Two ranking sources inside Assembly speaker's caucus who supported the Democratic bill said it is dead
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) with hand over heart pledges allegiance to the flag at the beginning of the assembly meeting on Monday, October, 25, 2010 in Trenton.TRENTON — Republican Gov. Chris Christie beat back the Democratic leaders of the Legislature Monday — and he used one of their own to do it.
Christie joined with the Democratic Essex County executive to stop a legislative effort to water down his proposal to cap public-employee raises. And by day’s end, even the governor’s most vocal adversaries could do nothing but admit defeat.
Democratic lawmakers were trying pass a bill that would have allowed exceptions to Christie’s proposal for a so-called "hard cap" on salary increases in public-worker contracts.
The bill, introduced last week by Speaker Sheila Oliver and Senate President Stephen Sweeney, was not only opposed by Christie but Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, and some mayors as well.
The Assembly had been scheduled to vote on the Democratic measure (A3393) but Oliver (D-Essex) was forced to table the bill after determining she lost key support from members of her own caucus. The speaker made the surprising announcement that the bill was being shelved after a frenzied weekend of lobbying by DiVincenzo and others aligned with the governor.
"This is the first time the entire caucus has had the opportunity to vet the bill and have discussion," Oliver said in an interview. "Some enhanced ideas were put on the table that warrant some examination. We want to give the bill that opportunity, to perfect what came out of the Budget Committee last week."
But two ranking sources inside Oliver’s own caucus who supported the Democratic bill said it is dead. The Democratic lawmakers, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal private conversations with the speaker, said they do not envision the measure being revived.
Sweeney (D-Gloucester) declined to comment.
Oliver and Sweeney summoned reporters to a news conference Thursday to announce their proposal to reform the rules governing salary arbitration for public-worker unions. Arbitration is a process that allows a independent referee to decide salaries when government entities cannot work out their differences with labor unions like those that represent police and firefighters.
The Oliver-Sweeney measure called for arbitrators to, among other things, take into account new statutory caps on property tax hikes and the economic condition of the region. However, it did not include a "hard cap" on pay raises Christie and DiVincenzo are pushing.
DiVincenzo, who makes no secret of his bipartisan alliance with the governor, defended his efforts Monday.
"This has nothing to do with my relationship with the governor, this has to do with good government, plain and simple," he said. "For them (Assembly members) to do anything else but this, it wouldn’t be good government."
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak repeated the governor’s support for a tough salary cap and issued another call for the Legislature to pass the tax-control measures proposed by Christie as part of his "took kit" agenda.
"A hard cap would bring meaningful collective-bargaining reform and is essential to finally control property taxes for every New Jersey homeowner," Drewniak said. "Gov. Christie urges the Legislature to fulfill the commitment it made when it passed the 2 percent property tax cap and enact real arbitration reform and the other necessary tool kit bills without further delay."
The Assembly did pass one tool-kit measure Monday, capping payouts for unused sick time accrued by public workers. The bill (a href="http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/S2500/2220_I1.PDF">S-2220) now heads to the governor’s desk.
After Monday’s events in the Assembly, Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex), who has butted heads with DiVincenzo in the past said, "nowadays, you don’t know who is a Democrat."
Assemblyman John Wisniewski, a Middlesex Democrat and chairman of the state’s Democratic Party, said only: "For the record, I’m not going to discuss it at the moment."