News & Events
Experts see clouds on the fiscal horizon for NJ government
During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, several members of the workgroup offered their takes on the likelihood of there being enough revenue available by then to launch an altogether new relief program in the current economic environment. “Right now, it’s a wait-and-see,” said Marc Pfeiffer, who’s also the assistant director of Rutgers University’s Bloustein Local Government Research Center.
New Jersey faces steep deficits in coming years, group warns
“The last couple of days, we’ve been talking a lot about the World Cup coming in and the potential of NJT. I think that’s probably secondary or tertiary because they seem to have a plan for that,” said Marc Pfeiffer, a senior policy fellow at the Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. “What we don’t have a plan for is the long-term funding of NJT.”
Compare Electric Rates in New Jersey
New Jersey deregulated its energy market in 1999, allowing people to choose which companies generate the electricity that powers their homes. The idea behind the law was to introduce competition into the previously monopolized energy market. New Jersey residents haven’t exactly taken advantage of the opportunity: Only about 6% of residential customers...
New Jersey Hit By Cyber Attacks On Schools, Hospitals
Class was canceled Monday across the Freehold Township school district, but not for the familiar January troubles of slushy roads, frozen pipes or a busted boiler. No, this was “a cybersecurity event” that ground school business to a halt. District officials disclosed little about what happened, assuring parents in an email they “retained outside IT expert...
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 in government, non-profits or the corporate world that pay the bills. To the public, the county describes its seven commissioners as part timers. But when it comes to health benefits, the commissioners treat...
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 that would pause the nascent StayNJ property tax relief program before it sends out a single payment. Revenue from New Jersey’s major taxes — like its income, corporate business, and sales taxes — were down...
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.”
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