Highlights from Selelcted Governor’s Advisory Reports
Highlights of selected reports
The following are highlights from transition reports to Gov. Jon Corzine containing policy recommendations on a range of issues, including budget, ethics reform, anti-terrorism efforts and child welfare.
Each advisory group was asked to study a particular issue or topic, then report back to the governor by Jan. 17 on how he could best implement his agenda. The recommendations include both short-term fixes to pressing problems and long-terms goals for systematic reforms.
Budget: Expand sales and income taxes to new, but unspecified, items. Recommendations in a draft version of the report suggested taxing clothing, cable television and massages, but the final report left out such specifics.
Implement immediate department-wide spending cuts, including a freeze of state work force levels, pay cuts for nonunion state workers and preparation of layoff plans.
Ethics: Bar private funds from political campaigns and adopt a system of public financing of elections. Hold public hearings to debate the issue and move to enact legislation.
Short of public financing, implement prohibitions on the flow of campaign funds between political organizations, and encourage greater transparency of political contributors.
Homeland Security: Establish a Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. It would subsume the existing Office of Counter-Terrorism and keep its intelligence-gathering functions, but criminal investigations would be separated and conducted by investigators with the Attorney General's Office and FBI.
Child Welfare: Restructure the entire system, making services for children and families more autonomous within the larger Department of Human Services.
Property Tax Reform: Attain Corzine's campaign goal of increasing property tax rebates by 40 percent over four years.
Call a special legislative session on property taxes and support a citizens' convention on property taxes. The convention should not discuss spending.
Economic Growth: Focus on certain business sectors, including energy, tourism, high technology and financial services.
Energy: Increase the number of New Jerseyans eligible for home-heating relief.
Appoint a director of Energy Savings and Sustainability in the Treasury Department to reduce the state's energy expenses.
Establish a business incubator and center to research renewable and advanced energy technologies, perhaps at Fort Monmouth.
Establish the Gov.'s Office of Economic Growth to develop policy and do research.
Environment: Enact a water use fee, costing the average resident about $2.40 per year and raising $11.2 million annually for watershed preservation.
Repeal the "fast track" law, which environmentalists say could allow development dangerously close to drinking water sources.
Improve tracking of diseases that could be caused by environmental hazards.
Public Education: Make schools more rigorous, especially in teaching science and math.
Offer full-day kindergarten and publicly funded preschools in districts statewide.
Higher Education: Increase the number of recipients of Tuition Aid Grants.
Give tax credits to companies that hire New Jersey undergraduates to work part-time jobs. Knowing they can find part-time work can keep some students in school.
Land Preservation: Find a way to continue to pay for state land preservation programs when current funding runs out in about two years.
Labor: Expand employment and economic growth programs, and improve accessibility.
Create a commission on charity care and the uninsured.
Housing: Encourage development of "mixed income" housing to increase the supply of affordable housing and promote income diversity.
Develop a plan to preserve "at-risk" rental housing.
Transportation: Constitutionally dedicate $560 million to the operating budgets of NJ Transit and the Department of Transportation.
Establish a policy of NJ Transit fare increases to keep pace with rising costs.
Military and Veterans Affairs: Enact legislation to establish Local Redevelopment Authority for Fort Monmouth.
New Jersey Government; New Jersey Taxes
The following are highlights from transition reports to Gov. Jon Corzine containing policy recommendations on a range of issues, including budget, ethics reform, anti-terrorism efforts and child welfare.
Each advisory group was asked to study a particular issue or topic, then report back to the governor by Jan. 17 on how he could best implement his agenda. The recommendations include both short-term fixes to pressing problems and long-terms goals for systematic reforms.
Budget: Expand sales and income taxes to new, but unspecified, items. Recommendations in a draft version of the report suggested taxing clothing, cable television and massages, but the final report left out such specifics.
Implement immediate department-wide spending cuts, including a freeze of state work force levels, pay cuts for nonunion state workers and preparation of layoff plans.
Ethics: Bar private funds from political campaigns and adopt a system of public financing of elections. Hold public hearings to debate the issue and move to enact legislation.
Short of public financing, implement prohibitions on the flow of campaign funds between political organizations, and encourage greater transparency of political contributors.
Homeland Security: Establish a Cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. It would subsume the existing Office of Counter-Terrorism and keep its intelligence-gathering functions, but criminal investigations would be separated and conducted by investigators with the Attorney General's Office and FBI.
Child Welfare: Restructure the entire system, making services for children and families more autonomous within the larger Department of Human Services.
Property Tax Reform: Attain Corzine's campaign goal of increasing property tax rebates by 40 percent over four years.
Call a special legislative session on property taxes and support a citizens' convention on property taxes. The convention should not discuss spending.
Economic Growth: Focus on certain business sectors, including energy, tourism, high technology and financial services.
Energy: Increase the number of New Jerseyans eligible for home-heating relief.
Appoint a director of Energy Savings and Sustainability in the Treasury Department to reduce the state's energy expenses.
Establish a business incubator and center to research renewable and advanced energy technologies, perhaps at Fort Monmouth.
Establish the Gov.'s Office of Economic Growth to develop policy and do research.
Environment: Enact a water use fee, costing the average resident about $2.40 per year and raising $11.2 million annually for watershed preservation.
Repeal the "fast track" law, which environmentalists say could allow development dangerously close to drinking water sources.
Improve tracking of diseases that could be caused by environmental hazards.
Public Education: Make schools more rigorous, especially in teaching science and math.
Offer full-day kindergarten and publicly funded preschools in districts statewide.
Higher Education: Increase the number of recipients of Tuition Aid Grants.
Give tax credits to companies that hire New Jersey undergraduates to work part-time jobs. Knowing they can find part-time work can keep some students in school.
Land Preservation: Find a way to continue to pay for state land preservation programs when current funding runs out in about two years.
Labor: Expand employment and economic growth programs, and improve accessibility.
Create a commission on charity care and the uninsured.
Housing: Encourage development of "mixed income" housing to increase the supply of affordable housing and promote income diversity.
Develop a plan to preserve "at-risk" rental housing.
Transportation: Constitutionally dedicate $560 million to the operating budgets of NJ Transit and the Department of Transportation.
Establish a policy of NJ Transit fare increases to keep pace with rising costs.
Military and Veterans Affairs: Enact legislation to establish Local Redevelopment Authority for Fort Monmouth.
New Jersey Government; New Jersey Taxes
