April 1 (Bloomberg) -- A cap on raises for New Jersey police and firefighters that mediators award when contract talks break down is set to end today, after lawmakers in the state Assembly didn’t concur with Governor Chris Christie’s changes to an extension bill.
Christie, a Republican, vetoed a Democratic proposal on March 27 that would have increased the salary-award limit to 3 percent from 2 percent when a government realizes savings on health care or pensions. That measure, introduced March 24, would have also extended the cap through 2017. Under a so-called conditional veto, Christie sent it back to legislators seeking a permanent cap at the lower rate.
“Without question, the reforms to New Jersey’s arbitration system enacted in 2010 have been effective in controlling spending and helping municipalities limit property tax increases,” Christie said in his veto message.
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Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald, a Democrat from Voorhees, said discussions are still ongoing in his chamber on how to proceed though he expects his party to act soon on either a new proposal or concurring with Christie. The state Senate upheld the changes shortly after Christie vetoed the measure with his recommendations.
Christie, who was elected to a second term in November, said on March 13 that the average property-tax increase in New Jersey last year was 1.7 percent because of the caps and other bills he signed to help towns control costs, after growing 70 percent in the decade before he took office. He signed another measure capping the tax increases at 2 percent annually.
Christie and lawmakers including Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, a Republican from Little Silver who is his party’s budget officer, said the higher thresholds would allow a driver of taxes to increase faster than the revenue to support it.
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