Christie’s shifting of open-space funds unconstitutional?

 
Governor Christie’s decision to take nearly $20 million in state tax revenue dedicated to open space preservation and use it instead to cover parks management in his state budget was unconstitutional, according to a legal opinion issued by a non-partisan arm of the legislature.

James M. O’Neill reported March 28 in The Record:

 
But the governor’s office disputes the opinion laid out by the Office of Legislative Services, which had issued its opinion at the request of state Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, who chairs the Senate environment and energy committee. A state environmental group, meanwhile, says taking the money for other purposes jeopardizes the chance to protect sensitive land in North Jersey and elsewhere that should be preserved.

In his budget for fiscal 2016, Christie had earmarked nearly $20 million for parks management from money raised through a corporate business tax constitutionally dedicated for open space and farmland preservation. Voters had overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2014 dedicating about $80 million annually from the corporate tax for such preservation efforts.

When the legislature, in its budget appropriations bill, changed the source of the $20 million to a clean energy fund, Christie used his line item veto power to change the source back to the preservation funds.“This is money that had been dedicated by voters for open space preservation and stewardship,” Jeff Tittel of the New Jersey Sierra Club said Monday. “We’re very concerned about this. What the governor has done is unconstitutional and unconscionable.”

Tittel also said the Christie administration has sat on the rest of the money raised through the constitutional amendment for open space preservation and failed to spend it at all. “This is an arrogant abuse of power,” Tittel said.

The Christie administration dismissed the OLS legal opinion – and the Sierra Club’s complaints.

“We disagree with OLS’s opinion,” said Joseph Perone, a spokesman with the state treasurer’s office. “This was a completely permissible use of these funds that also is consistent with the constitutional amendment approved by a majority of voters.”

Kevin Roberts, a Christie spokesman, was even more blunt in rejecting Tittel’s criticism.

“Jeff Tittel continues to set himself on fire concerning issues that he knows nothing about,” Roberts said.

The legislature, meanwhile, is trying again to ensure the $20 million in question goes to open space preservation rather than covering parks expenses. A bill introduced by Smith to do that passed the environment and energy committee in January and was approved by the full Senate, 32-5, on March 14. The bill is now awaiting action in the Assembly.


However, an identical bill passed in December at the end of the previous legislative session was vetoed by Christie without comment.

If that happens again, Tittel said the Sierra Club could seek a legal opinion from the courts.


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Demo of Doris Duke’s NJ estate to resume today
NJ offshore wind energy forum Tuesday, March 29
Ditch wasteful plastic. Eat your cutlery
How a university should NOT react to a racism charge
The fishing’s hot outside nuclear plant in Lacey, NJ

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Demo of Doris Duke’s NJ estate to resume today

Doris Duke estate before it fell into disrepair
Doris Duke’s former estate in Hillsborough, NJ before it fell into disrepair

The contractor hired to tear down the historic Doris Duke mansion in Hillsborough, NJ has returned to the property and demolition work is
expected to resume Tuesday, March 29, Michael Catania, executive
director of the Duke Farms Foundation, confirmed Monday.

David Hutchinson reports for NJ.com:

Crews, which had to stop work on March 6 after an Appellate Division judge’s issued an emergency stay on the demolition, are setting up and preparing to resume razing the mansion after New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Lee Solomon ruled March 21 against the emergency stay.

“The demolition contractor has returned to Duke Farms and the demolition will resume in an orderly fashion,” said Catania.
Catania said he expects demolition on the remaining structure to resume on Tuesday. Rain on Monday delayed site work. Prior to the emergency stay about half of the mansion, a portion known as the Hollywood wing, had been demolished.
David Brook, an attorney for a citizens group call DORIS (Demolition of Residence is Senseless), had been seeking to stop the demolition until the Appellate Division hears his appeal on a vote by the township’s Historical Preservation Commission that approved razing of the structure, which was built in 1893.
Brook wasn’t immediately available for comment.

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NJ offshore wind energy forum Tuesday, March 29



This looks like a great program tomorrow at Stockton University in Galloway, NJ.


It is co-sponsored by Environment New Jersey, the Stockton University Sustainability Trust and the Business Network for Off-Shore Wind


Organizers say the forum comes after the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s sale late last year of two leases for offshore wind energy development off the Jersey Shore to RES Americas and US Wind Inc., as well as Fishermen’s Energy continued efforts to develop a 5-turbine wind farm off the coast of Atlantic City. 


The forum will address the development plans for each developer, the opportunities for New Jersey to become a leader of an offshore wind energy industry, and the potential economic market created for this industry through the introduction of an offshore wind renewable energy credit (OREC) system. 


Panelists include representatives of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), RES Americas, US Wind Inc., Fishermen’s Energy, and New Jersey’s 2nd Legislative District. Also, there will be a special video statement from Senator Cory Booker directed to the audience on the importance of offshore wind energy in New Jersey.

A keynote address will be delivered by Deputy Director Walter Cruickshank of BOEM, and multiple Q & A sessions are planned. Light refreshments will be served at the forum’s conclusion.



More information is available at Enviro-Events Calendar  


Plan to attend? Please RSVP here for your general admission ticket (no cost). 


If you can’t make it, you still can listen to the entire event  via live stream.  

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Ditch wasteful plastic. Eat your cutlery

plastic cutlery

Concerned about the amount of plastics thrown into the waste stream everyday?

This Indian inventor thought about the waste and the possible hidden effects
of the chemicals used to create plastic cutlery that you eat from.

His solution: Edible cutlery. Utensils you can eat with your meal. Made from natural grains and created in a variety of flavors.

Check it out:

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How a university should NOT react to a racism charge


Charges of racism and cronyism, a university in a public relations pickle, two heavyweight state senate Democrats crossing swords, and–at the center–a bank-robber-turned-minister. You know this story had to originate in New Jersey.

The Star-Ledger‘s Tom Moran lays it out:

“Mark this down as Lesson #1 from Kean University’s fumbling response to charges of racism at the school:

“Do NOT hire a former bank robber with a phony resume to conduct your internal investigation — even if he calls himself a minister.

“This actually happened. It is the latest twist in a story that is bizarre even by New Jersey standards.


Read the full story here  




 

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The fishing’s hot outside nuclear plant in Lacey, NJ

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Snow was falling, temps were near freezing and winter still held New Jersey
in its icy grip earlier this month, but none of that mattered to me.

Brian Donohue reports for the Associated Press:
Because I was headed to the one place in the Garden State where summer lasts forever: Oyster Creek, where the toasty outflow from the nearby nuclear power plant keeps the water temperatures warm enough to keep the fish biting year round.
As the nation’s oldest nuclear power plant, the Oyster Creek Generating Station, sucks in 1.4 billion gallons of water a day from the Forked River to cool its reactor, then pumps the water back out into neighboring Oyster Creek at higher temperatures, NJ.com reported. Come late winter and early spring, the creek becomes — literally and figuratively — the state’s hottest fishing hole.
Species including striped bass, bluefish and flounder that largely migrate to warmer waters or go dormant in winter instead remain in the warm waters of the creek and keep biting through the hardest freezes.
So follow the fishermen like Newman Kessler, who drove two hours in a snowstorm from his home in Ossining, New York.
Donning plaid earmuffs and ski gloves, Kessler cast from the bank with the hope of landing his first striper of 2016.
While the snow kept the number of fishermen to a handful on the Friday I visited — the first since the March 1 opening of the season for striped bass fishing in New Jersey rivers and bays — Kessler said he is used to jockeying with more than 20 anglers for a spot along the banks.
“And more often than not, you’ll see them pulling fish out,” he said.
Before the plant opened in 1969, Oyster Creek was like any one of scores of brackish creeks that empty in the bays — a great spot to catch fish, but generally not until water temperatures begin to rise in late March or April.
It wasn’t long before locals realized the nuclear plant allowed them to get an early start. A well-kept secret among locals for years, the spot has become more popular — and crowded — as word has spread online. On my visit, fishermen were of few words, reluctant to attract any more competition.
 


 
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