Salvador Rizzo

State House Bureau, @rizzoTK

New Jersey lawmakers are once again discussing a bill that would allow Gov. Chris Christie to cash in on a book deal while in office, according to three sources in the Legislature.

State law bars Christie from profiting if he publishes a book while in office. But with a year left in his term and his hopes dimming for a job in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, Christie is now in talks with top Democratic and Republican lawmakers to change the law this month to allow him to cash in with a book deal, according to sources who spoke to The Record on the condition of anonymity.

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As part of a deal quietly in the works, the budgets for lawmakers’ staff salaries would increase, according to two of those legislative sources.

Punishing newspapers

At the same time, Christie and top lawmakers plan to scrap a state law that requires municipalities and counties to publish legal notices in printed newspapers, according to three legislative sources. One source said the move was meant to punish the state’s newspapers. The sources spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive negotiations between Christie and the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

New Jersey newspapers, including The Record, derive revenue from the legal notices — advertisements for public meetings, bid opportunities and other official business — and their bottom lines would be hurt if municipalities and counties were instead required to post those notices only on their websites. Several publishers testified against that plan when it was considered by the Legislature in 2011. It was pulled.

Exactly two years ago, in December 2014, lawmakers briefly considered a bill that would have allowed Christie to publish a book for profit and raise the budget for each legislator’s district office from $110,000 to $140,000. But the plan did not advance.

The sponsor of that legislation, Assemblyman John Burzichelli, D-Gloucester, said he had not heard anything about the bill being revived in a new form. But he added, “That doesn’t mean someone else might not be out there putting it together.” Burzichelli said he would not be surprised if such legislation were added to the agenda in the next week, before the Legislature wraps up its business for the year on Dec. 19.

“I have not heard anything about that, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true,” said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck.

Rank-and-file lawmakers in the dark

Despite the talks, the plan to help Christie cash in on a book deal has not been widely discussed with rank-and-file lawmakers of either party. Nearly a dozen lawmakers reached by The Record on Saturday said they had not heard of the plan.

Sources told The Record that the discussions included Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, both Democrats, as well as Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick and Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., both Republicans.

Legislative committees are to meet in Trenton on Monday and Thursday. The full Assembly and Senate will hold their last voting session of the year the following Monday, Dec. 19. No legislation on Christie’s book, legal notices for newspapers or legislative staff salaries currently appears on any committee agenda. But as a procedural matter, the legislation could be introduced and added quickly to the roster of bills up for committee hearings the week of Dec. 12.

The legislative package may include several bills. Prieto, Sweeney, Bramnick and Kean are expected to be the prime sponsors of the bill on newspaper legal notices once it is introduced, according to one source.

A Sweeney spokesman declined to comment. Messages left with Bramnick, Kean and Prieto were not returned. Christie spokesman Brian Murray declined to comment on Saturday.

Opposition and support

Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex, said he would be “absolutely opposed” to the legislation. When asked about a potential Christie book, he said, “Is this going to be listed as fiction or nonfiction?” Weinberg, who co-chaired an investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closing scandal, joked that she would be fine with Christie’s book “as long as I get to write a few footnotes.”

Supporters of the bill to allow municipalities and counties to publish legal notices on their own websites instead of newspapers argue that it is a cost-saving measure. Opponents say that publishing bid opportunities and public meeting notices in newspapers is a transparency measure and that local governments would not end up saving money because of the heightened security costs of advertising online.

Christie and his wife, Mary Pat, earned $913,000 in 2015, according to tax returns released earlier this week. The governor’s salary is $175,000, and he deposited around $14,000 of that in a 401(k) account last year. Mary Pat Christie, a former managing director at the New York investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Co., earned $698,708 from January to April 2015, when she resigned to focus on Christie’s presidential campaign.

Over the past seven years, Mary Pat Christie has earned nearly $3.3 million, according to their tax returns. The governor has made $1.2 million since taking office in 2010. Current law bars him from drawing any income other than his salary.