As the June 30 deadline for adoption of a state budget approaches, members of both parties are working to reach an agreement on a spending plan. Republican Sen. Jennifer Beck told NJ Today Senior Correspondent Desiree Taylor that she believes a government shutdown will be avoided.
Beck said the goal is to avoid a shutdown. “We’re working tirelessly to come to an agreement with the Democrats to make sure that we can get this done by June 30. I don’t think anyone is interested in seeing it prolonged beyond the constitutional deadline. And I think we’re pretty close,” she said. “I think everybody is at the table talking, discussing and that we will have a budget by June 30, no doubt about it.”
While Beck is hopeful for a resolution, she said including a tax cut for residents is a must. “That’s one of those issues that we don’t feel is negotiable,” she said.
WATCH VIDEO:
Some Democrats have said the state can’t afford a tax cut because of lower than expected revenues, but Beck said the situation is improving. “In this year we are up $2 billion over the prior year. So New Jersey is absolutely in the midst of a comeback,” she said. “The governor isn’t saying we came back, it’s not past tense. We are working through our recovery and we are making real progress in terms of newly created jobs — more than 80,000 of them. And increased revenue is coming into the state of New Jersey.”
Beck also pointed out that the unemployment rate can be somewhat misleading. “One of the interesting things about our unemployment rate is that when people give up looking for jobs, they’re no longer counted as unemployed and when they start looking again then they are counted as unemployed,” she said. “So the little bump that we saw this past month was because people that had given up are now trying again because there’s hope. There’s real hope in the state of New Jersey because we’re seeing progress and we’re moving forward.”
Beck has introduced a bill that would require more transparency for public contracts. She said the impetus was a State Commission of Investigation (SCI) report that found public employees that were not reporting to their public jobs were still being paid with taxpayer money. Over a five-year period in Camden, Beck said $2.3 million was paid out to union leaders who were employed by the city but hadn’t shown up for work.
“It is one of those things that I think brings fury into the hearts of our residents,” Beck said. “And we are going to address it.”
She explained that the SCI had some difficulty creating the report because the information wasn’t readily available. To address the issue, Beck has introduced legislation that would allow people to access public contracts online. The Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) would be responsible for the administration.
“So when a school district, a town, a county arrives at a contractual agreement, they must send it over to PERC and it has to be put on their website so the general public can see what has been agreed to,” Beck explained. “I think it’s natural, I think it’s basic and it’s part of establishing our public trust.”