A total of 1.7 million applications were filed for Gov. Phil Murphy’s new tax relief program in New Jersey. The day after his budget address, Murphy made his way up to New Milford March 1 to make the announcement after the filing deadline for the Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters (ANCHOR) ended Feb. 28. “We think this is going to cover somewhere between 4.5-5 million residents of our state, roughly half of the entire population,” said Murphy. “By any measure, this is real relief, especially for middle class, working families, seniors—ANCHOR is going to effectively take away years of property tax increases.” North-JerseyNews.com
A long-running battle challenging New Jersey’s right to walk away from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor came under sharp questioning by justices on the U.S. Supreme Court on March 1, with at least one skeptical justice suggesting that forcing the New Jersey to stay would be “an extraordinary thing.” The justices spent nearly an hour poking holes in the points made by a lawyer representing New York during oral arguments March 1 as they focused on whether the 70-year-old agreement that created the bi-state agency to fight corruption and mob influence on the region’s docks had ever been intended to be permanent. “One party can’t keep the other on the hook forever,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. NJ.com
President Joe Biden is calling on Congress to approve a $1.6 billion legislative package aimed at cracking down on fraud stemming from the government’s coronavirus pandemic relief programs. The measure aims to step up the federal government’s capacity to investigate and prosecute fraud; improve efforts to prevent identity theft tied to the spate of pandemic benefit programs; and help victims of identity theft. The Wall Street Journal
Republicans panned the Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposed by Gov. Phil Murphy on Feb. 28 while his fellow Democrats said Murphy’s plan lines up with their spending priorities to make New Jersey more affordable. “When the state is flush with money, there’s no excuse for Governor Murphy to continue ignoring tax relief that would make a big difference to families and businesses struggling with inflation,” said State Senate Minority Leader Steve Oroho (R-24). But State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-36) argued that Murphy’s proposal “is a serious spending plan that will be given a thorough review by the Senate Budget Committee in the months ahead.” North-JerseyNews.com
Progressive groups are pushing lawmakers to extend the 2.5% corporate business tax on net profits above $1 million that Gov. Phil Murphy will let sunset in his proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget. The surcharge’s supporters have argued its elimination would help only a small group of businesses, namely those most able to weather a higher tax burden. “It’s 2% of all businesses that operate in New Jersey because those are the ones that make over a million dollars in profit annually,” said Sheila Reynertson, a senior policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, a left-leaning Trenton-based think tank. “And among those 2%, 70% of them make over $10 million of profits a year.” New Jersey Monitor
Congress on March 1 cleared a measure to block a Labor Department rule that allows retirement plan managers to incorporate climate and social considerations into their investment decisions, setting up a veto fight with President Joe Biden over an otherwise obscure regulation that has become a flashpoint in the culture wars. The U.S. Senate passed the resolution by a vote of 50 to 46 after two Democrats, Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, joined every Republican. Coming the day after the House approved the measure on a mostly party-line vote, that cleared the measure to be sent to the White House, where President Biden’s advisers have said he plans to veto it. The New York Times
Former Rep. Tom Malinowski has filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to convert his re-election vehicle to a political action committee, Districts for Democracy, to counter efforts by conservative groups that want to restrict what is taught in public schools. Malinowski said he would use his network to raise money to recruit candidates for boards of education to push back against efforts to restrict what can be taught or could be read in the public schools rather than leave it to the teachers. NJ.com
Conservative radio personality Bill Spadea has launched a new political action committee that could boost his chances if he seeks the Republican nomination for governor of New Jersey in 2025. The PAC, Elect Common Sense, will focus on supporting local, county, and legislative candidates who are “ready, willing, and able to support common-sense policies to New Jersey government.” The mission statement includes ending “the vice grip that far-left Democrats have on the people of New Jersey” as well as reversing the “woke culture dominating our schools and government institutions while empowering families and those on the front lines of education, health care and combating crime.” New Jersey Globe
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had his first in-person conversation with his Russian counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, since the invasion of Ukraine last year. Lasting only 10 minutes at the Group of 20 ministerial meeting in India, Blinken urged Lavrov in the unplanned meeting to rejoin the New Start nuclear arms treaty, from which Russia formally withdrew March 2, pressed for the release ex-U.S. Marine Paul Whelan from detention in Russia and stressed the continuing support by the U.S. and its allies for Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal
Kellyanne Conway, who managed the final months of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign, met with prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office on March 1, the latest sign that the office is ramping up its criminal investigation into the former president. The prosecutors are scrutinizing Trump’s role in a hush money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who has said she had an affair with him. The $130,000 payment was made by Trump’s longtime fixer, Michael D. Cohen, in the closing days of the 2016 campaign, and Trump ultimately reimbursed him. The New York Times
A New Jersey State Police officer was shot in the leg sometime early March 2 in Paterson in the area of E 28th Street and 9th Avenue. Mayor Andre Sayegh said one person was arrested and that he believed three others were being sought in the shooting. State Police Superintendent Colonel Patrick J. Callahan said the trooper was a “seasoned detective” who was sitting in his vehicle when he was shot. That trooper is expected to survive, and is listed in stable condition at St. Joseph’s Hospital. News12 New Jersey
A Jersey City police officer has been charged with hindering the arrest of a man wanted in connection with a shooting. Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said the man sought for attempted murder and weapons offenses in a Feb. 10, 2022, shooting was arrested by members of the Jersey City Police Department’s Cease Fire Unit and the U.S. Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force at Officer Page Rivera’s home on Feb. 17. Rivera, who joined the police force in 2019, was charged with one count of hindering, a third-degree offense and released pending her first court appearance on March 15. The Jersey Journal
The biggest threat to the Garden State in 2023 are homegrown violent extremists, White racially motivated extremists and cyber-attacks, according to the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) yearly threat assessment. The report added a new threat category, “Abortion-Related Extremists,” targeting both pro-life and pro-choice extremists as equally dangerous. “The threat landscape in New Jersey, throughout the nation and the world continues to evolve as we observe ideological convergences among extremists,” said NJOHSP Director Laurie R. Doran. North-JerseyNews.com
The Biden Administration said it would pursue laws to establish liability for software companies that sell technology that lacks cybersecurity protections, concluding that market forces alone aren’t sufficient to guard consumers and the nation. Free markets and a reliance on voluntary security frameworks have imposed “inadequate costs” on companies that offer insecure products or services, according to a national cybersecurity strategy released March 2. It says the administration would work with Congress and the private sector to create liability for software vendors, sketching out in broad terms what such legislation should entail. The Wall Street Journal
Prospect Park has shortened the five-day week for some staff in a move that officials say will cut costs, improve work-life balance and increase productivity. The municipal building is now open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, and it is closed on Fridays. Borough Administrator Intashan Chowdhury said the new schedule helps the public with so many residents of this blue-collar community are at work during the day, the extended hours will allow them to get to the building before it closes at night. Officials will gauge the success of the schedule change in six months as they expect to save money by reducing energy consumption while an abbreviated workweek may also attract more candidates to job openings, The Record
A pair of bills proposed in the New Jersey State Senate would guarantee students the right to take a mental health day. One bill, sponsored by State Sen. Richard Codey (D-27), would allow students to take excused absences from public school for mental or behavioral health days during the course of each school year. State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-11)’s bills would simply allow districts to define school absences to include mental health days, and direct the state Department of Education to develop guidelines for doing so. The Daily Record
The State Senate Education Committee will hold a hearing to discuss the dramatic rise in teen suicide, both nationally and in New Jersey, where it has reached crisis levels. The committee on March 2 will hear from a range of stakeholders and experts in the field of mental and behavioral health issues facing young people, and will engage with a particular focus on ways to recognize warning signs, ways to offer connection and support, and best strategies regarding suicide prevention. InsiderNJ.com
In an effort to strip away old notions of nudity, Passaic is proposing an update to its go-go bar laws and sale of alcoholic beverages. The City Council introduced three new or revamped ordinances on Feb. 28, designed to give the city’s law and code enforcers the ability to crack down on repeat offenders when it comes to illegal massage parlors that are closed down only to reopen weeks or months later. The Record
And finally…Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker were joined by nine House members to decry Star-Ledger’s decision to close their Washington, D.C. bureau. New Jersey Globe
