Sweeney’s Good Call

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.

As for Sweeney’s proposal, something happened to jam the gears of the referendum clock, stopping it dead at the eleventh hour:

It caused him to execute a 180° reversal in his support mere days before a deadline that would have brought the measure before the full Senate for ratification of the Lower Chamber’s prior approval.

But Sweeney said no.  He would not let this happen, because there arose another unsettled matter that popped up its ugly head, causing a roadblock; namely, problems related to the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) which is nearly depleted and is currently running on fumes.

 

Complicating matters was  Governor Chris Christie’s stance that he would not sign into law any legislators’ proposals to increase the gas tax by 23 cents per gallon in order to fix the TTF problem unless “tax fairness” was brought into the mix, such as, for example, a one per cent reduction in the sales tax or some other well-balanced proposal.

Sweeney’s Position:

 

He refused to bring the pension plan referendum proposal before the Senate unless the TTF gas tax mess be  settled first.

According to Sweeney, there simply isn’t enough tax revenue flowing into New Jersey’s Treasury to guarantee public pension plan security, as well as to finance maintenance and improvements to the infrastructure of New Jersey’s roads and bridges.

The empty bucket of the TTF needs to be replenished.  To this date, it still has not.

Conclusion: 

 

Sweeney, the Democrat who may be vying for the governorship next year, felt threatened by this state’s largest lobbying group, the New Jersey Education Association.

He pushed back, forcefully declaring that he would not be intimidated by a threatened withholding of lobbying money – even to the point of risking his political future.

Now, that is a man who is thinking hard and taking a huge risk.  What a refreshing thought about one of our key leaders in Trenton’s State House.

Let’s hope it lasts.

OF NOTE: “Democracy demands that little men should not take big ones too seriously . .  . .  it dies when it is full of little men who think they are big themselves.”  C.S Lewis