Legislative Update - June 24, 2010

S-2094( O’Toole)/A-3008 (O’Scanlon, DiCicco) S-2094 was released from the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee by a vote of 7-5-2 and goes to the full Senate for a vote. A-3008 was released from the Assembly Budget Committee and goes to the full Assembly for a vote. These bills establish an artificial limit on the State’s employer contributions to an employee’s Alternate Benefit Program (ABP) retirement account by establishing an arbitrary maximum salary on which Employer contributions will be based on. Specifically, the bills limit the eight percent matching state contribution by providing that there will be no contributions based on any portion of salary in excess of the statutory maximum salary of State cabinet officers ($141,000). NJEA opposed the bills.

S-3000(Bucco, O’Toole)/A-3000 (Malone, O’Scanlon) S-3000 was released from the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee by a vote of 7-3-2-2 and goes to the full Senate for a vote. A-3000 was released from Assembly Budget Committee and goes to the full Assembly for a vote. These bills would implement a compromise on Governor Christie’s $28.3 billion FY 2011 State budget. The legislation restores approximately $180 million to various programs but severely underfunds aid to public schools by underfunding the School Funding Formula by about $820 million and continues the almost two decade long policy of not making contributions to the State pension systems. NJEA opposed the bills.

A-355 (Jasey, Voss, Moriarty)/S-1073 (Turner, Kean) On June 24, 2010, this legislation was released from the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. This bill would make permanent the Interdistrict Public School Choice Program. The bill would retain many elements of the original pilot, such as the program’s voluntary nature and certain enrollment restrictions. The bill would also remove the limitation of one choice district per county. As amended, the bill would allow enrollment restrictions up to a maximum of 10% per grade level or 15% per school. The bill is now on second reading in the Senate. NJEA took a neutral position on the bill.