Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth County) today issued praise to the Supreme Court Committee on Municipal Court Operations, Fines and Fees for their comprehensive report which, after a 16 month investigation, “revealed a number of significant concerns where aggressive reform is needed. Many of those issues identified by the Committee undermine both the administration of justice and the independence of the Municipal Courts.”
“In law enforcement and judicial systems, profit is the mortal enemy of justice,” Senator O’Scanlon said. “We must take real steps towards reforming municipal court and ticketing procedures. Policing for profit is an unacceptable practice that tarnishes the reputation of all our upstanding police officers and often results in devastating consequences for petty infractions.”
“Municipal Courts should be about the administration of justice, not a profit center to plug holes in local governments’ budgets,” O’Scanlon continued. “In the twenty-five years since our Courts were last reformed, too many towns have come to rely on fines to fund their municipal operations and too many local judges have turned into de facto tax collectors. This is not justice and it has to stop.”
In an interview with FoxNews’s Shannon Bream on Friday night, New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith called for the Russian officials who have been indicted for meddling in American elections to be red noticed by Interpol. A red notice is a request by the Justice Department to the international law enforcement agency to locate and arrest an individual for the purpose of extradition.
Former Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno appeared on the Tommy G Show yesterday during which she said that the $2 billion in spending increases and $1.5 billion in new state taxes are insane but that no one should be surprised.
Guadagno said that moderate Democrats who are now calling for spending cuts “sound like Republicans, that’s what we’ve been saying all along!”
Congressman Chris Smith addresses the the 27th Annual Session of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Parliamentary Assembly, Saturday July 7. Photo courtesy of Congressman Smith’s office
Congressman Chris Smith had a candid, firm and respectful exchange with Russian lawmakers on Saturday in Berlin wherein he confronted his counterparts, led by Pyotr Tolstoy, Deputy Chairman of the Russian legislature, on an array of human rights violations and geopolitical issues, he told MMM in an phone interview following the meeting which the 27th Annual Session of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) Parliamentary Assembly.
Smith heads the 13 member U.S. delegation to OSCE-PA. Tolstoy leads the Russian delegation.
The State Legislature is still toiling in Trenton making sure Governor Phil Murphy’s conditional vetoes match what he agreed to with Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin yesterday, but Murphy has left the Capitol and returned home to Monmouth County where is issued the Oath of Office to Long Branch Mayor John Pallone moments ago.
The Democrats leading the legislature in Trenton are learning first hand how devious bankers are and that a “done deal” really isn’t until the paperwork is signed.
In his deal made with Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin yesterday evening, Governor Murphy agreed to raise the threshold for the so called millionaire tax to $5 million from the $1 million he originally proposed. That was to have meant that fortunate taxpayers would pay 10.75% of their income over $5 million to the Soprano State of New Jersey.
According to a sleep deprived source in Trenton, the fine print Murphy presented the legislature today set the millionaires tax to be triggered at $5 million, but for the 10.75% to be applied on the taxable income over $1 million. Sweeney and Coughlin made a deal that would require a wealthy taxpayer with $6 million in taxable income to pay New Jersey $107,500 in tax on the million earned above the threshold. The legislation Murphy presented would require that taxpayer to pay $537,500. Read the rest of this entry »
Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick put his caucus in an untenable position.
By Art Gallagher
Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin announced last night that the had a last minute budget deal to avert a state shutdown and that the legislature would pass the necessary bills this morning starting at 8am.
As of 9:45 a.m. the legislator and many staffers have been in Trenton for three hours, but the bills have yet to be drafted and some of the details…where the devil lives…are still being haggled over, according to a sleep deprived source who called this morning.
Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin came to terms on tax increased in the New Jersey FY2019 Budget today, averting a shutdown of state government.
While the Senate and General Assembly will not vote on the budget legislation before the midnight deadline tonight, Murphy said that he will not close the government. Sweeney and Coughlin announced that their Chambers will be in session at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Read the rest of this entry »
The photo is of #NYC0071 showing the gear with buoys wrapped around the whales body. The fishing gear is inside its mouth, at the hinge of the jaw and wrapped around the top of its Rostrum/Head running across the middle of the blow hole. NOT GOOD! (Photo @araslich/@gothamwhale) pic.twitter.com/wBjGpryagk
The U.S. Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook and the NJ State Police enforced a safety zone for an entangled whale, believed to be a humpback, in the Raritan Bay this afternoon, according to an announcement by the Coast Guard.
