Class was canceled Monday across the Freehold Township school district, but not for the familiar January troubles of slushy roads, frozen pipes or a...
News
Full-time perks for part-time work? For these politicians, taxpayers footed the bill
Mercer County’s elected commissioners earned a salary of just $32,853 last year. They largely hold jobs outside their political posts, with careers...
Sagging revenue, looming costs could sink big senior citizen tax cut plan
Sagging revenue and a bevy of looming funding needs in the coming fiscal year threaten to pull New Jersey’s $8.1 billion surplus below a threshold...
West New York police earn high salaries, even more than Jersey City cops
“Public safety employees are generally the highest compensated primarily because they have collective bargaining rights and binding arbitration,” said Marc Pfeiffer, assistant director of Rutgers University’s Bloustein Local, the local government research unit at the Center for Urban Policy Research.
NJCCRC to Host Webinar 1/23/24 to Introduce Newest Data-Visualization and Mapping Tools
New Jersey residents and planners alike have a new set of decision-support tools to help prepare their communities for climate change, thanks to a suite of data-visualization and mapping tools developed at Rutgers University’s New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center.
Bar part-time officials from full-time perks, incoming N.J. lawmaker says
“That doesn’t excuse individuals who have consciously abused the system,” said Pfeiffer, now a professor at Rutgers University. “But there are probably any number of cases where elected officials can spend 30, 35 hours a week in their job as an unpaid or low-paid elected official.”
While most towns have gone back to in-person meetings, Lakewood remains virtual
Pfeiffer said holding meetings online also risks technical problems, as well as online infiltration: “You should carefully consider the risks of meeting disruptions and make sure you balance the interests of people.”
N.J. town catching heat for plan to ban abortion clinics, tattoo parlors
A municipality in Union County has attracted some controversy on social media for a proposed ordinance prohibiting abortion clinics, tattoo shops, massage parlors and animal hospitals, among other businesses.
Marc Pfeiffer Uses Claude AI to Help Write Article: AI in Local Government, Helpful or Harmful?
For local governments, chatbots create exciting opportunities to improve customer service, automate tasks and cut costs. Marc Pfeiffer, Assistant Director of Bloustein Local, Center for Urban Policy Research, uses Claude AI to help write two articles on how to best incorporate this new technology.
Pfeiffer – TECH UPDATES: What Municipal CAOs Need to Know, Part 1: Tech Fitness and Cyber Hygiene
There are two basic elements of technology that every municipality must have. Most places already do this, but it doesn’t hurt to highlight them....
Recent Products
Leading Practices for Proactive & Equitable Property Acquisitions to Enhance Climate Resilience: A Report on Best Practices in Managed Retreat
Managed or planned retreat is a climate change adaptation strategy that allows the shoreline to advance inward unimpeded, necessitating the removal of buildings and other built infrastructure. To facilitate managed retreat efforts, federal, state, and local government...
Special Issue Collection: Risk Communication during Crises and Chronic Exposures
Karen Lowrie co-edited a special issue for the journal Risk Analysis, supported by the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation, that includes about 30 articles on the topic of effective methods for communicating risk during hazardous events and...
Annual Report on the Economic Impact of the Federal Historic Tax Credits for Fiscal Year 2021
The Federal Historic Tax Credit (HTC) is a Federal income tax credit that promotes the rehabilitation of income-producing historic properties. This study examines the economic impacts of the HTC (a 20% credit since 1986) by analyzing the economic consequences of the...
Transition Plan for the Return of Local Control to Jersey City Public Schools, Third Annual Report
This report is the third and potentially final report of the Department of Education’s (department) Comprehensive Accountability Office (CAO) concerning the final phase of the transition of the Jersey City Public Schools (district) from being a state supervised school...