg, New Brunswick and Vineland are among the districts.

A constitutional change would require a lengthy process, according to legislative documents. First, a law would have to be passed that set the question before voters in the November election. Voters would have to approve the convention and elect delegates.

Delegates would have to agree on proposed amendments, which would then have to be sent to voters again in a statewide election for final approval.

Christie, in his comments Tuesday, praised a piece by a conservative writer with the Manhattan Institute in New York who wrote this month that the state Supreme Court had, through a series of decisions, bankrupted New Jersey.

Steven Malanga, a senior fellow, specifically targeted the Abbott case and another case, known as the Mount Laurel decisions on affordable housing. The Mount Laurel decisions required towns to set aside areas for development of low- and moderate-income housing.

“One thing is clear: somehow, New Jersey needs to rein in its judiciary if it hopes to get its house in order,” Malanga wrote. “The state will never be able to solve its fiscal problems until its highest court sticks to interpreting the law, not inventing it.”

Malanga, in an interview Tuesday, noted that New York politicians are discussing the possibility of a constitutional convention in order to end pension guarantees. But he said he did not think such a move was necessary in New Jersey.

“I’m not sure you need a constitutional convention. You just need different people on the court,” Malanga said.

Christie, who currently has two Supreme Court nominees pending, has spoken frequently about desire to have justices who are stricter in how they interpret the state constitution.

Jason Method: 609-292-5158; jmethod@njpressmedia.com

 

NJ Spotlight - New List Of SDA School Projects Will Face Tough History Lesson

NJ Spotlight - Christie slated to announce new construction, though last list still not in the ground

By John Mooney, February 15, 2012 in Education|Post a Comment

Today, Gov. Chris Christie will be in West New York’s Memorial High School to announce a new class of school construction projects for New Jersey’s neediest districts, according to his office.

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Yet the pace of progress on the last class -- announced with less fanfare one year ago today -- may not exactly bode well for a lot of shovels getting in the ground anytime soon.

Of the 10 projects in places like Jersey City, Newark and Elizabeth that were given the green light by the Schools Development Authority last February, just two have even gone out for bid. Another two projects are slated to go to bid next month, and four more after that. The final plans for the two remaining are still to be developed, officials said.

“How much money have they spent down at the SDA in the meantime?” said Irene Sterling, president of the Paterson Education Fund, whose home district is awaiting the start of two projects on the list.

“If they don’t move soon, we have to figure out a way to go back to court,” she said. “At this point, we’re waiting for something to fall on the kids.”

Such has been a frequent complaint about the SDA since Christie came into office, revamping the long-beleaguered agency and appointing a former federal prosecutor, Marc Larkins, as its new executive director.

After years of criticism for its waste and mismanagement, the agency now boasts stronger internal controls for project costs, stricter criteria for which projects proceed and in what form, and new standardization of construction and design.

But in the meantime, a once-long list of projects cleared under previous administrations under order of the state Supreme Court’s Abbott v. Burke rulings have sat idle, even in many cases with designs completed, property in hand, and neighborhoods relocated.

Mark Miller, the superintendent of Phillipsburg schools, is hoping a new high school for his district will be on the list. The state of the current high school has been a poster child for the impact of the SDA’s delays, with now 31 trailers on the site serving as classrooms.

“If we’re on it, I’d be as happy as can be, but I haven’t heard anything,” Miller said last night. “We continue to meet with them, but we haven’t heard anything about a list.”

After what he called months of frustration, Miller was actually upbeat about the recent discussions with SDA staff around the high school project. After a long silence, the two sides have been revising design and other components of the work.

“It’s going very well, surprisingly so,” Miller said. “They had stopped working with us, period, but now it is picked up again.”

How the next projects are chosen is sure to be a point of contention as well, with the process with the last round facing fierce criticism with its formulations that considered a combination of cost, need and efficiency.

Nine of the first 10 projects were elementary schools, which more easily fit into the SDA’s standardization process. But nine of 10 were also in the northern end of the sate, angering South Jersey legislators.

Projects high on previous lists were not chosen, while others leapfrogged over them. One left behind in the last round was a new West New York high school, presumably to be addressed by Christie today in making the announcement at Memorial.

Nevertheless, the SDA has its critics who contend the announcement of the next class will be little more than political hype, given the history of the last class.

“This administration on school construction has been all talk and no action,” said David Sciarra, director of the Education Law Center, which first brought the Abbott v. Burke lawsuit that led to the court-ordered program.

“There has been no shovels in the ground for the last two years, while Gov. Christie has spent $100 million of taxpayers money on salaries and benefits and overhead that has accomplished literally nothing for these districts.”

At the SDA board’s last meeting, the agency put out a new timeline for the existing 10 projects and announced when each would proceed and under which designs:

·         Academic High School (Elizabeth), $81.5 million, existing design, advertised December 2011

·         Catrambone Elementary School (Long Branch), $40.2 million, existing design advertised December 2011

·         Elementary School 3 (Jersey City), $67.3 million, standardized design, to be advertised by April 2012

·         Redshaw Elementary School (New Brunswick), $49.3 million, standardized design, to be advertised by April 2012

·         Harry Bain Public School 6 (West New York), cost and design to be determined, demolition of existing building to be advertised by March 2012

·         Marshall Street Elementary School (Paterson), $42.5 million, existing design, to be advertised by April 2012