If you feel as
I do about the divisive state of politics in Washington and Trenton these days,
then you may be at least temporarily refreshed about a recent act of integrity in
New Jersey’s Capital.
It seems
that the relationship between some of this state’s most influential lobbyists
and Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney (D) may not be as rosy as it once
was.
Sweeney had
been leading the charge to get a key constitutional amendment placed on this
November’s ballot.
His effort
was intended to put a referendum before Garden State voters which, if passed,
would have required mandatory, systematic payments into the state’s public pension
plans.
No more
shortchanging union members as had happened over the last two decades by
unthinking, shortsighted legislators who underfunded those pensions for years
either by not making regular payments, or by raiding the pension fund through
borrowing.
