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TRENTON - Local lawmakers said they will introduce legislation Thursday that would require bills be publicly available for at least a day before a legislative committee in the Assembly could vote on it.

This is needed, said Assemblymen Vince Polistina and John Amodeo, both R-Atlantic, because legislators frequently are asked to vote on bills that are not publicly available and legislators have not fully read. They blamed the Democratic majority that controls both houses of the Legislature and the governor's seat for what Polistina in a release called "arrogant elitism that shuns public participation and input."

The bill would amend Assembly rules to forbid votes on any bill, including resolutions, amendments and substitutions, unless they have been available for one full business day. Committees can waive the rule with a unanimous vote. A similar rule exists for bills up for final approval by the entire Assembly.

Polistina said he was inspired by recent bills dealing with medicinal marijuana and to allow towns to decide to not fluoridate their water. In both cases, he said, legislators were presented with documents when they arrived in Trenton that the public had not gotten to review.

"This is a fitting time to introduce this legislation because in recent years the Legislature has voted on budgets that were still warm from the printer," Amodeo said in a release. "That practice is not fair to citizens and only leads to bad government."

1 comment:

• bigjack609 (51) posts 11:52 am

  As usual yet another one of our rights will more than likely be ripped away without us even knowing it was going to happen.It seems that Sandra Cunningham (hudson)and her friend Teresa Ruiz (Essex and Union)along with Corzine have slipped in a bill less then 24 hours ago that if approved will make it law that anyone who has been investagated licenced and fully approved to buy a hand gun will only be able to buy one gun a month.Me as a law abiding person is being punished because I have played by their rules and because they will not inforce the laws that are now in place they want to make it harder for me because of the people who break the law.Once again they are ripping apart the laws set by our founding fathers.Remember in November we as a state will have the chance to change every seat in Trenton and should take time to use our computers to look for what has been done and who has voted to do so,and stop it before it continues.I wonder what would happen if they were to change THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL something tells me that there would be just a little unrest.

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