With a state budget due at the end of June, Republicans on the State Senate Budget Committee offered their own plan for the 2023 Fiscal Year budget. The GOP lawmakers are proposing $8 billion of new tax relief, increasing the state surplus to $5 billion, more than doubling proposed debt repayments, and increasing legislative oversight of Murphy Administration spending. “We have this unprecedented situation where families are struggling to pay their bills amid the highest inflation in a generation while the state is simultaneously bringing in record tax collections that are billions beyond expectations,” said State Senate Minority Leader Steve Oroho (R-24) said in a press statement May 26 announcing his party’s plan. “We’ve proposed a comprehensive and responsible plan that includes structural reforms to provide New Jerseyans with substantial tax and toll relief at a time when it’s desperately needed.” North-JerseyNews.com
New Jersey is not expected to follow New York state’s lead in suspending their gas tax through the end of 2022, expected to save Empire State drivers about 16 cents per gallon. Gov. Phil Murphy has opposed New Jersey waiving the state gas tax and said in a statement that “While the state is currently reviewing options to provide relief for residents facing rising inflation, [Gov. Murphy] continues to support federal action to temporarily waive the gas tax.” News12 New Jersey
Demand for workers remained robust in the Spring, according to private-sector estimates, a sign employers face still-stiff competition in a tight labor market. Employers had 11.4 million job openings through late May, according to estimates from jobs site Indeed. That would be only a slight decrease from the government’s estimate of 11.5 million job openings in March, the highest since records began in 2000. The number of times workers quit their jobs also reached a record high of 4.5 million in March. The Wall Street Journal
A Superior Court Judge late last week signed an order placing Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center in receivership. The court appointed Allen Wilen, a partner at the EisnerAmper, as temporary receiver recommended by the state’s Departments of Health and Human Services. EisnerAmper is an accounting, tax, and business advisory firm nationally known for its expertise in healthcare and restructuring. The court ruling came after federal authorities unexpectedly announced it would stop the Andover nursing home from receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said repeated surveys documented the Sussex County facility’s failure to comply with several federal requirements, including numerous non-compliance deficiencies that caused or were likely to cause “serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to residents.” North-JerseyNews.com
Major research institutions led by scientists at Hackensack Meridian Health’s laboratory in Nutley are teaming up to develop new COVID-19 treatments with federal grants up to $108 million as the virus continues to mutate into new forms, executives announced May 31. The partnership among virologists and drugmakers aims to rapidly develop drugs that can be taken by mouth without a patient having to be admitted to a hospital. Their goal is to be nimble enough to produce treatments that can respond to a rapidly changing virus, which can mutate into new variants that take only weeks to spread across the globe. The Record
New Jersey on May 31 reported three new COVID-19 deaths and 2,117 new confirmed cases. There were 844 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases at the state’s 67 of 71 hospitals. Of those hospitalized, 97 were in intensive care and 29 were on ventilators. New Jersey’s statewide transmission rate was 1.09 with the positivity rate at 11.4% for tests conducted on May 26. North-JerseyNews.com
The United States is sending advanced rocket systems to Ukraine, the most significant weapons that President Joe Biden has sent since the start of the war, fulfilling a longstanding demand from the Ukrainians and appearing to dismiss concerns that the move would be seen by Russia as a provocation. President Biden’s wrote in a guest essay in The New York Times that the latest aid would help Ukraine “fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table.” The decision came as Russian troops inched closer to seizing Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine after pounding the city for weeks with artillery fire. A Ukrainian official said Russian forces had advanced from three directions and reached the center of the city. The New York Times
Democratic U.S. Senators remained hopeful of reaching a deal with Republicans on gun measures, as President Joe Biden said he would meet with lawmakers before Congress returns from break next week. Lawmakers were still discussing several policies that could fit into legislation, including regulations for gun storage and changes to improve the background-check system as well as GOP priorities of investing in mental-health treatment and bolstering school security. The Wall Street Journal
The New Jersey Supreme Court upheld Jersey City’s payroll tax on May 31, affirming an Appellate Division’s decision that the tax created to help fund the city’s school district is constitutional. In response to school aid cuts, the state passed a law in 2018 that allowed Jersey City to implement a payroll tax to help offset the cuts; the City Council then passed a 1% tax that applies to private employees that work but do not live in Jersey City. The plaintiffs, led by developers Mack-Cali (now known as Veris) and LeFrak, sued the city to overturn it as they argued it was unfair taxation due to the residency exemption. Hudson Reporter
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked a Texas law that would ban large social media companies from removing posts based on the views they express. The court’s brief order was unsigned and gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. The vote was 5 to 4, with an unusual coalition in dissen as the court’s three most conservative members — Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch — filed a dissent saying they would have let stand, for now at least, an appeals court order that left the law in place while the case moved forward. Justice Elena Kagan, a liberal, also said she would have let the order stand, though she did not join the dissent and gave no reasons of her own. The New York Times
A federal judge May 31 ruled that a lawsuit seeking to declare organization lines to be unconstitutional in New Jersey primary elections may move forward. A group of unsuccessful progressive candidates— Christine Conforti, Arati Kreibich, and Zena Spezakis—and New Jersey Working Families launched their legal battle in July 2020, arguing that organization lines provide a substantial disadvantage to off-the-line challengers. U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quaraishi wrote that that the bracketing system used by both parties in primaries “imposes a moderate burden on the right to associate” and “is not universal within the state.” New Jersey Globe
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has reopened their investigation into the 2014 deaths of a former state transportation commissioner and his wife. Authorities have said former Commissioner John Sheridan fatally stabbed his wife, Joyce, set their Montgomery Township home ablaze and took his own life. In January, the family asked for the case to be looked at again because of the 2014 murder-for-hire plot by former Democratic political operative Sean Caddle that led to the death of Michael Galdieri of Jersey City under suspiciously similar circumstances. New Jersey Herald
A bill sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald would require New Jersey’s records custodians to redact the home addresses of elected officials and candidates seeking elected office from public documents, a proposal that closely mirrors one enacted for law enforcement officials after the attempted assassination of a federal judge in 2020. “Candidates and elected officials, we are readily available, and we all have public offices in the community. Listing our home addresses on certain public documents is not necessary,” said Greenwald. “I just think it’s a safety precaution, and it’s something that’s time has come.” The Democratic leader said he introduced the bill because of online vitriol that has increasingly veered into violent threats against elected officials and the assassination attempt against U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas that killed her son. New Jersey Monitor
Four North Jersey House members hosted U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg last week as he promoted the benefits of the infrastructure bill and heard of new initiatives to unclog the supply chain bottleneck. Reps. John Gottheimer, Tom Malinowski, Mikie Sherrill and Donald Payne, Jr. all spent time with the Secretary. Gottheimer took the occasion to propose two new initiatives to address supply chain issues that are playing a major role in inflation in the U.S., while Sherrill and Payne held meetings about workforce development initiatives and a roundtable focused on how to increase minority-owned business participation in federal infrastructure projects, respectively. North-JerseyNews.com
A state judge on May 31 refused to issue an order compelling the Essex County Board of Elections to make all Newark polling places handicapped accessible for the June 7 congressional primaries and three city council runoffs on June 14. Capping a morning hearing in Superior Court in Newark, Judge Robert Gardner denied a request for the order made in a suit the City of Newark filed on May 20 after Mayor Ras Baraka and other officials said some voters were physically unable to cast ballots in the city’s municipal election earlier this month. NJ.com
For the first time in four years, the county portion of Bergen residents tax bill will decrease as County Executive Jim Tedesco presented his 2022 budget proposal of $611.9 million to the Bergen County Board of Commissioners. The county’s proposed budget maintains services and will decrease Bergen’s portion of your property tax bill by $17.75 on the average home, assessed at $500,000, with the help of “conservative budgeting,” federal funding and a jail partnership. The county portion of a Bergen County resident’s tax bill accounts for less than 10% overall, though. The Record
For the first time, state environmental regulators will be required when making permitting decisions to consider the cumulative impact of new facilities such as power plants on pollution levels in already overburdened communities. That requirement is spelled out in a new rule set to be published June 6 in the New Jersey Register proposed by the Department of Environmental Protection to protect communities that already have high levels of pollution from new projects that would increase public exposure to contaminants, affording more opportunities for communities to contest permits issued by the DEP for various kind of facilities, including power plants, sewage-treatment plants and those that would expand major air-pollution sources. NJ Spotlight News
New Jersey towns and counties are splitting $21.4 million to reduce litter over the next several months. Grants announced by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection represent a $700,000 increase over 2021’s disbursement. The funds to 34 towns and 12 counties can be used to purchase cleanup equipment, cleanup of stormwater systems, graffiti removal, education programs, and adoption and enforcement of local anti-littering ordinances. NJ1015.com
The Republican-controlled Paramus Borough Council has introduced an anti-nepotism ordinance that would ban the hiring and promotion of relatives of elected officials. Coming months after settling a trio of lawsuits over the hiring of the Democratic mayor’s son to the police force, the proposal would not affect family members seeking volunteer positions and wouldn’t cover existing employees. The Record
Texas-based Crow Holdings Development company unveiled plans to build a warehouse on the site of the iconic Marcal Paper factory for as much as $100 million. A groundbreaking is expected this Summer on a 206,000-square-foot “state-of-the-art, modern industrial building” on the Elmwood Park property. The new building, once finished, will include some of the former Marcal factory’s architectural charm including historic brickwork where there might typically be concrete. ROI-NJ.com
And finally…Alex, Owen, Fiona and Gaston are some of the names that will be given to tropical storms and hurricanes that form during the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season. NJ.com
