Two weeks of high-drama budgets ahead in PA and NJ

Pennsylvania state budget crisis


PA Capitol Building
“When legislators return to the Capitol on Monday, they will have just two weeks left to figure out two things: how to close a gaping budget deficit, and how to do it without damaging their reelection chances.
“With the clock ticking fast down to the June 30 deadline to pass a state budget, the GOP-controlled legislature and Gov. Corbett appear nowhere near reaching an agreement on the best way to close a budget gap ranging between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion.”


That’s the two-sentence setup to Philadelphia Inquirer writer Angela Couloumbis‘ story today about the looming state budget deadline in Pennsylvania.

New Jersey state budget crisis

NJ Dome with puffy clouds in backgrouindThings are pretty much the same in neighboring New Jersey, where the Inquirer’s Maddie Hanna writes:


“New Jersey lawmakers have a little more than two weeks to devise a budget that fills a $1.7 billion revenue hole expected next year – while also confronting the possibility that a court could scuttle a plan to plug a $1 billion shortfall in the fiscal year that ends June 30.

“Their deliberations may hinge on a hearing five days before the budget deadline, when a state judge will hear a challenge by public-sector unions to Gov. Christie’s proposal to address shortfalls this year and next by slashing payments to the pension system.”
Rescuing the damsel

It’s serious business for sure, but the ‘rescue the damsel from the oncoming train’ theme is replayed with such predictability each year that one suspects that state lawmakers share more than a passing appreciation for melodrama and the news coverage it generates.
Over the next 15 days you can expect charges and counter charges across the political aisle, rumors of off-stage intrigue, proposals run up flagpoles and shot to tatters, cries of villainy and then, suddenly, as the constitutionally mandated date for budget adoption arrives, the cannons will fall silent, the smoke will clear and, ta-da, an agreement appears, followed by the bill signing, some laughs, and the thunder of hoof steps down marble hallways as lawmakers book it out of town for summer vacation.
Until then, two weeks of politics at its dramatic best. Enjoy 


Related news stories:
Pa. legislators face tough budget decisions 
N.J. budget woes going down to the wire   
Christie Proposes Reducing Pension Payment to Balance Budget (Video) 
Analysis: Despite budget gap, Christie holding firm that business tax cuts are off-limits 
Deadline looms for Pennsylvania’s state budget
Pa. state budget: Many ideas, but little consensus

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Energy and environment bills up for votes today in NJ

Energy and environmental bills will be considered in two Assembly committees today in Trenton and in floor votes in the state Senate. A third Assembly committee will hear testimony on New Jersey’s aging drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.


Here’s the lineup:

ASSEMBLY TRANSPORTATION AND INDEPENDENT AUTHORITIES
10 a.m., Committee Room 11, 4th Floor,  State House Annex

A-2268  Wisniewski, J.S. (D-19); Singleton, T. (D-7)
Establishes State Transportation Infrastructure Bank and Energy Bank within New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust.
Related Bill: S-307
                                                                   

ASSEMBLY AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
2 p.m., Room 15, 4th Floor State House Annex

A-1294  Dancer, R.S. (R-12); Space, P. (R-24); Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Caride, M. (D-36)
Extends Right to Farm Act protections to commercial beekeepers, with some restrictions.
Related Bill: S-1328
    
A-1295  Dancer, R.S. (R-12); Space, P. (R-24); Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Caride, M. (D-36)
Establishes exclusive State regulatory authority over apiary activities and allows for delegation of monitoring and enforcement authority to municipalities.
    
A-1296  Dancer, R.S. (R-12); Space, P. (R-24); Caride, M. (D-36)
Establishes penalty for destruction of man-made native bee hive.
 
A-1305  Dancer, R.S. (R-12); Wilson, G.L. (D-5); Riley, C.M. (D-3)
Requires any State entity planting vegetation to use only vegetation native to area being planted, and when purchasing vegetation, to purchase, to the maximum extent possible, only from NJ businesses.
 
A-3257  Cryan, J. (D-20); Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Mazzeo, V. (D-2); Burzichelli, J.J. (D-3)
Expands type of use qualifying as low intensity recreational use on lands in Pinelands agricultural production areas.
Related Bill: S-2125
 
AR-71  Dancer, R.S. (R-12); Quijano, A. (D-20); Mazzeo, V. (D-2); Space, P. (R-24)
Urges State residents to support NJ beekeepers by purchasing honey made in NJ.

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ASSEMBLY ENVIRONMENT AND SOLID WASTE
2 p.m. – Room 9, State House Annex
The committee will hear testimony from invited stakeholders regarding the State’s aging drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.


SENATE VOTING SESSION
2 p.m. Senate Chambers

A-1080  Vainieri Huttle, V. (D-37); Jimenez, A.M. (D-32)
Prohibits smoking at public parks and beaches.
Related Bill: S-1772
 
S-139  Bateman, C. (R-16); Doherty, M.J. (R-23)
Establishes Hunterdon-Somerset Flood Advisory Task Force.
Related Bill: A-259
   
S-1306  Sweeney, S.M. (D-3); Green, J. (D-22); Prieto, V. (D-32); Jimenez, A.M. (D-32)
Establishes the "Superstorm Sandy Bill of Rights."
Related Bill: A-2568
 
S-1414  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Concerns low emission and zero emission vehicles; establishes Clean Vehicle Task Force.
Related Bill: A-2405
 
S-1772  Turner, S.K. (D-15); Vitale, J.F. (D-19); Weinberg, L. (D-37)
Prohibits smoking at public parks and beaches.
Related Bill: A-1080
 
S-2122  Van Drew, J. (D-1); Beck, J. (R-11)
Appropriates funds to DEP for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2015.
Related Bill: A-3264
  
S-2123  Gordon, R.M. (D-38); Thompson, S.D. (R-12)
Authorizes New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust to expend certain sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2015.
Related Bill: A-3265
    
SCR-117  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Approves FY 2015 Financial Plan of NJ Environmental Infrastructure Trust.
Related Bill: ACR-157
   
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NJDEP wants to make it easier for some coastal building

The twisted remains of a Hudson River marina after Sandy hit Hoboken, NJ

“In its first major rewrite of coastal protection rules since Superstorm Sandy, New Jersey is proposing changes that would make it easier for some new or expanded development along the Jersey shore and the state’s urban waterways. The Associated Press’s Wayne Parry reports today:

The state Department of Environmental Protection said it is acting to streamline regulations and cut red tape while maintaining environmental protections.

But some environmentalists say the rules are a gift to developers and will place more New Jerseyans in harm’s way during future storms, including major ones like Sandy.

“These revisions will add clarity to our regulatory processes and provide better predictability in the regulatory process to our constituents by eliminating unnecessary red tape,” said DEP Commissioner Robert Martin. “But they will not in any way affect our primary mission of protecting the natural resources that make our coastal areas such a wonderful place for living, working and enjoying.”

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Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, said cutting bureaucracy can’t come at the expense of protecting people and the environment.

“New Jersey’s rules on coastal development contributed greatly to the devastation we saw in Sandy,” he said. “We know from that storm that development that wasn’t right on top of the water came through the storm better.”

The rules would make it easier to build new marinas or expand existing ones, and to put restaurants there. They would make it easier to erect piers and to build attractions on them.

They also make it easier to build homes along the water, including duplex or two-family houses, and to do “minor” dredging projects for homes or marinas. Some permits would be easier to apply for and get.

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Top court rules against homeowners in toxic water case

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a group of homeowners in North Carolina can’t sue a company that contaminated their drinking water decades ago because a state deadline has lapsed, a decision that could prevent thousands of other property owners in similar cases from recovering damages after being exposed to toxic waste.

The Associated Press reports that, in a 7-2 decision, the justices said state law strictly bars any lawsuit brought more than 10 years after the contamination occurred – even if residents did not realize their water was polluted until years later.

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The high court reversed a lower court ruling that said federal environmental laws should trump the state law and allow the lawsuit against electronics manufacturer CTS Corp. to proceed.

The decision is a setback for the families of several thousand former North Carolina-based Marines suing the federal government in a separate case for exposing them to contaminated drinking water over several decades at Camp Lejeune. The government is relying on the same state law to avoid liability. That case is currently pending at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

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Fracking money pouring into Corbett's campaign

Governor Tom Corbett – Marc Levy AP photo
In what seems to be a reprise of four years ago, hundreds of thousands of dollars are pouring into the race for Pennsylvania governor from company executives with ties to the state’s burgeoning natural gas industry, Ben Finley writes in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
But the donations, almost entirely to Gov. Tom Corbett, are flowing with one key difference: The stakes are even higher for both the companies’ fracking profits and the Republican Corbett, one of the country’s most vulnerable governors.
Corbett is being challenged by Democrat Tom Wolf, a York County businessman who has pledged to add a 5 percent tax on fracking.
Nearly $1 million that will ultimately benefit Corbett’s reelection bid arrived in January from executives of the Ariel Corp., an Ohio firm that builds compressors used to extract natural gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale formation.
In February, according to state campaign-finance records, about $240,000 arrived from the president of Chief Oil & Gas, a Texas company that leases 200,000-plus acres in Northeastern Pennsylvania for natural gas drilling and exploration.
The money is being channeled through the Republican Governors Association to a separate political action committee it established in Pennsylvania. The satellite organization is Corbett’s largest single donor so far in his bid for reelection.

Fracking money pouring into Corbett's campaign Read More »