OPRA Bill May Get Conditional Veto,  Bill Explores Merging School Districts, Report finds “Stay NJ” Problematic, School Attorney Comes Out Against OPRA Bill, Shore Erosion Too Fast to Fix

Murphy Hints At Conditional Veto of OPRA Law

NJ Biz

And for folks who may not be read into this – this is the Open Public Records Act, which has been extremely valuable as a transparency matter for members of the media, for folks like Michael,” said Murphy. “It’s largely been a successful – I would go so far as to say – a model law in the American context. And again, media organizations, activists, good government entities have all used it to good effect. So, whatever we do with this, we need to preserve that spirit of transparency.” Read More

Bill Exploring Merging School Districts Introduced

Patch

Three pilot sites would be selected to participate in the program’s planning stage — one in North Jersey, one in Central Jersey and one in South Jersey. Each would be eligible to receive up to $50,000 in state grant money.

The decision to move into the implementation stage would be decided by voters in a special election, according to the bill. Read More

“Stay NJ” Report Offers Little Clarity on Programs Viability
NJ Monitor

“The task force report does not change any of the underlying problems with the original StayNJ proposal, namely that it directs the biggest benefits to wealthy homeowners while providing little support for lower-income households and renters struggling to stay in their homes,” said Peter Chen, a senior policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective who has been critical of the program.

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“Unless Trenton Democrats heed our advice and cut wasteful spending, there’s no way they can afford this $1.2 billion annual program,” Bucco said. “The only other alternative they have is to make further cuts to the programs that serve our most vulnerable populations or raise taxes.” Read More

School Attorney – OPRA Bill Will Hurt Students

NJ Education Report

“This amendment ensures that a return to the days of pre-OPRA litigation is imminent. The procedural roadblocks in obtaining student records that the amendment would diminish is the capacity of parents to ensure that public schools are adhering to New Jersey education laws. Without access to their child’s education records, how is a parent to know what transpires during the eight hours per day that they are made to blindly entrust their child to their school?

Further, not only does the amendment unreasonably narrow the scope of requests– requiring the naming of government officials and their proper titles in the request, for example– but it also provides for government agencies to sue records requesters. The threat of retaliation already looms large in cases involving public schools that children remain enrolled in through and after litigation. This threat will only be exacerbated if districts are green-lighted to counter-sue parents seeking to enforce their child’s rights. Read More

 

Erosion Down the Shore Too Fast to Fix
NJ Spotlight News

The problem? Erosion is gouging beaches faster than the Army Corps of Engineers can repair them. The Corps works on a rotating multi-year cycle with New Jersey shore towns that started in the early 1990s. This season, for example, it’s dredged, pumped and spread sand on beaches in Strathmere and Sea Isle City. Summer is when Jersey Shore towns make their money — up to $30 billion a year in tourist dollars.

But beach replenishment comes at a cost. One eye-opening study shows that, per foot of shoreline New Jersey leads the nation in beach replenishment — more than $3 billion from all sources, adjusted for inflation since 1936 — 245 million cubic yards of sand. And that sand keeps getting washed away. It’s the Corps mission to replace it. Read More

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