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GSCS: As part of the confirmation process, Acting Commissioner Schundler was interviewed by the Judiciary Committee this morning. Chairman Scutari announced, after approximately 2 hours of questioning, that the committee needed more time and that the hearing would be reconvened this coming Monday, March 1.
Acting Treasurer Eristoff spent over 2 hours before the Assembly Budget Committee in a Q & A session dealing with the Governor's current year decifit plan for state aid cuts and state spending reductions. Among other things, the Treasurer told the committee that the FY10 deficit plan is in place already, and that the administration is now focused on FY11 and the Governor's March 16 Budget Message. Assembly Budget Chairman Lou Greenwald cotinues to press for clarity on what actions, including the surplus reduction proposal, specifically may require legislative action.
Fast Track: Pension reform legislation passed the Senate 36-0 earlier in the afternoon today. The Assembly is introducing that legislation today, setting the stage to vote on it shortly.
Click on more below to see articles: "N.J. Senate panel delays vote on Bret Schundler's nomination for education chief" ... "N.J. acting treasurer, Assembly committee spar over Gov. Chris Christie's budget cuts" ... "N.J. Senate approves sweeping pension changes for public employees" ... "N.J. Senate approves ban on 'diploma mills' for school administrators, teachers to boost salaries"
Below are the pension reform bills that passed today 2-22-10, as well as the employee school tuition approval bill which also passed. Links should take you to the New Jersey Legislature Home Page for bills' details.:
Monday, February 22, 2010 - 2:00 PM
Senate Chambers
Voting Session:
Abstract
Current Status
Pub emp pensions-elig, allowance, rights
PS
2/22/2010
SHBP, SEHBP-elig, cost share, waiver
PS
2/22/2010
Sick leave, disab. benf.-PERS, TPAF
PS
2/22/2010
Sch. dist. emp.-concerns tuition assist.
PS
2/22/2010
Monday, February 22, 2010 - 2:00 PM
Senate Chambers
Voting Session:
Abstract
Current Status
Pub emp pensions-elig, allowance, rights
PS
2/22/2010
SHBP, SEHBP-elig, cost share, waiver
PS
2/22/2010
Sick leave, disab. benf.-PERS, TPAF
PS
2/22/2010
Sch. dist. emp.-concerns tuition assist.
PS
2/22/2010
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N.J. Senate panel delays vote on Bret Schundler's nomination for education chief
By Jeanette M. Rundquist
February 22, 2010, 5:24PM
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TRENTON Acting Education Commissioner Bret Schundler was questioned about issues ranging from school funding to his opinion of prayer in school, as the Senate Judiciary Committee began his confirmation hearing today.
Schundler, 51, took questions for about an hour and a half about such topics as a potential state aid cut of 15 percent announced last week by Gov. Chris Christie; the benefits of preschool; and sex education.
The committee did not vote, however. Over the objections of Republican members, the hearing was adjourned so Democratic lawmakers could attend a caucus meeting. It is set to resume Monday.
The Republican former mayor of Jersey City, most recently chief operating officer of the King’s College, a Christian liberal arts school in New York, Schundler repeatedly pushed aside questions about his opinions on issues such as abstinence-only sex education, saying the job is not "about the commissioner using it to advance his preferences."
Under questioning by committee chair Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), Schundler said rather than the commissioner dictating sex ed curriculum, districts should make decisions within state parameters.
Pushed again for an opinion, he finally said "I encourage my daughter to abstain from sexual activity." His daughter, 18, and son, 11, attend private school.
Schundler also said he doesn’t endorse prayer in school, but felt for many people faith is "that thing that undergirds all we do."
"I suspect there are many people of faith in the Legislature," he said.
Schundler told the panel he favors "standards-based reform" and "small learning communities" within schools. He and Christie also support school-choice legislation. He said Christie is still considering approaches to cutting state aid.
The gallery was full of education advocates. Lynne Strickland, director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, said she wished the committee had voted today.
"We need a Department of Education that can move forward," Strickland said
N.J. acting treasurer, Assembly committee spar over Gov. Chris Christie's budget cuts
By Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau
February 22, 2010, 6:22PM
TRENTON -- Facing questions on mid-year cuts to the current state budget, Gov. Chris Christie’s acting treasurer today stressed he’s focusing on next year instead.
Acting Treasurer Andrew Eristoff told the Assembly Budget Committee it is time to stop picking over funds Christie earlier this month sliced from this year’s budget, known as the Fiscal Year 10 budget because it runs through this June. He said the administration doesn’t have much time to create a plan for the year that runs through June 2011. Christie will deliver his budget address on March 16.
“I don’t want to sound absolutist, but the fact is that action was taken, and now we are focused on Fiscal ‘11,” said Eristoff, whose appointment was approved today by the full Seante. “Fiscal ‘10 is over.”
Democrats, however, questioned the analysis that went into $2.2 billion in mid-year funding cuts to areas such as hospitals, schools and charities.
“The impact on people’s lives are worthy of a greater debate,” Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden) said after the hearing. “There wasn’t a lot of depth put in to the look at the cuts and how far that ripple effect went.”
Several Democrats on the committee said the administration did not think hard enough about the “ripple effects” of the budget cuts, such as jobs lost and federal matching funds sacrificed.
Eristoff said the cuts had to be made quickly because the administration was dealing with a “gathering financial storm” and could not launch a full-blown budget process.
Greenwald said lawmakers could have given input to save jobs. “I’m not asking for a full-blown budget process,” he said. “Just pick up the phone and call me.”
Christie made many cuts, and sliced $475 million from local school district aid, equal to an amount the schools had above a 2 percent surplus level. Critics say the cuts punish schools that were prudent. Democrats argue the state should have cut into its own $500 million surplus instead. Republicans counter that schools still have a 2 percent cushion, while the state surplus is less than 2 percent of the current $29 billion budget.
N.J. Senate approves sweeping pension changes for public employees
By Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau
February 22, 2010, 3:16PM
With hundreds of union workers looking on from the gallery and waiting in the hallway, the Senate this afternoon easily passed three bills that made sweeping changes to public employee pensions.
The bills passed 36-0, with four senators not voting. The Assembly is expected to introduce its versions of the bills on Thursday.
The one bill not voted on would have put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November asking voters to require the state to contribute money to the pension fund. The Senate is expected to hold a required public hearing on the amendment Monday and can bring the amendment up for a vote 20 days after that.
State and local workers in the state system -- about 700,000 in all -- said New Jersey's politicians have put the $68 billion pension fund in peril by not contributing their fair share.
But legislators see it differently.
"We're here trying to save this pension system. We're not trying to rob it," said Sen. Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic), said last week when the State Government Committee he chairs approved the bills for release to the full house. "We're trying to save it for future generations."
All four bills have at least 23 Senate sponsors, more than the 21 required for passage. Senators from both parties who cleared the package last week stressed urgency in fixing the struggling retirement funds.
"We have to get something done. We can't spend six months, a year, the next 18 months arguing about a perfect pension reform bill," Whelan said last week.
Public workers and their unions said changes in benefits should be made at the bargaining table and they are being treated as scapegoats. A police union official ripped up a letter Gov. Chris Christie wrote during his gubernatorial campaign that called pensions a "sacred trust."
"We don't ask the public to absorb 1 percent of the smoke we inhale," said Bill Lavin, an Elizabeth firefighter and union official. "We don't feel that we therefore should have to share in the very medical attention to keep us safe and put us back on the job."
Christie has said the bills would not "do harm to the future benefits of police and firemen. But everybody needs to step up to the plate and contribute."
The pension system was underfunded by about $34 billion as of the last official accounting.
The bills would require workers and retirees to contribute to their own health care costs, ban part-time workers from the pension system, cap sick-leave payouts, trim the size of pensions and constitutionally require the state to fully fund its pension obligations. Most changes would apply to future workers, but current employees would contribute to their health care costs.
Staff writer Claire Heininger contributed to this report
N.J. Senate approves ban on 'diploma mills' for school administrators, teachers to boost salaries
By Peggy Ackermann/Statehouse Bureau
February 22, 2010, 6:41PM
The state Senate today voted 38-0 to approve a bill that cracks down on the use of “diploma mills” — unaccredited institutions of higher learning — by school administrators and teachers who obtain advanced degrees and then are able to boost their salaries.
Under the bill sponsored by Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex) and Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth), those seeking tuition assistance or higher pay must earn their advanced degrees or additional credits from authorized institutions of higher education.
They also must receive approval from their school superintendents before enrolling in the courses for which they will seek tuition reimbursement.
School superintendents must have approval from their school boards.
Courses and degrees have to be related to employees’ current or future jobs, and the bill allows school boards to adopt more stringent requirements than those in the bill.
Administrators and teachers who are denied can appeal those decisions to their school boards.
The bill now goes to the full Assembly for a vote.
If approved and signed by Gov. Chris Christie, it would take effect on July 1 of the school year following the date of enactment.
