New Jersey
A bill that would ask New Jersey voters to approve in a referendum a $600 million bond to support open space and farmland and historic preservation cleared its first hurlde in the Assembly yesterday.
Article IX
1. Any specific amendment or amendments to this Constitution may be
proposed in the Senate or General Assembly. At least twenty calendar
days prior to the first vote thereon in the house in which such amendment
or amendments are first introduced, the same shall be printed and placed
on the desks of the members of each house. Thereafter and prior to such
vote a public hearing shall be held thereon. If the proposed amendment
or amendments or any of them shall be agreed to by three-fifths of all the
You have no statewide Initiative & Referendum rights.
Coalition for an Open & Accessibly Initiative Process:
Americans for Prosperity, New Jersey
Poll:
See the results of a poll on support for statewide initiative & referendum here.
It is ironic that New Jersey, the state where the national initiative and
referendum movement originated, never adopted provisions for I&R.
Certainly it was not for lack of enthusiasm among New Jersey’s I&R
supporters, including AFL founder Samuel Gompers. At that time the New
Jersey branch of the federation, which endorsed I&R, represented 20,000
workers.
Voters would be asked to extend legislators’ terms from two years to four years under a bill that nearly 60 members of the House co-sponsored last week.
The measure raises an issue in perennial discussion over the past decade, with backers saying less-frequent elections would mean less time spent raising money to run for office.
“It would take half the money out of it,” said Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat and the House majority leader. “We start the session, spend our first year here, and then we spend the whole second year campaigning.”
They used to call him “the man with the golden arm.”
Nick Caputo was the Essex County clerk for 29 years. Among the clerk’s duties was the task of putting capsules representing the political parties into a drum and then giving it a good spin. Apparently Caputo had calculated that centrifugal force would keep the capsules in place. And the Democrats got Row A for all but one year of his tenure.
I’ve just finished reading “The Soprano State” by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure. What a mind-numbing experience. No fault of the authors. But 287 pages detailing the ways by which self-serving pols and their greedy cronies raid state and local treasuries and gang-rape the New Jersey taxpayer end up being a real downer. Is this what democracy is all about?
A succession of recent governors and legislatures have had their chance to make things right in this state and have failed miserably. It’s time to give New Jersey voters a crack at it: They should demand that lawmakers give them the power of initiative and referendum — a power granted citizens in 27 states and most Western democracies.
Gov. Corzine’s asset monetization scheme is a folly of biblical proportions. Paying off past debt by borrowing against future income is foolish, particularly when that income is generated by increased taxes or fees imposed upon already overburdened taxpayers.
Another election season is over, and the status quo in Trenton is pretty much intact. Yet the ballot questions showed that voters are clearly not content. Rather, people feel that they have no real ability to influence the direction of state government. Districts are carved to protect incumbents. Choices seem without consequence; neither party in Trenton has been able to deliver property tax reform or bring truly thorough and efficient education to our cities.
Voter turnout earlier this month was the lowest for a general election in New Jersey history. This was in spite of the fact that all 120 seats in the Legislature were at stake. Perhaps the stay-at-homes feel the Legislature is irrelevant in today’s world. Perhaps they’re right.
In 2004, New Jersey became the first state to use taxpayer money for stem cell research, beating California to the punch by three years.
As the battle over embryonic stem cell research raged for two years in California, Nancy Reagan made emotional appeals in countless television commercials and Brad Pitt passed the word in personal appearances, part of a well-organized $30 million campaign to persuade voters to approve the financing.