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‘Parties hash out N.J. budget deal’Statehouse Bureau - The Record
‘State shouldn't dictate how districts spend any teacher contract savings’ Star Ledger Editorial
‘Two strikes on the batter, Bret Schundler’The Auditor-Star Ledger
‘In Depth: Can NJN weather
cutoff of state aid?’ Gannett State Bureau
The Record,By Claire Heininger and Lisa Fleisher, Statehouse Bureau Staff , Sunday June 06, 2010, 7:00AM
TRENTON — Despite Gov. Chris Christie’s painful budget cuts and months of partisan battles over his plan, anagreement is taking shape between Democratic and Republican lawmakers that would avert a shutdown of state government and save a handful of popular programs scheduled for elimination.
The plan, described to The Star-Ledger by lawmakers of both parties involved in the discussions, would leave the Republican governor’s $29.3 billion budget largely intact, preserving most of the most unpopular cuts, like $820 million in aid to school districts. But several smaller changes will be made, which could include more money for public libraries, keeping open Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital in Hunterdon County, and preserving the so-called blue laws that forbid Sunday shopping in Bergen County.
Previous coverage:
• Reactions to N.J. Gov. Chris Christie's budget proposal
• Five ways N.J. Gov. Chris Christie's budget plan can affect you
• Text of Gov. Chris Christie budget speech to Legislature
• Gov. Chris Christie's N.J. budget plan key points
• Complete coverage of the New Jersey state budget
The deal would also entail a legislative maneuver placing responsibility for the budget on Republican lawmakers, a rare move with Democrats controlling both houses of the Legislature.
Lawmakers were reluctant to speak openly about specific programs and stressed the talks are not final. But they were emphatic about their goal - to pass a budget on June 24, a full week ahead of the July 1 deadline for Christie’s signature.
"There’s little appetite for a government shutdown on either side," said Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex), a member of the budget committee.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said there is "very serious discussion" about minority Republicans taking the lead on drafting and sponsoring the budget legislation, a role usually left to the majority party.
If Republicans take charge, only the minimum number of Democrats -- four in the Senate, eight in the Assembly – would likely join the GOP in voting for the plan, lawmakers said. While Democrats would still control the timing of the budget votes -- and several companion bills needed to accomplish Christie’s proposals -- it would allow them to keep some political distance from the governor’s plan.
"It’s a Republican governor, and some people really dislike the bill so much, some people feel Republicans should sponsor the budget based on how bad it is," Sweeney said. "We have a responsibility to pass a budget. Unfortunately, we have to provide votes for this budget. That doesn’t mean we like it or agree with it."
GOP leaders said they are glad to own Christie’s first budget, despite deep spending cuts to items like school aid, pension payments and property tax rebates.
"If the Democratic majority is unwilling to lead, we are certainly willing to do so," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union), who acknowledged the budget is full of "very difficult decisions" and still needs "fine-tuning" even from the GOP side of the aisle.
From the time Christie introduced the plan in March -- and through dramatic budget hearings where those hit by the cuts aired their concerns – the governor stressed lawmakers could make adjustments as long as they did not violate his "core" beliefs about smaller government. The governor has refused to sign off on a tax increase, despite Democrats’ attempts to tap millionaires for more revenue for seniors and the disabled.
Christie has been dismissive of the possibility of a government shutdown, while at the same time laying the groundwork to blame the Legislature if it did occur.
Sweeney, though, said Democrats are not interested in shutting down the state over a budget stalemate, as happened in 2006. He and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) both said they are targeting June 24 for passage of the budget. Soon afterward, lawmakers said, they could return to Trenton for a special session on the governor’s proposed property tax overhaul.
Before June 24, lawmakers and Christie’s office will hammer out changes on items like state aid to libraries, which saw a 74 percent reduction -- $10.4 million -- under the governor’s plan. Legislators on Friday submitted their wish lists for what to save, including a resolution by Sens. Michael Doherty (R-Warren) and Richard Codey (D-Essex) to keep Hagedorn Pyschiatric Hospital open. They propose to cut its budget by 4 percent and establish a task force to determine its future.
"There’s not really that much to fight about, because there’s no money," said Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth), a Christie adviser.
Lawmakers said there is bipartisan support for preserving the Bergen blue laws, which would require finding $65 million elsewhere in the budget. Christie has said he is open to that change. Stores in retail-heavy Bergen County are required to remain closed on Sundays, which the Christie administration estimates costs the state $65 million in sales tax. Bergen residents are weary of the heavy traffic congestion treasure on what they consider their one day of respite.
Democratic leaders will also need to line up the remaining votes to supplement the Republicans – who number 17 in the Senate and 33 in the Assembly – expected to support the budget. Sweeney said he needs to find four in his caucus to swallow hard and vote yes.
"That will be my challenge, I guess," Sweeney said. "No one likes it."
Oliver said "it’s too early to identify affirmatively" that there are eight Assembly Democrats on board. But "a lot can happen in 20 days," she said. "We’re early in the dance."
By Claire Heininger/Statehouse Bureau and Lisa Fleisher/Staff Writer
‘State shouldn't dictate how districts spend any teacher contract savings’
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board, Sunday June 06, 2010, 5:35AM
A bill sponsored by Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) would require all school districts to use all savings from teachers’ pay freezes to prevent layoffs of other teachers.
Supporters say it’s only right: If teachers agreed to reopen their contracts and accept a pay freeze — as teachers in only 33 of the state’s 600 districts have — the money they sacrificed should be used to rescue pink-slipped colleagues.
A spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie said the bill was “in the same spirit” of the governor’s push for shared sacrifice, and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) called it a “fair trade.”
Everyone, it seems, wants to make a pointless gesture to the politically powerful teachers union.
Frank Belluscio of the New Jersey School Boards Association called the bill “unnecessary” because districts that have reopened contracts already have moved to save as many jobs as possible.
But suppose a few districts have more pressing needs for a portion of the savings? What if local officials decide their schools need math books, or a new roof? Some might even believe a portion of the savings should be put toward — as shocking as this might sound — containing property tax hikes.
This bill assumes that Trenton knows best how locals should spend their own money. Given the state’s sorry record of fiscal mismanagement, that takes some nerve.
‘Two strikes on the batter, Bret Schundler’ By The Auditor Sunday, June 06, 2010,
After a committee meeting Education Commissioner Bret Schundler answered questions about his deal he made with the NJEA. Gov. Chris Christie is both a former prosecutor and rabid baseball fan. So the whole three-strikes-you’re-out thing is the ethos he lives by. And according to the governor’s reckoning, Education Commissioner Bret Schundler has two strikes on the count.
"It’s possible he’s already had more than two strikes," one Christie adviser said of what’s gone on behind closed doors. "But either way, there’s only one strike left."
Schundler’s second swing-and-a-miss came 10 days ago when he agreed to a surprising compromise on teacher seniority and bonuses with the New Jersey Education Association. Christie, who’s at war with the NJEA, went ballistic and nixed the deal. Then, he publicly spanked the commissioner.
The first public misstep came a few weeks earlier when Schundler disagreed with the governor’s statement that people should vote down their school district budgets if they are upset with local teachers unions for not taking a pay freeze.
After the latest dust-up, Christie let loose on the commissioner. Those around the governor couldn’t help but see and hear it because, as Christie himself says, he’s not "subtle."
"I haven’t seen him this mad in a long time, if ever," the adviser said. "Which is really too bad because (Schundler) is a talented guy. But he’s a knucklehead."
Schundler apologized, took the blame and fell on his sword. For public consumption, it’s all bygones are bygones. He said he hasn’t considered resigning. He had no comment about the back-room talk.
"This is not a sports event; it’s public policy," said Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak. "We will move forward with Commissioner Schundler."
‘In Depth: Can NJN weather
cutoff of state aid?’
By Michael Symons • Gannett State Bureau • June
6, 2010
TRENTON—Approaching 40 years old, New Jersey
Network finds itself in a midlife crisis.
Actually, that’s a best-case description. With its
state aid on the verge of drying up, staff cuts a
near-certainty and plans being drafted to reinvent
the public television and radio network, some fear it
could be rendered unrecognizable.
Critics say NJN is already stuck in a downward
spiral. Its revenues are falling, its donor base is
shrinking, most of its programs are available on
other channels and its nightly news is watched in
just 1 percent of the state’s households. A radical
restructuring of NJN appears likely, and it’s not
clear what the station will look like when it’s done —
and whether a not-for-profit, independent
charitable media organization can survive, let alone
thrive.
NJN’s management, headed by interim executive
director Howard Blumenthal, tells lawmakers it can.
He’s banking on a new model that costs far less to
operate — think camcorders and multitasking, plus
interns and volunteers—while producing far more
New Jersey-based programming.
He says about half of NJN’s primetime schedule
would be devoted to original New Jersey
programming—with a projected 150 hours or more
of original nonnews shows each year, compared to
fewer than 20 hours a year now.
NJN News would continue to air five nights a week,
though the focus might shift toward fewer but
longer stories or more special reports and less daily
news.
Some lawmakers have expressed concern that parts
of the state, particularly in South Jersey, where cable
News 12 is unavailable, would suffer a TV news
blackout.
Dudley Burdge, senior staff representative for
Communications Workers of America Local 1032,
which represents 95 of the roughly 130 NJN
employees, said NJN News will “be a shadow of
itself” as its shifts its focus elswhere.
“It can’t thrive in terms of its current mission,”
Burdge said. “A lot of news reporting is
disappearing. And one of the reasons is that it’s an
expensive proposition to pay people to go find out
things.
“I think it would be a big blow to the news and
information part of NJN,” Burdge said. “And what’s
the basis for NJN if it’s not going to do significant
programs about New Jersey?”
Oklahoma is the only other state with a state-run
nightly newscast similar to NJN’s, with news
reporters and anchors.
Eighteen states have TV networks operated by a
government agency, and another half-dozen have
statewide networks run by the state university. Many
states with public TV networks are rural ones, where
the stations were created for the same reason New
Jersey did in the late 1960s: insufficient attention
from commercial television.
The idea of getting New Jersey out of the television
industry is hardly new. In the mid 1990s, NJN’s
board and management recommended to Gov.
Christie Whitman — who famously described the
station as Pravda, the old Soviet media outlet — that
the station change to a community licensee, but the
plan sputtered.
The same thing happened under Gov. Jon S. Corzine
in 2007.
Former NJN sports director Pat Scanlon doesn’t
think the modern media universe needs NJN. He
helped launch the Comcast Network, when it was
first known as CN8, and now runs a video
production company, Shamrock Communications,
which he complains must compete with state-
underwritten NJN’s media services department for
private-sector work.
“When I was there (1980 to 1996), it was very
focused on New Jersey news, sports, programming,
the arts,” Scanlon said. “Let’s face it, original p
rogramming is very expensive to produce. Now, I
think with the cable universe of networks that’s
available — A&E, History, HGTV, Food Network, etc.
— the model is passe.
“I don’t know why anyone, given the type of PBS
license that they have, would want to purchase it,”
Scanlon said.
Twenty years ago, NJN received nearly $9 million in
direct state funds, 61 percent of its operating
budget. This year, that subsidy dropped to around
$4 million, 22 percent of revenue. Gov. Chris
Christie proposes cutting it to $2 million, then
ending it altogether — cutting off state aid effective
Jan. 1.
In addition to that direct aid to NJN, the state also
spends some $7 million more in support of the
network — $4.3 million for facilities and $2.7
million for employee benefits and Social Security
and Medicare payroll taxes. In all, state government
currently pays for about 38 percent of NJN’s costs.
NJN’s draft plan projects around $15 million in
recurring revenue, after the state’s subsidy
disappears, against a current operating budget of
$21 million — including $16 million for personnel.
Given costs for PBS programs and operating costs,
the number of employees would have to be cut —
significantly, perhaps.
Even if NJN is severed from state government, state
funding could continue or return. Thirty-two states
either run or financially support a public television
station, although that support has been declining.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting says state
and local funding for public television stations in
the U.S. fell by $36 million between 2008 and 2009,
with an additional drop exceeding $45 million
anticipated this year. Pennsylvania has trimmed its
support for the state community licensees from $7.9
million to $1 million.
Charles Loughery, who in 2007 retired as NJN’s
engineering director and now operates a
contemporary Christian music network of
noncommercial FM radio stations in eastern and
central Pennsylvania, said NJN can’t survive “without
some kind of state support.”
“My suspicion is the powers that be at NJN would be
back to the Legislature with their hand open for
money, anyway. And the Legislature would probably
give it to them. That just seems to be the way it
goes. That being the case, why get rid of it?”
Loughery said.
He estimates that NJN’s assets are worth $280
million. The most valuable assets are four television
licenses, which he guesses are worth $50 million
each.
Princeton University sociology and public affairs
professor Paul Starr said the transition can only
work if NJN’s broadcast licenses are transferred to a
private nonprofit that can create an endowment by
selling some of those assets.
Even after that, NJN needs to reinvent its mission,
