Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

 
     Property Tax Reform, Special Legislative Session & School Funding
6-25-07 Star Ledger 'Duck out in Trenton on some big issues'
'State lawmakers skip out of debates for the summer'...and maybe even longer...GSCS see the Assembly Speaker's quote below as a clear shot across the bow to delay the school funding formula - yet again - for at least another year, maybe more...This goes against the Governor's stated commitment to get a funding formula in place for FY09. What does this all really indicate? Let's not forget that a funding formula has not been implemented in NJ since 2001-02, which has caused higher property taxes, disparity in funding distribution, progam cut backs and more... this lack of action on Trenton's part generally speaks to state leadership's de-prioritizing of education in general for the majority of our communities. Years of talk but no substantive action in this regard results in clarifying the public's understanding that lip service has become the rule in Trenton and that our current legislative leadership must not consider quality public education for all districts to be a front burner issue for them. Oh-oh...

"...(Assembly Speaker Joe) Roberts said revising the school funding formula "needs to be done but it can't be rushed ... It's one of those issues that may straddle the end of this session and the beginning of the next."

STAR LEDGER  ‘Duck out in Trenton on some big issues’

State lawmakers skip out of debates for the summer

Monday, June 25, 2007

BY ROBERT SCHWANEBERG

Star-Ledger Staff

In one last busy voting session before their summer break, state lawmakers on Thursday passed a $33.5 billion budget a week ahead of their deadline, confirmed a new chief justice and attorney general and passed hundreds of bills.

Then they went home, hoping to stay clear of the Statehouse until after the November legislative elections.

But the lawmakers ducked out of Trenton without acting on some of the most complex and controversial pieces of legislation on their agenda: killing the state's death penalty, updating the formula for funding public schools, providing health care to the uninsured and reforming eminent domain.

Such hot-button issues could pose problems for Democrats as they defend majorities in both houses this fall. The solution: wait until the "lame duck" session that follows Election Day and ends in January, when the new Legislature is sworn in.

Republicans contend ruling Democrats punted on tough issues that should have been resolved before the summer break.

"The rancor that will inevitably follow is being postponed," said Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth). "But the day of reckoning is coming."

David Rebovich, a professor of political science at Rider University, said some issues are just too hot to handle in an election year.

"The death penalty -- that's still a volatile political issue and an emotional one," Rebovich said. "It's not an issue individual lawmakers want to talk about on the campaign trail."

Perhaps the most controversial and complicated plan being shelved is Gov. Jon Corzine's idea to tap the cash value of state assets such as toll roads to reduce state debt and provide money for new programs.

Corzine's aides admit that political concerns, along with legal complexities and the governor's near-fatal crash, are why it is being held until November.

Rebovich said this also stalled other proposals that are dependent on Corzine's asset plan to supply the cash.

Although controversial issues are often put off until a lame duck session, there is an additional dynamic this year. So many veteran senators are retiring, and so many Assembly members want to take their places, that when the new Legislature takes office, freshmen will comprise at least a third of the Senate and a quarter of the Assembly.

That large turnover means departing lawmakers will be looking to leave their mark and will be free to take on controversial issues.

"You don't have to fear repercussions from the voters," Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) said, adding that makes it "a lot easier" to pass difficult bills.

Codey said his lame-duck session priorities are "a school funding formula, a determination on the death penalty and what we do with the toll roads so we can pay down this incredible debt we have."

Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) said, "I personally want to see us spend a significant amount of time on a statewide housing policy."

Corzine has already publicly endorsed a number of the goals on Democratic lawmakers' lists: building affordable housing, providing paid leave so workers can care for new children and sick family members, abolishing capital punishment and revising the school funding formula.

Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) said school funding, capital punishment and cashing in state assets should have been addressed before the election.

"The people should know how lawmakers feel about these important issues before they vote," Lance said. He called the lack of a new school funding formula "a principal weakness in this year's budget."

Roberts said revising the school funding formula "needs to be done but it can't be rushed ... It's one of those issues that may straddle the end of this session and the beginning of the next."

Universal health care is another. Senate Health Committee Chairman Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) wants to offer relief to the 1.4 million New Jerseyans who lack health insurance during lame duck.

"The longer we wait, the more people are struggling under the weight of being uninsured and the more it is costing the state," he said.

Roberts called universal health coverage "our most significant unfinished business" but added, "I don't think it's likely we'll be able to advance a top-to-bottom comprehensive health care plan by the end of the year."

Replacing capital punishment with life without parole is more likely to get done during lame duck, Roberts said. "I'm committed to repealing it," he said of the state's 24-year-old, never-used death penalty.

In recent weeks, Corzine has told unions and business leaders he supports paid "family leave" for workers who need to care for a new child or sick relative.

Codey said "we can temper" opposition from business "with some amendments" to the bill during the lame duck session.

Saying it would hurt the state's competitiveness, Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan is fighting paid family leave in his role as director of Americans For Prosperity. Putting it on the lame duck agenda shows lawmakers "don't have the guts to take a stand before November," Lonegan said.

Public Advocate Ronald Chen wants lawmakers in the lame duck session to act on a bill limiting the power of government to seize private property through eminent domain. Chen said lawmakers may have been waiting for a state Supreme Court ruling that was made earlier this month.

Lance is pulling for a bill long championed by Sen. Peter Inverso (R-Mercer), who is retiring after 16 years in the Legislature. It would ban pay-to-play, the practice of making political contributions in hopes of getting lucrative public contracts, at all levels of government.

"It should have become law a long time ago," Lance said.

Robert Schwaneberg may be reached at (609) 989-0324 or

rschwaneberg@starledger.com.