RECENT LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION:

 Updated 07/26/2010 11:49am

Dear Members:
 
         As you know, the 2 % property tax cap bill was recently signed into law by Chris Christie on Tuesday, July 13, 2010. The General Assembly and Senate overwhelmingly passed this legislation that establishes local governments and school districts from increasing spending and taxes above 2%. The legislation creates some exceptions to the cap including pension, health care and debt service. The legislation does not provide exemptions from the cap for binding arbitration. This new legislation does not take into account the need for local government to provide for public safety. The New Jersey state PBA and Firefighters Associations are predicting unprecedented layoff of cops and fireman across the state. Here in Jersey City, the new business administrator has advised the city council and the administration that Jersey City is facing a $79 million dollar budget deficit in this fiscal year. What direct impact on our members has not been communicated to us as of yet. In the coming weeks we will be sitting down with the administration on this subject matter.

JCPOBA President Jerry "Dewey" DeCicco

What is the toolkit?

The toolkit is a 33-bill package Christie has sent to the legislature for consideration in a special session this summer. He and his allies argue that the package will provide budgeting tools to municipal, county and school officials for negotiating public employee contracts and handling other issues that affect budgets and tax levies. The governor said he is proposing the toolkit at the request of local leaders who have asked for increased ability to negotiate and handle budgets. 

Is the property tax cap part of the toolkit?

Yes. It is the first of the 33 bills.

What are the other proposals?

1. A constitutional amendment for a 2.5 percent cap on annual increased spending on state government operations excluding school aid, municipal aid and property tax relief.- Obviously it is now a 2.0 cap.

2. Reforming the procedure for selecting arbitrators to resolve union contract disputes when negotiations fail.

3. Public arbitrators will be required to consider the impact of public employee contracts on property taxes. The current law does not require this.

4. Arbitrators cannot make awards that exceed the cap.

5. Eliminating participation in public employee pension systems by employees of non-governmental groups. Currently employees of such groups as the New Jersey League of Municipalities can participate in the state government employees pension system.

6. Cap the sick leave ($15, 000) and vacation carry over time of current public employees. The current system allows public employees to carry over unlimited time.   

7. Shared services reform including eliminating certain civil service protections when services are shared. Christie's office is saying that current laws mandating the buying out of public employee contracts, bumping and other civil service protections do not allow for efficiency in shared services. (According to the governor's office this proposal is actually two bills covering different aspects of the law.)

8. Allow local governments to institute public employee furloughs.

9. Allow counties and municipalities to opt out of the civil service system either by ordinance or a referendum initiated       by 15 percent of registered voters. Once your town opts out, it cannot readopt civil service provisions for 10 years.

10. Changes many public employee offenses to "minor" to reduce the hearing process and cost.

11. Changes many police officer offenses to "minor" to reduce the hearing process and cost.

12. Changes many firefighter offences to "minor" to reduce the hearing process and cost.

13. Revises the appeal process for public employee hearings to reduce costs.

14. Revises the public employee layoff rules in order to reduce the bumping of less senior employees who are deemed more essential to the organization.

15. Gives the chairman of the state civil service commission more control over the day-to-day operations of the agency. The governor's office said this would be similar to the powers the commissioner of the state Department of Personnel had before the department was changed back to the commission.

16. Increases the testing and appeal fees for civil service tests.

17. Allows the chairman of the state civil service commission to make seasonal appointments for up to nine months.

18. Allow municipalities to offset property tax refunds against state income tax refunds.

19. Expands who can bring appeals to the state Council on Local Mandates. Currently only individual municipalities can bring appeals to the council. This proposal would allow groups of municipalities or the state League of Municipalities to bring appeals. The council was formed by state legislation in the 1990s, sponsored by former Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden (R-Short Hills) and signed by former Gov. Christie Whitman, in order to address what Ogden, a former Millburn mayor, found to be unfunded mandates from the state to municipalities. The "state mandate, state pay" legislation requires the state to pay for any mandates it places on local governments. Local governments can appeal a state law if they believe it is a state mandate where the state is passing the cost on to local governments. Former Summit Mayor Janet Whitman is a member of the council.
20. Future teacher contracts and other school district public employee contracts cannot exceed the cap.
21. School districts can impose last/best offer contracts under certain circumstances.
22. The executive county superintendent of schools will be required to approve all contracts with school district unions and superintendents of schools. The county superintendent would not be allowed to approve a contract that goes above the cap. This legislation would shift control over the final contracts from the local school district to the state Department of Education. The county superintendent is appointed to the post by the state education commissioner and governor and serves as an agent of the state for the geographic region of the county.
23. The executive county superintendent of schools will be required to implement the sharing of business functions across school districts. This would allow for more sharing of the business office functions and shared services across districts including payroll, transportation and human resources to name a few. Currently several school districts have similar programs including the shared business administrator between the Clark Township and Garwood Boards of Education. In addition, districts utilize shared services agencies including the Morris Union Jointure Commission on certain shared services.
24. Changes the formulas used for determining the contracts for public higher education employees.
25. Designates state colleges and universities as the employer of record for certain collective bargaining agreements.
26. Allows state colleges and universities to hire faculty members for probationary periods. This would change the traditional tenure track vs. non-tenure track rules that govern higher education faculty hiring in the United States.
27. Remove classified employees of public higher education institutions from the state civil service system and move to the personnel system of the institution.
28. Create a separate workers comp system for public colleges and universities.
29. Require that county clerks send a single sample ballot to each household and not one per voter.
30. Move elections for Boards of Education and fire district commissioners to the day of the November general election. This move has been opposed by those saying it would make the non-partisan offices more political. The estimates provided by the state say $4 million a year can be saved by moving the school elections from April to November. It would also increase voter participation in the traditionally low voter turnout elections.