State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, must see to it that Bill 3096 gets to the Senate floor for a vote before this legislative session ends or get branded as Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop sees it: A legislative leader who is willing to put a “personal vendetta ahead of the public good.”

The bill, A4536, which was approved in the Assembly by a 79-0 vote, would allow the Jersey City pension system to mirror the state’s. The city is the only municipality in New Jersey with its own system and the proposed law would make enough changes that will save it $12 million to $20 million over the next eight years.

Unfortunately for Jersey City, the effort to pare down benefits in the city's pension system failed to get a hearing in the last scheduled session of the Senate Budget Committee. In a reference to Sweeney, Fulop was quoted as saying, "The only reason someone wouldn't support it is because they want to punish Jersey City."

It kicked off verbal exchanges between the Sweeney and Fulop camps, which seemed inevitable considering the two men are mentioned as rivals for the Democratic Party nomination for governor should the incumbent, Republican Chris Christie, announce a run for president.

Political insiders say Sweeney is not going to go out of his way to help Fulop with any legislation the mayor favors. The Senate president has the power to decide what measures get to see the light of day and it is not the first time Sweeney has punished an antagonist. Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. had been active against Sweeney’s re-election and the senate president struck back by pulling seven GOP bills from Senate committee agendas. At the start of the new year, Sweeney eased off his vow that no GOP-sponsored bill would get a vote.

Sweeney may also be rethinking his stance when he guaranteed passage of legislation to reform Jersey City’s pension system yesterday. In trying to paint Fulop as uninformed, Sweeney said if the bill was really that important to the mayor, he should have picked up the telephone.

Sweeney knows it is Sen. Sandra Cunningham, D-Jersey City, who should have made the call. Cunningham and Sen. Brian Stack, D-Union City, are co-sponsors of the Senate legislation and because the proposed law affects her district, Cunningham would be considered the point person. For his own reasons, Sweeney thought it better to blame the mayor.

Politics should not get in the way of the government’s business of serving the people.

As an example. it has been revealed in emails between a Christie deputy chief of staff and a political appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that the governor’s office knew of a plan to shut down several lanes at the George Washington Bridge in September as political revenge against the Fort Lee mayor for refusing to endorse Christie’s re-election.

A Sept. 9, 2013 email suggests Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich’s calls to Port Authority officials are never returned and that he’s second to Fulop in being ignored.

The last person Sweeney wants to be linked with is Christie. Both men seem to have Fulop on their enemy list. He can avoid comparisons by making good on his guarantee and putting the bill up for a vote.