Bridgegate Investigation Press Conference

CNN is broadcasting the media briefing from Randy Mastro of Gibson Dunn, the lead investigator for the Christie Administration into “Bridgegate”, the scandal involving the Geroge Washington Bridge lane closures last September and Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s allegations that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadango and others in the Administration held Sandy aid for Hoboken hostage pending a development approval that Zimmer did not want to give.

The CNN Live Stream can be found here.

An advance copy of the Mastro report concludes that Governor Chris Christie was not aware of the GWB lane closures and has told the truth about it since his January 9 press conference.  Christie was reportedly in tear when he learned that his Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Ann Kelly had repeatedly lied about her involvement in the lane closures.

The report concludes that Kelly, and David Wildstein, then Christie’s #2 at the Port Authority of NY/NJ acted alone. After 70 interviews and reviewing 250,000 documents, Mastro and his team did not uncover the motivation for the lane closures.

With regard to Zimmer’s allegations, Mastro’s team concluded that the Mayor’s allegations are “unsubstantiated and materially false.

The 345 page, “thorough and exhaustive report” can be viewed here

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NJ Senator Mike Doherty Pulls A Pelosi

Sponsors a critical bill before he reads it

Legislature in poised to pass a “cap” that doesn’t control costs

State Senator Mike Doherty

State Senator Mike Doherty (R-Warren) told MMM that he hadn’t read a bill of which is he is a primary sponsor, the day after it cleared the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee.

We’re not talking about an insignificant bill like designating “I’m from New Jersey” as the State Song, or the establishment of special license plates for honorably discharged veterans, two other bills that Doherty sponsored.

We’re talking about the extension of the 2% cap on arbitration awards for police and firefighters unions, the provision of the 2010 reform legislation that slowed the growth in New Jersey’s property taxes and made the 2% cap on those taxes work.

Doherty joined Senate President Sweeney in sponsoring legislation that exempts contracts that have already been subject to the cap from being subject to it again when they are up for renewal and raises the cap to 3% on contracts that have not yet been subject to renegotiation.

Doherty said, “I don’t see what the big deal is, the original bill had one bite at the apple, this bill extends that.  Is it a perfect bill? No, but this is the way Trenton works. A bill that passes is better than no bill.”

Not really, Senator.  A bill that passes the same as no bill, except it deceives the public into thinking the legislature is continuing fiscal reforms when they are actually engineering massive chaos in municipal governments.

Doherty said he hadn’t read the bill when we questioned him on specifics.  He said he was relying on analysis of the bill from Republican legislative staffers and referred questions to Republican Senators Steven Oroho and Sam Thompson, members of the committee that unanimously cleared the bill.

The leadership of the police and firefighters unions not only read the bill, they helped write it, according to what they are telling their members.

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Christie’s Internal Bridgegate Report To Be Released Thursday

MMM photo/Art Gallagher

The former prosecutors that the Christie Administration hired to perform an internal investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closures and allegations made by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer that Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno told Zimmer that Sandy aid for Hoboken was contingent upon a development approval will release the findings of their investigation on Thursday morning at 11:30.

A New York Times article about the report published on Sunday says it will address what and when Mr. Christie and his aides knew about the lane closings; analyze the structure, practices and culture of the Christie administration that contributed to the scandal; and issue pointed recommendations to prevent such conduct in the future.

Randy Mastro, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and a Deputy to former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani, lead the team of lawyers from Gibson Dunn in conducting the investigation.  Over 70 interviews were conducted and thousands of documents reviewed in the probe that cost New Jersey taxpayers over $1 million.

Three key players in the Bridgegate scandal, Christie former Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Ann Kelly, Christie’s former political strategist Bill Stepien and David Wildstein, Christie’s former #2 at the Port Authority of NY/NJ, did not submit to interviews with Mastro’s team.

A joint legislative committee lead by Assemblyman John Wisniewski and Senator Loretta Weinberg continues to investigate the Bridgegate matters. U. S Attorney Paul Fishman’s office is also investigating.

Christie told NJ 101.5’s Eric Scott during his Ask the Governor radio show on Wednesday evening that if Mastro’s report implicates members of his staff, that punitive measures will be taken.

MMM will livestream Mastro’s press conference on Thursday at 11:30 AM

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Best Campaign Ad Ever

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Property taxes: Christie won’t sign Democrat bill to extend key law, Republican lawmaker says

Property taxes: Christie won’t sign Democrat bill to extend key law, Republican lawmaker says (via NJ.com)

TRENTON — A fight over renewing a law crucial to holding back an increase in property taxes is nowhere near resolved, a Republican lawmaker who has led the fight for retaining it said today. Although the Democrat-led Legislature last week began advancing…

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Christie: Federal Law Keeping RREM Applicants in Limbo

Pallone says legislation is not necessary, regulators can change the rules

Governor Chris Christie listens to a resident’s question in Belmar. March 25, 2014 MMM photo/Art Gallagher. Click for larger view.

Governor Chris Christie told the 650 people in attendance at his Town Hall Meeting in Belmar yesterday that he went to Washington last week to ask HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to waive the rule that is keeping Sandy victims from rebuilding their homes while they are waiting to find out if they will be approved for Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) grants of up to $150,000.

The RREM program will not reimburse homeowners for work done on their homes prior to their acceptance into the program.  Over 3000 people are on the RREM waiting list for the second round of HUD funding which is expected to be awarded late this spring. They are in limbo, living in temporary housing, paying rent and mortgages, while their ruined homes are dormant.

Christie said that Donovan told him he could not waive the rule because a specific federal law prohibits grants being used to pay for work performed prior to the federal approval being secured.

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The Dismantling Of Christie’s “Bi-partisan” Reforms

photo credit: Tim Larsen/Governor’s Office

It’s beginning to look like Governor Chris Christie’s Boulevard of Compromise is a dead end.

The 2% property tax cap is under attack, as the Trenton Democrats are on the verge of passing an “extension” of the Interest Arbitration Award Cap that eliminates the cap on most arbitration awards and increases the cap on the remainder of the potential awards by 50%.

In my piece last night about the Interest Arbitration Cap, I raised the hope that published reports that Assembly and Senate committees cleared an identical bill that guts the cap were inaccurate because Senator Mike Doherty was co-sponsor of the Senate bill and because of Senate President Steve Sweeney’s comments about the cap at his Town Hall Meeting in Keansburg last week.  It turns out that was wishful thinking. MMM has learned the bills are identical and, inexplicably, Doherty is a primary sponsor of the Senate bill, giving Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto “bi-partisan” cover.

Doherty has yet to return our call for comment.  We’ve been told his attitude about the bill he is sponsoring with Sweeney is “a bill that will pass is better than no bill.”

Doherty has a point, albeit a minor one.  If no bill passes by April 1, there is no cap on Interest Arbitration awards at all.  If the bill that cleared through committees yesterday passes the full legislature and is signed by Christie, there will be a 3% cap on a minority of municipal government labor contracts for the next few years.  If Christie vetoes the bill, even conditionally, there is no arbitration cap.  Either way the property tax blaze is about to be reignited and/or the pain inflicted upon municipalities will be so great that consolidations and mergers will be forced indelicately.  The backdoor destruction of municipal governments appears to be Sweeney’s undeclared plan.

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Trenton Democrats Poised To Blow Up The Property Tax Cap

New Jersey property taxes will likely resume the double digit annual growth that occurred under the McGreevey, Codey and Corzine Administrations if Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto’s version of the of the Interest Arbitration extension becomes law.  Either that, or municipal governments as we know them will cease to exist, succumbing to a long and painful death of higher crime and reduced services and capital improvements.

A 2% cap on interest arbitration awards in labor disputes was a key component of the 2% property tax cap negotiated between Governor Chris Christie, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Prieto’s predecessor, Sheila Oliver in 2010.   It worked.  Arbitrators made awards of less that 2% to police and fire fighters unions and property taxes rose less than 2% per year over the last four years.

The problem is Oliver insisted that the arbitration cap expire on April 1, 2014.  Now, we’re a week before the arbitration cap expires and Prietro is gutting the cap by passing an extension of the law that exempts contracts that were awarded less than 2% during the last three years from any future caps and raises the cap to 3% on contracts that have not been negotiated since 2010.

The math will never work.  If property taxes stay capped at 2% but the primary cost of property taxes, salaries, are not capped or are capped at 3%, municipal services will disappear. Police will be laid off, with the junior, lower paid officers being let go first, leaving the older and more highly paid officers to run drown the inevitable increase in crime.  Towns will go bust.  The state will take over municipal governments and force consolidations.

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Christie’s Belmar Town Hall Pushed Back 1/2 hour

Photo Credit: Paul Scharff Photography.

The Governor’s Office has announced that Governor Chris Christie’s Town Hall Meeting in Belmar on Tuesday, March 25 will start at 11:30am, instead of the previously announced 11:00 am.

The mobile cabinet meeting which will include Office of Recovery and Rebuilding Director Marc Ferzan, DEP Commissioner Bob Martin, Human Services Commissioner Jennifer Velez, EDA CEO Michele Brown and Banking and Insurance Commissioner Ken Kobylowski is scheduled to start at 1PM, immediately following Christie’s Town Hall.

The Cabinet members will meet with affected residents and answer questions related to the available Sandy recovery housing and business assistance programs. Homeowners and business owners interested in attending can expedite the process by bringing relevant documentation related to the issue they are facing.

Christie plans to discuss the Administration’s plan for getting the second round of federal Sandy recovery funds into the hands of New Jersey families.  However, the Governor will take questions on any topic.

Residents can RSVP to TownHall.Belmar@gov.state.nj.us. Doors open at 9:30 am and seating is on a first come, first serve basis and open to the public. No bags of any kind are permitted in the venue and personal items are subject to search. Due to safety requirements, law enforcement officers will be in attendance and will wand all attendees.

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Sebelius: Enroll in ObamaCare by March 31, or you’re out of luck till next year

U.S. HHS Secty Kathleen Sebelius speaking on Montclair State University. State Senator Nia Gill in background. copyright Gallco Media, LLC

If you don’t have heath insurance, you won’t have it this year unless you sign up at heathcare.gov by midnight on March 31, according to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Speaking at a press conference at Montclair State University this morning to promote the Affordable Healthcare Act to young people, Sebelius said that the government does not plan to extend the March 31 enrollment deadline for the individual market.  Those who fail to enroll by the 31st will have to wait to enroll for health insurance until November and coverage will not take effect until 2015.   The penalty in 2014 for failure to have health insurance is $95 or 1% of your income.

Sebelius said the heathcare.gov website is working well and that security concerns have been addressed.

UPDATE:

Montclair State University has released a video of Sebelius’s press conference.  The Secretary answers MMM’s Art Gallagher’s questions starting at the 27:41 mark.

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