The following items are taken from reports issued by legislators and other items of political concern.
Realty fees
Senators Diane Allen, Kevin O’Toole and Jeff Van Drew have introduced bipartisan legislation to repeal all realty transfer fees in New Jersey.
”I am proud to have bipartisan support for this initiative to help all of New Jersey’s property owners keep thousands of their hard-earned dollars,” said Deputy Republican Leader Allen, R-Burlington. “This Legislature has the opportunity and the duty to correct some costly wrongs done under previous administrations. By working together we can indeed give a break to the middle class — including those struggling to make ends meet, facing short sales or foreclosures — in our uniquely expensive state.”
”This repeal effort launched by Gov. Christie sends a clear message to our constituents — We know how to cut your taxes to give you greater opportunities,” said Sen. O’Toole, R-Bergen, Essex, Morris, Passaic. “We will work tirelessly to completely reverse the course of past administrations that piled on to your tax and fee burdens.”
”New Jersey residents already pay the highest in the nation taxes on their homes while they own them,” said Sen. Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic. “They shouldn’t be hit with another tax once they decide to sell. We are working together to eliminate this unnecessary fee and to provide relief to our residents, in particular to those struggling in this economy, who can no longer afford the high cost of owning their current homes.
”Moving this forward is the common sense thing to do, and I am particularly gratified that Gov. Christie has pledged to maintain the commitment to $25 million in beach replenishment funding.”
The senators’ legislation would eliminate the realty transfer fee — and all of the layers that have been added in recent years to the fee — on or before July 1, 2015. Before that date, if the state realizes $300 million in excess revenues over a two-month period, then the repeal can kick in immediately.
The bill requires any programs currently funded by RTF revenues must be covered by other general fund revenues.
”I look forward to the swift passage of this repeal, starting with our partner Sen. Van Drew posting it for a vote before the Community & Urban Affairs Committee,” Sen. Allen said. “We urge more of our colleagues from across the aisle to help Senate Republicans address excessive taxes and fees and make New Jersey the place to be.”
Equality
A measure sponsored by senators Ronald L. Rice and Shirley K. Turner to create a joint committee to study issues of economic justice and equal employment opportunities in New Jersey has been approved by the Senate Labor Committee.
”The state’s economic problems hit residents hard, but minorities and low-income folks were disproportionately affected, and they continue to face significant hardships, ranging from higher unemployment to a lack of affordable housing,” said Sen. Rice, D-Essex. “We have to take a hard look at the disparities that continue to exist and find ways to address them. This committee will hear directly from residents, business and organizations throughout the state about the challenges that specific populations of New Jerseyans are encountering in obtaining employment, housing and other services and determine how best to ensure equal opportunities for our residents.”
This bill (SCR62) would create the Joint Committee on Economic Justice and Equal Employment Opportunity consisting of 10 members of the Legislature. The committee would be authorized to conduct a continuing study of issues concerning economic justice and equal employment opportunity in this state and would meet and hold hearings at places throughout the state as it shall designate.
”Studies show that poverty continued to rise even after the official end of the Great Recession, and minorities, women-led households and children were among those who fared the worst,” said Sen. Turner, D-Mercer, Hunterdon. “We cannot ignore the problems of poverty that have reached record levels in recent years and continue to plague many of our residents. Providing equal job, housing and other opportunities must be a shared goal in this state, and the committee’s charge will be to tackle these critical issues.”
New Jersey’s unemployment rate for March was 7.2 percent, and more than 300,000 people are unemployed. Unemployment rates in big cities in the state and in southern New Jersey are still in the double digits.
In addition, poverty levels in New Jersey reached the highest levels in 50 years in 2011, according to a September 2013 report by the Legal Services of New Jersey Poverty Research Institute. More than 2.7 million residents, or about 31.5 percent of the total population, were living in true or actual poverty in 2011. Municipal poverty was the highest in Camden, Passaic, Lakewood, Paterson, Trenton, Newark and Union City.
The committee members would be appointed by the Senate president and Assembly speaker as follows: one each nominated by the president of the Senate, the Senate minority leader, the speaker of the General Assembly, the Assembly minority leader and two each nominated by the chairperson of the Legislative Black Caucus; the chairperson of the Legislative Latino Caucus; and the chairperson of the Women’s Legislative Caucus.
The committee approved the bill by a vote of 3-0-1.
Child seatbelts
Sen. James Beach has introduced a bill to modernize the state’s child seat belt laws to help ensure the safety of all children.
Under current law, all children under 8 years of age and weighing less than 80 pounds must be secured in a passenger restraint system or a booster seat. The bill would strengthen the law by applying modern-day standards such as rear-facing restraint systems and five-point harness systems.
The changes are based on recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatricians and the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety.
”The state’s current seat belt laws regarding young children are outdated and antiquated,” said Sen. Beach, D-Camden, Burlington. “The bill brings those laws into the 21st century by applying modern standards endorsed by pediatricians that have proven to be safe and effective.”
Under the legislation:
• Children under the age of 2 who weigh less than 30 pounds must be facing the rear of the vehicle and secured in a five-point harness seat.
• Children between the ages of 2 and 4 and who weigh between 30 and 40 pounds must be in a five-point harness seat, but parents can decide whether they want the seat to face the front or the rear of the vehicle.
• Children between the ages of 4 and 8 who are less than 57 inches in height must be secured in a five-point harness seat or placed in a booster seat.
The bill also requires the Motor Vehicle Commission to print and distribute materials advising the public of the changes in the law. The bill also strengthens the financial penalties and removes a provision grandfathered noncompliant car seats.
Privatization
Acting to protect against irresponsible plans to privatize government services, a Senate committee has approved legislation that would set basic standards to guard against reduced services, cost shifts and job losses for contracts that shift programs from the public to the private sectors.
Sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, Sen. Shirley K. Turner, D-Mercer, Hunterdon, and Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Salem, Cumberland, Gloucester, the bill, S770, was approved by the Senate Labor Committee with a vote of 3 to 1.
”Privatization is a solution in search of a problem,” Sen. Weinberg said. “Many of these schemes result in reduced services, cost shifts, the loss of jobs and substandard wages. These deals may provide profits for private businesses, but they can be a disservice to the public.”
”The public workforce provides a level of service to New Jersey’s taxpaying public at a cost that I think would be hard to match from the private sector,” Sen. Turner said. “While there may be instances when privatization makes sense, the employees and the public must be protected and the integrity of services must be preserved. If savings cannot be achieved while adhering to these basic standards, then privatization isn’t in the best interest to New Jersey.”
”Privatization often offers false promises to the taxpayers with no real savings and no improvements to public service,” Sen. Sweeney said. “Putting people out of work doesn’t help anyone, especially when the replacement jobs cut wages and benefits. This bill will set standards to protect against irresponsible privatization plans that can backfire.”
Sen. Sweeney and Sen. Weinberg recently attended a meeting of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to advocate against a plan to privatize manual and electronic toll collections and customer services.
The legislation would ensure no public service can be privatized unless there are real cost savings, no reduction in services and no lowered workforce standards. It also would require sustained oversight and public disclosure of privatized services to provide ongoing accountability.
The bill would establish procedures and standards whenever a public entity wants to privatize public services. Under the bill, a cost analysis demonstrating actual savings to taxpayers must be performed and a mechanism would have to be established to provide oversight and public disclosure to ensure the purported “savings” are not achieved by increased charges on the public, reduced services or decreased workforce standards.
Specifically, the bill would prohibit the state and any other public entity in New Jersey from entering into a contract of $250,000 or more to purchase private entity services unless:
• The public entity solicits competitive, sealed bids for the contracts based on a comprehensive statement of requirements.
• The contract requires that the public not be charged fares, fees or other charges greater than those currently charged and the quantity and quality of the services provided must be equal to those provided under the public entity.
• The private contractor is qualified to perform the work, and contractor employees have qualifications and wage and benefits rates at least equal to public employees currently performing the services.
Contractors under this bill would be required to submit payroll records to the public entity, and failure to pay the prevailing wage would be subject to penalties and remedies under the New Jersey Prevailing Wage Act.
• The public entity permits the union of the affected public workers to review current cost estimates and propose cost-savings measures, which are compliant with the standards under this bill.
The contractor also would have to comply with antidiscrimination standards and would be required to have no record of substantial or repeated noncompliance with federal or state laws.
The office of the state comptroller would be required to review the certification of cost savings and would prohibit the entity from entering into the privatization contract if the bid does not provide cost savings or comply with any of the bill’s requirements.
The state auditor would be required to conduct post-audits to determine if the “cost savings” were obtained without raising charges, cutting services or cutting workforce standards.
This bill would not apply to contracts for legal, management consulting, planning, engineering, design services, prevailing wage construction work or work at certain disability and rehabilitation facilities. It also would not apply to any privatization contract first entered into before the effective date of the bill.
The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration.
Adoptee rights
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Hudson, Bergen, has released the following statement on the agreement between the governor and the Legislature on a bill (A1259) he has sponsored since 2006 to permit adoptees to access birth certificate and other related information:
”For too long, we heard many heartfelt stories about the need for adoptees to access their birth records simply because they were facing a crisis and needed to know more about their family medical history.
”It was a long struggle, but today we finally move toward ending that unfairness with a compromise that serves as an example of how to get things done to help others.
”Many of us take for granted that we know our birth history and records, but adoptees have not been able to access this information through no fault of their own.
”This is a compassionate agreement that will help adoptees learn more about themselves while protecting the rights of the birth parents.
”I thank Gov. Christie and my fellow bill sponsors for their hard and cooperative work. In the end, everyone’s rights are considered, and adoptees will get the basic information they need to make informed decisions about their lives.
”I look forward to posting this bill for a vote in the coming weeks. It will be a great step forward for basic fairness in our state.”
Sen. Joseph F. Vitale, Sen. Diane Allen and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg also announced they came to an agreement with the governor’s office regarding changes to legislation that would provide adoptees in New Jersey with their family medical history and birth records.
”For 34 years, adoptees throughout the state have been fighting for the right to access their birth records and family histories — important documents that not only supply a core identity of who they are and where they come from, but also important medical information,” said Sen. Vitale, D-Middlesex. “Today, we have come to an agreement with the administration that will open up these records to many New Jerseyans — a huge victory for the state’s adoptee community that could help facilitate reunions between adoptees and birth parents throughout the state.”
”I thank the governor for recognizing the injustices that New Jerseys’ closed records laws have imposed on adoptees here for far too long,” said Sen. Allen, R-Burlington, who has worked to change the state’s law for 17 years. “By reaching this compromise, adopted adults will at long last be able to choose for themselves whether or not they want to find out basic information the rest of us take for granted, like whether they have siblings or their family’s medical history. It has taken the efforts of many people to get to this point today, and I especially want to thank Sen. Jimmy Cafiero for the decades he spent working on this legislation before his retirement. His efforts were instrumental in bringing about this change.”
”Most New Jerseyans take for granted their ability to ask their parents, grandparents or family elders for information regarding their family medical history, but New Jersey’s adoptees are often left in the dark about genetic illnesses and health concerns,” said Sen. Weinberg, D-Bergen. “This has been especially troublesome as the state has access to information that could provide an important link between adoptees and their birth families. With this agreement, we are that much closer to providing adoptees with this vital information, all while maintaining the privacy of birth parents.”
The governor returned to the Legislature a negotiated conditional veto to S873, which would provide important information such as family history to adoptees while still maintaining the privacy of the birth parents.
Under the changed legislation, birth parents would have until Dec. 31, 2016, to have their names redacted from their biological child’s birth records and could rescind their request for redaction at any time. Adoptees, therefore, would be allowed to start accessing the original birth records on Jan. 1, 2017.
Starting Aug. 1, 2015, names of birth parents no longer would be redacted from birth records.
Under the bill, an adopted person over the age of 18, their direct descendant, sibling or spouse, an adoptive parent or guardian or a state or federal agency would be able to access an uncertified, long-form copy of the adoptee’s original birth certificate through the New Jersey State Registrar.
Additionally, the adoptive person would receive any available information regarding contact preferences with their biological parent and family history information.
The bill would provide birth parents the opportunity to supply to the state registrar their preference for contact with their biological child — whether it be direct contact, contact through an intermediary or no contact.
The birth parent would be permitted to change this preference at any time through the state registrar.
The bill would require that when a birth parent submits a document of contact preference to the state registrar that they also submit family history information. A birth parent whose preference is to have no contact with the adoptive person would be encouraged to update their family history once every 10 years until they reach the age of 40 and once every five years thereafter.
The state registrar would be required, under the bill, to supply adopted persons with any updated information as it is added to the file.
The bill now heads back to the Senate for concurrence with the governor’s recommendations.
Animal safety
Legislation sponsored by Sen. Jeff Van Drew and Sen. Fred H. Madden to better protect animals from accidental poisonings through stronger enforcement of a state law requiring antifreeze manufacturers to add a bittering agent to the sweet-tasting liquid has been approved by a Senate Committee.
”An antifreeze leak can be an aggravating problem for a car owner, but it can be deadly for an animal,” said Sen. Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic. “Wildlife and pets are drawn to antifreeze because of its sweet smell, and thousands of animals are killed each year from ingesting it. In order to address this, we brought together the manufacturers and animal advocates to determine how best to prevent accidental poisonings.
”After years of work, and agreement by all parties, we finally got a bill through both houses, and the companies were to move forward with adding the bittering agent.
”I am extremely disappointed to hear that manufacturers may not be following the very law they helped create. Unfortunately, it’s now necessary to add serious penalties for violations. Hopefully, this will prevent more dogs and cats from experiencing a cruel and painful death.”
In 2009, senators Van Drew and Madden sponsored and the state enacted a law requiring any engine coolant or antifreeze manufactured after Jan. 1, 2011, and subsequently sold in New Jersey to include denatonium benzoate as a bittering agent so as to render it unpalatable.
The bill (S1341) would provide that any person who fails to include a bittering agent in antifreeze would be subject to a civil penalty of $500 for the first offense and $1,000 for the second or subsequent offense.
If the violation is of a continuing nature, each day during which it continues would constitute an additional, separate and distinct offense.
According to the Humane Society Legislative Fund, estimates range from 10,000 to 90,000 animals poisoned each year from ingesting ethylene glycol, the toxic substance used in antifreeze. One teaspoon of antifreeze or engine coolant can kill an average-sized cat, according to the HSLF.
Earlier this month, a 1-year-old Rottweiler in Mantua Township, Gloucester County, had to be put down by its owner after it ingested antifreeze, potentially through an intentional poisoning, which caused kidney failure.
The dog’s owner reported seeing a bowl in her backyard she had not placed there, according to media reports, but thought nothing of it until her dog became sick. The dog tested positive for antifreeze, and police are investigating.
At least 17 states have passed laws requiring a bittering agent to be used in antifreeze.
