Eight days short of the constitutional deadline to adopt New Jersey's budget, state Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said Wednesday he's confident it will get done in time to avoid a government shutdown.
He also expects the Assembly will pass a bitterly controversial benefits bill today that he calls the "most profound public policy issue of a lifetime."
What worries Sidamon-Eristoff is getting to the finish line.
"This Legislature will try to make this process as uncomfortable as possible," he told a breakfast meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey at the Mansion in Voorhees.
But the treasurer was preaching to the choir; the chamber has advocated since 2003 for increased public employee contributions to health care and pension costs. The group also has lobbied hard for tax reform.
Sidamon-Eristoff said he's heard rumor and press reports about how difficult the next eight days will be. The Legislature has not yet submitted its budget so the two branches of government can begin to carve out a compromise. Gov. Chris Christie's $29.4 billion budget is the same as last year's.
Looming large is last month's decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court requiring the state to come up with $500 million in funding for under-performing schools despite its $10 billion deficit. The funding requirement was unanticipated, so all the players in Trenton have different ideas about where it should come from.
One source of revenue the treasurer expects not to go away is the demand to reinstate the so-called millionaires tax, something Christie has vowed not to do.
"The tax increase proposal would be harmful to the very sectors of the economy that have been our core strength," said Kathleen Davis, CEO of the chamber. For years, the chamber has blamed high taxes for draining the state of personal and corporate wealth.
Sidamon-Eristoff anticipates another battle over the pending sale of NJN's radio stations and an operating agreement with WNET in New York for the television station.
He described NJN as "held together with spit and baling wire."
"Its equipment is antiquated and its business model is outdated and not sustainable. This deal is the state's best opportunity for continued New Jersey coverage."
If the network is not sold, Sidamon-Eristoff strongly suggested it will receive no funding and go dark.
Meanwhile, if A-4133 passes today, New Jersey pensioners could sue over the issue of eliminating annual cost of living increases, or COLAs, as they have done in Minnesota, Colorado and South Dakota. Decisions in those cases are expected soon. The COLA freeze is considered critical because it represents at least 60 percent of the state's projected savings, said Andrew Hendry, executive director of state Senate Democrats.
Another aspect of the bill drawing fire is the stipulation that would make it more expensive for public employees to use out-of-state health care providers, including hospitals.
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Saturday, May 18, 2013
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