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7-9-10 In the News today
Politickernj.com ‘Assembly to vote Monday on 2.0%
The Record ‘N.J. Assembly to take up tax cap compromise Monday’


Njspotlight.com ‘Legislators Consider Cap Exemption for Special Ed Costs’


Star Ledger ‘Two N.J. senators must be physically separated during heated school funding debate’


The Record ‘N.J. Assembly to take up tax cap compromise Monday’


The Record ‘N.J. Assembly to take up tax cap compromise Monday’

Thursday, July 8, 2010
Last updated: Thursday July 8, 2010, 4:39 PM

BY MATT FRIEDMAN   STATE HOUSE BUREAU

The state Assembly will vote on a plan to lower the property tax cap to 2 percent on Monday, the leader of the lower house said Thursday.
 
“We know that the residents of this state want to see tighter restraints put on their property taxes, but we also know our work is far from finished,” said Assembly Speaker Sheial Oliver (D-Essex) in a prepared statement. “This will be a strong step, but concerns about how schools will fit the costs of special education services so vital to many children are among the many areas that will need to addressed going forward.”
 
The state Senate voted to approve the plan -- reached as a compromise between competing plans from Governor Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Glouceste) -- Thursday morning.  The Assembly had been the wild card, as Oliver refused to join Christie and Sweeney at a press conference Saturday announcing the compromise.
 
Oliver now says she supports the plan, which would allow towns to exceed the cap for pension and health insurance costs, debt payments and states of emergency.
 
The voting session is scheduled for 10 a.m.

The Senate vote was 36 to 3, with three senators – Ronald Rice (D-Essex), Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) and Bob Smith (D-Middlesex)  -- voting against it. One senator, Nia Gill (D-Essex) was absent.

“New Jersey residents will finally have predictability and control when it comes to their property tax bill,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union).

Democrats who voted against the cap said the Senate should first tackle controlling expenses that make it hard for towns to stay within it.

Christie has proposed a 33-bill “toolkit” aims to do that through allowing towns to opt out of the civil service system and capping sick leave payouts, among other reforms. Democratic leaders say they plan to vote on it by the fall, though not necessarily in its current form.

The deal is the result of months of wrangling over a constitutional 2.5 percent cap. Christie proposed almost four months ago that would have exempted only debt service payments. An alternative bill authored by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) that would lower the tax cap by statute but leave in place most of the 14 current exemptions both houses of the Legislature last week. Democrats wanted it done by statute because it is easier to change than the state constitution.

Under a compromise reached between Sweeney and Christie during in a three-day special legislative session, Christie conditionally vetoed Sweeney’s bill to lower the tax cap to 2 percent and leave in place four exemptions for health care costs, pension costs, debt service and states of emergency. Voters could also allow their town to exceed the cap by a simple majority in a referendum. 

The state Assembly will vote on a plan to lower the property tax cap to 2 percent on Monday, the leader of the lower house said Thursday.
 
“We know that the residents of this state want to see tighter restraints put on their property taxes, but we also know our work is far from finished,” said Assembly Speaker Sheial Oliver (D-Essex) in a prepared statement. “This will be a strong step, but concerns about how schools will fit the costs of special education services so vital to many children are among the many areas that will need to addressed going forward.”
 
The state Senate voted to approve the plan -- reached as a compromise between competing plans from Governor Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Glouceste) -- Thursday morning.  The Assembly had been the wild card, as Oliver refused to join Christie and Sweeney at a press conference Saturday announcing the compromise.
 
Oliver now says she supports the plan, which would allow towns to exceed the cap for pension and health insurance costs, debt payments and states of emergency.
 
The voting session is scheduled for 10 a.m.

The Senate vote was 36 to 3, with three senators – Ronald Rice (D-Essex), Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) and Bob Smith (D-Middlesex)  -- voting against it. One senator, Nia Gill (D-Essex) was absent.

“New Jersey residents will finally have predictability and control when it comes to their property tax bill,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union).

Democrats who voted against the cap said the Senate should first tackle controlling expenses that make it hard for towns to stay within it.

Christie has proposed a 33-bill “toolkit” aims to do that through allowing towns to opt out of the civil service system and capping sick leave payouts, among other reforms. Democratic leaders say they plan to vote on it by the fall, though not necessarily in its current form.

The deal is the result of months of wrangling over a constitutional 2.5 percent cap. Christie proposed almost four months ago that would have exempted only debt service payments. An alternative bill authored by Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) that would lower the tax cap by statute but leave in place most of the 14 current exemptions both houses of the Legislature last week. Democrats wanted it done by statute because it is easier to change than the state constitution.

Under a compromise reached between Sweeney and Christie during in a three-day special legislative session, Christie conditionally vetoed Sweeney’s bill to lower the tax cap to 2 percent and leave in place four exemptions for health care costs, pension costs, debt service and states of emergency. Voters could also allow their town to exceed the cap by a simple majority in a referendum. 

 

Politickernj.comAssembly to vote Monday on 2.0%

By Max Pizarro | July 8th, 2010 - 2:44pm

TRENTON - The Assembly will meet Monday to vote on the 2.0% property tax cap that passed earlier today in the senate, according to sources who are now at the tail end of finalizing the details for the session.

There is still no word on whether Gov. Chris Christie had warmed to an 11th-hour pitch by Democrats to consider specific future legislation to improve the 2.0% proposal.

Christie said yesterday that generally he would consider legislation, but observers lingering on the governor's non-binding verb choice interpreteted the remark as more or less dismissive of the lower house Dems.

Affirming the Monday vote, “We know that the residents of this state want to see tighter restraints put on their property taxes, but we also know our work is far from finished,” said Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange). “This will be a strong step, but concerns about how schools will fit the costs of special education services so vital to many children are among the many areas that will need to addressed going forward.”

 

Njspotlight.com ‘Legislators Consider Cap Exemption for Special Ed Costs’

School leaders, citing ‘extraordinary costs,’ call the issue critical as Assembly prepares for Monday vote on 2 percent property tax cap

By John Mooney, July 9 in Education |Post a Comment

The high cost of special education has become the latest point of contention in New Jersey’s drama-filled path toward a new property tax cap.

On one hand, most agree it’s an increasing burden on districts across the state. But do extreme cases need to be excluded from the cap altogether when relatively few districts have sought such waivers as it is?

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The Assembly is expected to approve a new 2 percent cap on Monday, when they hold a special session to vote exclusively on the agreement reached between Gov. Chris Christie and Senate Democrats last weekend. The Senate approved the measure by a 36-3 vote yesterday.

But in both chambers, lawmakers have increasingly heard calls that extraordinary special education costs for children with significant disabilities should be among the possible exemptions from the cap.

The bill approved by the Senate includes only health care, pension and debt service costs on the list of exemptions. The cap could also be exceeded with majority approval of the voters.

'A Huge Issue'

With the Assembly poised to vote on the deal, Speaker Sheila Oliver this week reiterated that special education remains a critical piece that should be considered for exemptions -- if not in the cap bill itself, then in a separate bill.

“Special ed is a huge issue for many of the communities, and there is no exception in the current bill to address special ed costs,” Oliver said. “Special ed costs can bankrupt a community.”

In a state with the highest known autism rate in the country, for example, Oliver noted that many districts face costs as high as $100,000 per child when transportation and other services are included.

“And no consideration is given for that under the current proposal on the table,” she said.

Payments to 500 Districts in 2009

Much of the attention is on these so-called extraordinary costs for children with significant disabilities, many of them attending separate public or private schools at the local districts’ cost.

The state now pays some of the costs exceeding $40,000, last year paying out $139.9 million to about 500 districts, according to state data. The largest payouts went to a mix of districts, large and small, urban and suburban. They include Lakewood ($2.7 million), Bernards Township ($2.4 million), Fair Lawn ($2.4 million), Woodbridge ($2.3 million), Edison ($2.2 million), South Orange/Maplewood ($2.2 million) and Newark ($2 million).

Under the current 4 percent cap, districts can seek waivers for increases in those costs that the state does not cover. But so far, Senate leaders appear to be balking at adding special education to the legislative bill, because few districts have sought those waivers.

“Last year, there were 11 requests, out of 600 districts, and only seven approved,” said state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), chairwoman of the Senate’s education committee.

“In light of that, it sheds a different perspective,” she said. “If you think about the dynamic of 600 districts statewide, that’s a small number.”

Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said they weren’t much higher the year before, either, but he added it would be something that his members could keep a close eye on in case the statute needs amending.

He was the lead Democrat in negotiating with Christie to make the cap statutory and not by constitutional amendment, as the governor initially proposed.

“These aren’t big numbers, but surely they are big issues,” he said. “If it becomes a problem, the beauty of the statutory cap is we can put it back in."

Sweeney yesterday created a task force that he said would further review any budget issues that need to be addressed under the new cap, and he said special education would surely be one of them.

“If we had done Christie’s cap, people should be very worried, but with the cap we did, we can go forward and address it, if we need to,” he said.

Consider Costs Now

Still, school leaders said the special education costs need to be considered now as the cap is finalized. They conceded that waiver requests weren't numerous, but that doesn’t lessen their impact on individual communities.

“For the individual districts affected, it’s critical,” said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, which has called specifically for a special education exception.

“And if you look at it philosophically, it’s a prime example of a cost out of a district’s control,” he said. “They have no choice but to provide services at level.”

 

Star Ledger ‘Two N.J. senators must be physically separated during heated school funding debate’

Published: Thursday, July 08, 2010, 7:37 PM     Updated: Friday, July 09, 2010, 5:25 AM

Matt Friedman/Statehouse Bureau

 

TRENTON — It could have been a rock ‘em-sock ‘em day in the state Senate today.

On the one side was state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Union), an attorney and 27-year veteran of the state Senate who helped abolish New Jersey’s death penalty and led an unsuccessful push for same-sex marriage.

On the other was state Sen. Michael Doherty (R-Warren), also a lawyer but in the Senate for only six months, a global warming skeptic, anti-abortion activist and stalwart of the state’s conservative movement.

The tension began as Doherty railed against the state’s school funding formula, which he said was unfair to his suburban and rural constituents because it is based partly on property values. Doherty said the state’s large cities were getting a bigger proportion of school aid.

Lesniak — who last month called a critic of his housing-reform bill a “stupid imbecile” and a “mean-spirited, evil human being” — piped in, loudly saying “not true” while Doherty spoke.

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Doherty finished and walked across the Senate floor to address Lesniak, who was still seated.

“I wanted to explain further to him where I was coming from. He wanted none of it,” Doherty said later.

Instead, that’s when things got really heated. Lesniak let Doherty know he didn’t want to debate, yelling “Get out of my face!”

Fearing the situation could get ugly fast, state Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex), a former acting governor and Senate president, put himself between the sparring men. He then persuaded Doherty to return to his seat.

“It was a spirited debate, and it was starting to escalate,” Codey said. “It seemed to be Ireland versus Poland, and I was neutral.”

Lesniak then thanked Codey and said he would have “punched (Doherty’s) nose down his throat.”

“I’m thankful to Governor Codey for saving me from embarrassing myself,” said Lesniak, who added that it could have gotten physical. “As somebody who grew up in (the) Elizabeth port section, you never know.”

But Doherty said he would not have thrown a punch.

“It’s really uncalled for,” he said. “I would not want to disrespect the office I’m in. I would not want to let my constituents down.

“But you know what I learned from my dad at a very young age,” he added, “usually with bullies you’ve got to stand up to them.”