Plainfielders who followed the epic struggle of New Brunswick activists to bring to their city the kind of ward representation that we take for granted in our community will be heartened to learn of Gov. Corzine's veto on his last full day in office of a bill restricting referendums on just that kind of question to once per decade (see story here).
The veto was something of a cliff-hanger as the governor had been silent on what he was going to do with regard to the bill, which had been sponsored by Plainfield's State Senator Nick Scutari and rushed through both houses of the Legislature, with the support of our very own Assemblyman Jerry Green, a 'team player' if ever there was one.
Those who recall first-year Latin will remember that 'veto' is the first-person singular of the verb 'vetare', and means, literally, 'I forbid'. In practice, the word is either stamped or written across the document.
Too bad that Gov. Corzine didn't show more of this testicular fortitude earlier in his term.
- Courier: "Corzine vetoes referendum restriction bill"
-- Dan Damon [follow]
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2 comments:
Good news indeed Dan. This also points out that Jerry is out of step with his own "D" governor. If Jerry had never allowed passage from his committee this would have never been an issue. A waste of everyone's time.
Corzine did not veto the bill afterall. In fact, the bill is retroactive to Nov. 2009. From Capital Quickies:
"Strike that, reverse it
January 19, 2010 • 1:27 pm
By Michael Symons
About those five vetoes Gov. Jon Corzine issued Monday night among his final few acts as governor … turns out there were only four.
Corzine’s press office distributed a revised news release this morning, with 12 minutes left in his term, that moved S3157/A4264 from the list of “bills vetoed” to the list of bills he signed. (Not that the change was actually announced in the release, you just had to compare the two lists.)
That new law limits citizens’ rights under their initiative and referendum powers to put questions on the ballot that would change the size of the local governing body and how they’re elected — for instance, whether to switch from at-large council seats to more local ward-based elections. Now they can’t be held more frequently than once every 10 years, as opposed to two, three or four years.
The bill — which was introduced and passed in just a week earlier this month — was enacted with the minimum number of votes needed in both the Senate and Assembly. It is retroactive to public questions on the November 2009 ballot."
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