Democratic Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver and Republican former State Sen. Diane Allen faced off in the only debate for lieutenant governor Oct. 5. Allen defended her reputation as a moderate due to comments she’s made about undocumented immigrants and her more conservative talking points on gun access, maintaining her views have not wavered throughout the years. Oliver called for expanding the state’s economy to ensure no tax hikes during a second Murphy term, building off the governor’s campaign pledge from last week’s debate, as well as pushing for the Reproductive Freedom Act and against Texas-like gun laws. PoliticoNJ
Gov. Phil Murphy doesn’t expect New Jersey to follow California’s mandate that all school children must be vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend in-person classes. “I don’t anticipate we’re gonna need to do that, in terms of mandating the kids to have it,” Murphy said during his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. “But it’s an option, I think, we leave on the table. We think we’ve got the right package for school in place.” NJ.com
State officials made the case to pregnant women to get the COVID-19 vaccine as only 31% of pregnant individuals in the United States are vaccinated against COVID-19. “The much, much, much greater risk is not the unnatural vaccine that you would take but the unnatural virus that could invade you instead,” said Dr. Ed Lifshitz, the director of communicable disease services at the New Jersey Health Department. “The virus is much, much riskier to the unborn child and to the mother itself than the vaccine, and I’d strongly encourage pregnant women to get vaccinated.” North-JerseyNews.com
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Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s largest healthcare system, reported more than 99% of its 36,000 employees now either are fully vaccinated or have received their first of two shots for COVID-19. Everyone from janitors to heart surgeons, per diem employees to full-time staff, was required to comply with the vaccine requirement. One shot was required by Oct. 1, and Nov. 15 is the deadline to be fully vaccinated. The Daily Record
Some 1,400 New Jersey Medicare recipients’ lives were saved because they were vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to projections by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The study took data from the first five months of 2021 and the projected the numbers for all Medicare recipients. New Jersey, with a 70.5% vaccination rate for those 65 and over, ranked ninth among the 50 states in terms of projected lives saved. In addition, the projections showed the vaccine spared 8,900 Medicare recipients in the state from becoming infected with COVID-19, and 3,900 from needing to be hospitalized. NJ.com
A federal appeals court rejected arguments by New Jersey and three other states seeking to overturn the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap. In a 3-0 decision, an appeals court in Manhattan ruled the federal government had the authority to impose a $10,000 cap on deductions, which occurred as a part of the 2017 tax overhaul. The four states had argued the cap is unconstitutional. NJ Spotlight News
OPINION: Lack of Budget Details Should Concern All Americans. We know what is wanted: expansion of healthcare, childcare, and pre-k. Legislation that will confront climate change. Tax fairness, which we hope means removing the deduction of the state and local tax cap. But we do not know what the funding levels are, if they are new programs or expansion of old ones. And more importantly, how much those new programs will cost not only now but going forward. Progressive and Centrist Dems might not like it, but they need each in order to pass an agenda that continues to move the nation forward. If not, the policies of the Trump Republican party—on climate change, on healthcare, on women’s reproductive rights—will resume unabated. North-JerseyNews.com
President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress in recent days have slashed their expansion of America’s social safety net to a package worth $2.3 trillion or less. Democratic leaders are discussing narrowing their plans for free community college, child tax credits and universal prekindergarten so they are offered only to lower- and middle-income Americans, according to party members involved in the negotiations. Meanwhile, the White House is debating whether to try to keep as many programs as possible, by cutting their duration or reach, or to jettison some initiatives entirely to keep others largely intact. The New York Times
North Jersey Democrats said Congress needs to move swiftly to increase the federal debt ceiling to guard against defaulting on the national debt after passing a continuing resolution that funds the federal government through Dec. 3 and provides disaster relief funds for New Jersey and other areas. “Too many Republicans in federal office are seeking to crush the government, pulverize the economy, and start a national depression for the sole reason that the President is a Democrat,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell. Rep. Tom Malinowski added ”Republicans have chosen to vote against paying our nation’s bills to intentionally trigger the first ever default on our nation’s debt in United States history, simply because a Democrat is in the White House…This toxic partisanship is reckless, dangerous, and unacceptable.” North-JerseyNews.com
Top Senate Democrats and Republicans blamed each other for the failure of Congress to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, with some Democrats floating possible changes to the Senate’s filibuster rule to resolve the impasse, ahead of a possible default in as little as two weeks. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has set up a Oct. 6 vote on clearing a procedural hurdle that stands in the way of raising the debt ceiling. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) repeated that Democrats shouldn’t expect any GOP help, arguing they should use a procedure called budget reconciliation to pass the debt-limit increase with just a simple majority. The Wall Street Journal
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said funding exceeding $175.8 million has been provided to New Jersey residents and business owners to aid in recovery from damage caused by Tropical Storm Ida on Sept. 1. FEMA has approved more than $88.5 million for 18,932 families, $6 million of that for repairs or replacement of damaged personal property, or payment of “disaster-related expenses and other serious needs,” and the rest comprised of Housing Assistance grants for repairs to primary residences, or temporary rental payments. NJ1015.com
Workers who are 70 and older can no longer be forced out of a job just because of their age under a bill Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Oct. 5. The new law expands New Jersey’s existing anti-discrimination statute to protect older employees and closes a loophole that pushed some workers into retirement once they hit a certain age, elemiating language that allowed employers to refuse hiring or promoting someone who is older than 70, and bars colleges and universities from requiring tenured employees to retire at 70. It also changes a provision in the old law that required some government workers to retire at a certain age. New Jersey Monitor
With some municipalities calling for Columbus Day to be abolished, State Sens. Anthony Bucco (R-25) and Joe Pennacchio (R-26) want to preserve the legacy of the day. State Sen. Bucco noted the day is important for Italian-Americans, and was cherished by many who traced their roots back to Italy. He noted the day had morphed from just a celebration of Columbus. “The Columbus holiday and the granite busts are as much or more tributes to the contribution of Italian immigrants to American society as to Christopher Columbus the man,” he said. North-JerseyNews.com
Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order to increase the pay for New Jersey’s poll workers. The order raises the pay to $300 for Election Day, and increases pay during the early voting period by a commensurate hourly rate, to incentivize poll worker participation during the early voting period as well as Election Day in this year’s general election. Additionally, the action waives the restriction that limits poll workers to serving only within the county in which they reside. InsiderNJ
The New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Commission will hold 10 public hearings on the commission’s upcoming redrawing of the state’s congressional boundaries. Five of the hearings will be in-person, and the other five will be virtual. The first meeting, which will be virtual, has been scheduled for Oct. 23 at 10 a.m.; there will then be an in-person hearing on Oct. 26 at 6 p.m., and another virtual hearing on Oct.30 at 10 a.m. The schedule for the seven remaining meetings has yet to be released. The commission is required to submit a final map by January 18, 2022. New Jersey Globe
A Frankford school board member has accused a Sussex County commissioner running for election in November of sending a text she said was a “personal threat” to her, though the commissioner said the message was not directed at her. The text was sent by Commissioner Christopher Carney on Sept. 30 to a group of recipients, including Jodi Fernandez and included a Facebook announcement of the Sussex County Board of County Commissioners candidates forum event scheduled with the words “This bitch doesn’t know what she is in for” below it. New Jersey Herald
And finally….Just like that, the New York Yankees season is over. New Jersey Herald
