In The News
Employers like Obamacare just fine, they say
Editorial
During the launch of the Affordable Care Act, one of the darkest prophecies – a few rungs below that death-panel-for-Grandma thing – was that employers would scrap their health plans and send employees off to buy their own insurance.
Assembly panel advances bill to fund lobbying for NJ military bases
TRENTON — Legislation to appropriate taxpayer money each year for the defense of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and the state's other military installations was advanced Monday by the Assembly Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.
Is New Jersey’s Estate Tax Prompting Retiring Residents to Seek Greener Pastures?
But some suggest raising current threshold of $675,000 without totally eliminating much-debated tax and revenue it generates.
After trying for years with no luck, Republicans and business-lobbying groups this year have successfully seized on New Jersey’s standing as one of only 15 states in the country to still levy an estate tax to generate momentum for repeal.
Deborah Heart and Lung Center conducting free screenings for veterans Saturday
Changes in how health care is delivered has prompted the Deborah Heart and Lung Center to go out into the community and offer free screening services to Burlington County veterans.
Using a $50,000 grant from the New Jersey Department Of Health's Division of Health and Family Services, the nonprofit township hospital is gearing up to provide dozens of veterans screenings for cardiovascular disease and for pulmonary and lung disease at the Medford VFW Post 7677 at 317 Church Road on Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.
COMMENTARY: Reducing health care costs
We have all sustained an injury or illness at one time in our life, but when the moment strikes, not all of us are fortunate enough to have access to quality health care services that we can afford.
In 2010, President Barack Obama sought to tackle this issue head-on through the Affordable Care Act. While Congress continues to bicker over a law that is now six years old, the rest of the country has moved on because they have seen the benefits firsthand. Over 20 million Americans are now insured thanks to “Obamacare.”
Environmental group, farming advocates up in arms about Christie open space diversion
When New Jersey voters went to the polls two years ago and overwhelmingly voted in favor of dedicating a share of corporate business taxes for open space, farmland and historic preservation, advocates cheered the outcome as finally providing long-sought-after dedicated funding for those preservation programs.
Gov. Christie's Shifting of $20M in open space funds call unconsitutional
Governor Christie’s decision to take nearly $20 million in state tax revenue dedicated to open space preservation and use it instead to cover parks management in his state budget was unconstitutional, according to a legal opinion issued by a non-partisan arm of the legislature.
But the governor’s office disputes the opinion laid out by the Office of Legislative Services, which had issued its opinion at the request of state Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, who chairs the Senate environment and energy committee.A state environmental group, meanwhile, says taking the money for other purposes jeopardizes the chance to protect sensitive land in North Jersey and elsewhere that should be preserved.
Business Lobby Sounded Alarm on Minimum-Wage Increase-Back in 2013
Jobless rate has actually dropped 3 percent since previous hike to $8.25 – but is $15 too high?
While Democratic legislative leaders and labor advocates want to raise New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15, business-lobbying groups warn that such a change would crush the state economy.
It wouldn’t be the big corporations that would feel the most pain, they say, but the downtown pizzeria and other small businesses throughout the state.
Why some N.J. schools could get less state aid in 2017
When New Jersey established a new school funding formula in 2008, state lawmakers promised that no school district would lose money right away.
The concept, known as hold harmless, ensured that every school district received increased state aid in the first year before potentially seeing a decline in funding based on future enrollment and demographic changes.
Outlaw inhumane leg-hold traps in N.J. for real
Letter
When the state attorney general, in 1985, said that the state's ban on hunters' and trappers' use of leghold traps on small animals was "absolute," "unambiguous," and applied to all "technical modifications," he meant it. Unfortunately, last year, council authorized the use of "enclosed foothold trap," which goes against the 1985 policy as well as the legislative intent of a 1984 law. These are still leghold traps.