Last Day of NJ's Legislative Session Sees a Flurry of Action
Monday, January 09, 2012
On the last day of New Jersey's legislative session, several bills were wound their way through the halls in Trenton.
One bill that was closer to passage was legalized sports betting.
The state Legislature approved a law Monday that would let New Jerseyans bet on professional and college sports games at Atlantic City casinos and the state's four horse tracks.
Governor Chris Christie has indicated he supports the bill. Still, even if it gets the governor's signature, New Jersey would still have to launch a battle in federal court to overturn a federal ban on sports betting in all but four states.
The Urban Hope Act also got the approval of both chambers and heads to the governor's desk.
The bill would provide an education alternative for children in three under-performing public school districts by allowing nonprofit groups to build, manage and operate alternative or renaissance schools in the failing districts of Newark, Trenton and Camden.
Legislation to help alleviate parking problems at New Jersey Transit stations is also now headed to the governor's desk.The measure, which passed both houses Monday, allows the general public to park during nights and weekends in spaces reserved for permit holders.
Other bills that will head to the governor's desk include a measure that would make it easier for developers to build in environmentally sensitive areas and a bill that would allow New Jersey resident to have wine shipped to people's homes from small out-of-state wineries, while Garden State growers could ship their product directly to customers. Two anti-flooding measures also cleared the two chambers. One bill creates a Rockland-Bergen Bi-State River Commission, which would develop a flood-management plan for northern Jersey and New York. The other bill appropriates $1 million to the state Environmental Protection department to initiate a flood-control and prevention project for the South River in Sayreville. The funding source is a 2003 bond act.
The New Jersey Legislature also accepted Gov. Christie's recommendation for a one-year ban on a natural gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, rather than continue to pursue a permanent ban. The Senate and Assembly accepted Christie's conditional veto of legislation banning fracking outright late Monday. The governor returned the bill to the Legislature in August with the recommendation that the ban be lifted in a year, rather than be made permanent.
Bills on Hold This Session
A long-stalled bill letting governments post legal notices on their websites rather than in newspapers is again on hold. The bill was pulled late Monday afternoon.
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, an Essex County Democrat, said she now plans to take "another look at it" in the new legislative session.
Another measure that failed to make it through the legislature is a measure that would have allowed commercial lumberjacks to cut and sell trees from New Jersey's state-owned forests has stalled.
But environmental groups maintained the bill did little to address what they say is a major problem: the troubles caused by deer that eat most new plants in the forests.
The bill was pulled from the legislative agenda on Monday. It will now have to be reintroduced in the new session in order for it to advance.
Christie Vetoes and Signs Several Bills on the Last Day of Session
Meanwhile, Governor Christie has taken action on a number of bills passed. He signed 25, and either conditionally or absolutely vetoed 16 others.
One of the bills conditionally vetoed — that’s when the governor objects to part of a bill and proposes amendments that would make it acceptable — was a bill to permit pharmacy sales of syringes and needles without a prescription. In the conditional veto, Christie recommended requirements for the purchasers to show proof of age. Other conditional vetoes included a bill that would establish Small Business Loan Program in EDA allowing certain small businesses to be eligible for low interest rate loans of up to $250,000 to expand their businesses and a bill that would have streamlined review of certain wind energy generation facility installments on farmland.
Bills the governor signed included “Caylee’s Law,” which upgrades penalties for failing to report a death and criminalizes failure to report disappearance of child within 24 hours, a public awareness campaign in DHS for ovarian cancer, the development and adoption of a statewide youth suicide prevention plan and municipalities getting the ability to sell or lease unneeded public property for “urban” farming.
Leave a Comment
Register for your own account so you can vote on comments, save your favorites, and more. Learn more.
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. We reserve the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting. By leaving a comment, you agree to New York Public Radio's Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use.