Governor Christie took action on a stack of pending legislation today; signing nearly 40 bills and vetoing another couple dozen. Chief Political Correspondent Michael Aron joins NJTV News Anchor Mary Alice Williams from the state house with a look at some of the bills passed into law, or that ended up in the dust bin.
Aron: The Democracy Act was a Democratic bill designed to spur early voting, registration and voting. The governor vetoed it calling it a partisan effort all the way. We knew he was going to veto it because it contained a poison pill. It required future governors to replace an official who reigns of someone in the same party. So for example, if Bob Menendez were ever to resign his seat, it would require the governor to replace Menendez with a Democrat. We knew Christie wouldn’t ever sign that kind of a provision. Democrats kept it in their bill anyways instead of creating separate bills for all these kinds of things and the package was vetoed.
Williams: There was also an interesting gun bill that he vetoed.
Aron: This ones a little tricky to understand, but it deals with firearms owned by someone accused of domestic violence. Christie says already if you’re accused of domestic violence in New Jersey, or convicted I should say of domestic violence, or have restraining orders on you, you lose your firearms. The bill that he vetoed today would have required county prosecutors to notify the victims of domestic violence that he or she can petition the courts to get those firearms and firearms permits removed from the home. Christie said that’s redundant; we already do that, and he vetoed it.
Williams: and the Atlantic City recovery bills?
Aron: There were five bills, he vetoed four of them. He said the approach they take is the wrong way to revitalize Atlantic City. It sounds like he’s rethinking his approach to Atlantic City. The Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) bill is dead. He and Steve Sweeney, the Senate president, announced they’ll sit down immediately and start crafting a new approach to Atlantic City.