Despite no-cut promise, Christie clips enviro cleanup funds

Gotcha? Christie quietly cuts enviro-restoration funds from budget 


Scott Fallon reports for The Record:

Gov. Chris Christie quietly took language out of the state budget that would have ensured millions of dollars from legal settlements with polluters would go to environmental restoration instead of being diverted to other areas, officials confirmed Wednesday.

After a tense budget impasse that saw the state government shut down for three days, Christie used his line-item veto early Tuesday to strike language that dedicated half of environmental settlements to “remediation, restoration, and clean up.”

The move could have significant consequences for a $225 million state settlement with Exxon Mobil Corp. that could be approved by a judge this fall. Under the budget that was signed by Christie, only $50 million would go to a state fund used to restore land and water that have been affected by hazardous waste.

The veto also follows a pattern by Christie, who had diverted almost $300 million from polluters of the Passaic River in recent years to the general fund.

Above is the Bayway Refinery in Linden, once owned by Exxon. (Photo: northjersey.com file photo)

























Environmentalists and state Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union,
Environmentalists and state Sen. Ray Lesniak, D-Union, are challenging the $225 million settlement between the Christie administration and Exxon Mobil over pollution in Linden and Bayonne that environmentalists say falls far short of the original $8.9 billion the state sought.

Christie, a Republican, had said he would not use his line-item veto to take money out of the Democrats’ budget if he was able to sign legislation that restructured the state’s biggest medical insurer, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield. He threatened to snip 73 items for a total of $325 million.

But even after a deal was struck, Christie used his red pen to take out several pieces of language that dedicated money to preschool expansion.


As those line-item vetoes were brought to light Wednesday after the Independence Day holiday, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, D-Secaucus, said Christie had been dishonest in negotiating a deal during the contentious weekend impasse.


Read the full story here 


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Hey Jersey, you weren’t as slow as these Pennsy slackers

StateCapitol11.jpg
New Jersey legislators missed their constitutional deadline to produce a state budget by three days this month. Pennsylvania is now five days late with the Republican leadership talking about borrowing to make up the deficit

Marc Levy reports for  the Associated Press:


(Harrisburg) — A top Pennsylvania senator says compromise legislation to expand casino-style gambling is forthcoming as a stalemate enters its fifth day over paying for a $32 billion budget package.
Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati said Wednesday that gambling legislation is a step toward raising $2.2 billion to fill a deficit. The Capitol is quiet this week as top lawmakers talk privately outside the Capitol.
Scarnati and the Legislature’s other Republican leaders say they’re considering borrowing most of the money.
Gambling legislation had been held up by a disagreement over heavily lobbied legislation to allow slot machine-style gambling terminals in bars and truck stops. But Scarnati says it’s time to move past disagreements. Scarnati says negotiators are also working on legislation that could expand the sale of wine or liquor licenses.


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House ready to cut DOE budget but not to Trump’s depths

House Appropriations energy subcommittee marks up the DOE budget bill.


Georgina Gustin reports for Inside Climate News:


Budget writers in the House of Representatives said on June 28 that they were willing to support some cuts to renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, but they wouldn’t approve all of President Donald Trump‘s proposed deep slashes to the Department of Energy’s budget.
The House Appropriations energy subcommittee met to mark up their bill for funding the department. The bill represents the first time Congressional purse-string holders have formally clarified their priorities and is the first step in a long process, but it suggests that Republicans will support many of Trump’s cuts to clean energy.
Trump’s proposal, released last month, calls for cutting the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E—the government’s incubator for clean energy technologies—by 93 percent. The House spending bill allocates nothing.
The draft bill endorsed by the subcommittee sets the overall agency budget at $37.6 billion, giving it about $209 million less than in fiscal 2017, but $3.65 billion above Trump’s request, according to Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), the subcommittee’s chairman. The bill would have to be approved by the full Appropriations panel before going to the House floor and also would have to be reconciled with any action by the Senate.
“Increases over last year are targeted to those areas where they are needed most—to provide for our nation’s defense and to support our nation’s infrastructure,” Simpson said. “The bill recognizes the administration’s effort to reduce federal spending and the size of the government by accepting a number of the president’s proposals including the request to eliminate the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.”
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How would you like one of these in your back yard?

Burlington County, NJ will spend an estimated $800,000 to stabilize sinkhole in Florence. Mel Evans AP photo

Brian Woods reports for the Burlington County Times:
FLORENCE — More than two years after a 50-foot sinkhole threatened homes along the Delaware River in the township, the county is ready to stabilize the area. 
The Burlington County Board of Freeholders at its meeting June 28 authorized construction work on the sinkhole on Front Street through a shared service agreement with the Burlington County Bridge Commission.
Work will start in the next six weeks and be performed by AP Construction, of Blackwood. It is expected to cost up to $800,000, according to county spokesman Eric Arpert.
The bridge commission has an emergency repair contract with AP Construction that helps speed up projects, and will allow the county to save on administrative costs since it will not go out to bid on the construction, Apert said. As per the shared service agreement, the construction firm will be paid hourly and the county will reimburse the bridge commission for the costs.
In 2015, the massive sinkhole nearly toppled a home into the Delaware River and took portions of the backyard of the house next door. The crater that the sinkhole created slides into the river, causing concern of further erosion.
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Frelinghuysen’s voting record troubles enviro advocates

In the past, Frelinghuysen often stood with Democrats on environmental issues including former Senators Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine here supporting legislation to save the Highlands in 2003. His environmental voting record – as scored by the League of Conservation Voters – has plummeted since 2008

Scott Fallon reports for The Record:


A decade ago he was garnering favorable ratings and the occasional endorsement from environmental groups for his work to preserve open space across North Jersey.


Now he’s the subject of protests by advocates who criticize his recent voting record and fear he may uphold some of President Donald Trump’s severe cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget.

Rodney Frelinghuysen – Tariq Zehawi 

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen sits at the crossroads of his environmental record. As chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the 12-term Republican congressman from Morris County is one of the most important figures in determining EPA’s future.


Trump has called for the agency’s budget to be cut by almost a third, saying EPA has inhibited economic growth through overreaching regulation. But Congress controls the federal government’s purse strings. The Appropriations Committee has slowly been rolling out spending bills in recent weeks. And at the center of that is Frelinghuysen.


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Budget, Horizon bills signed, New Jersey shutdown ends

After three days of political posturing, dueling news conferences, beach parties for a some, wanted posters by the governor blaming the entire mess on the Assembly speaker (and providing the public with his photo and phone number) and aerial photography by the Star-Ledger that triggered amusing Internet memes, the New Jersey Legislature and governor came to an agreement late last night on a state budget and legislation to restructure Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Gov. Christie signed both bills. Government functions will return to normal tomorrow.


Following are a few news stories that wrap it up. In the days ahead we can expect opinion pieces that assign blame and declare winners and losers. 


Christie signs N.J. budget, ending 3-day government shutdown

Ryan Hutchins and Katie Jennings report for Politico/NJ:

Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers ended New Jersey’s first state government shutdown in more than a decade, settling a bitter feud over an unrelated bill that had left the Statehouse in disarray for two weeks.

In votes after midnight, both houses of the Legislature passed the state budget and the companion legislation, sending the measures to Christie, who was waiting with pen in hand. The governor announced at 2:39 a.m. that that he signed the budget into law, the last and most contentious spending plan of his two terms in office.


Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers ended New Jersey’s first state government shutdown in more than a decade, settling a bitter feud over an unrelated bill that had left the Statehouse in disarray for two weeks.

In votes after midnight, both houses of the Legislature passed the state budget and the companion legislation, sending the measures to Christie, who was waiting with pen in hand. The governor announced at 2:39 a.m. that that he signed the budget into law, the last and most contentious spending plan of his two terms in office.



New Jersey will open again as Christie announces end of shutdown

Samantha Marcus reports for NJ.com:

Gov. Chris Christie announced he is ending the three-day state government shutdown that drew outrage for shuttering government offices, courts parks and beaches, while earning him unwanted attention for lounging on the very shoreline he ordered closed.
“Operations will go back to normal on Wednesday morning, with the opening of state business,” Christie said late Monday. 

State-run recreation sites will reopen on the Fourth of July, and the full restoration of government operations Wednesday will return about 30,000 furloughed state employees to work. Christie had ordered the second shutdown in state history after the state Legislature failed to deliver him a state budget by the July 1 deadline. 

Governor Christie signs state budget, government shutdown ends

Visitors to the Garden State’s 40 state parks were turned away or forced to decamp. Disappointed would-be drivers were delayed from applying for permits and licenses. And tens of thousands of public workers were pulled off the job.
Christie blamed the state Assembly leader for the budget impasse. But images of Christie and his family sunbathing outside the governor’s mansion on Island Beach State Park, a stretch of coastline temporarily closed to the public, came to embody the shutdown and drew national attention to a political fight that aggrieved millions here but likely inconvenienced far fewer. 

Read the full story here

Below, NJTV News video on the agreement 



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