Gov. Christie Attends Atlantic City Summit Part II

Gov. Chris Christie, left, seen in this 2014 file photo with Senate President Stephen Sweeney, center, and Assembly Speaker Vincent Preto, are united behind legislation that lets Christie write and profit from a book while still in office, gives pay raises to judicial, executive and legislative employees, and ends the requirement that county and local notices must be published in print newspapers. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

TRENTON -- The sponsor of legislation pushed by Gov. Chris Christie that threatens a key source of advertising revenue for New Jersey's newspapers said he spent much of Sunday in negotiations to work on a compromise.

State Sen. Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic) said he believed he had enough votes to pass the original bill as-is Monday afternoon, during the state Legislature's last voting session of the year.

The bill, dubbed by some as Christie's "newspaper revenge bill," would repeal a law that requires New Jersey's local and county officials to pay to publish legal notices in printed newspapers, and instead allow them to save that money by posting ads for official actions such as sheriff's sales, ordinances and bid solicitations, on their own websites.

But as a battle over the bill raged on social media and editorial pages all weekend -- as well as another measure up for a vote on Monday that lets a sitting governor profit from a book deal and pays $10 million in raises to high-level state employees -- Whelan said Sunday night negotiations "are still taking place."

"I won't get into what is being discussed," Whelan told NJ Advance Media. "Hopefuly we can reach a compromise to satisfy everyone, or at least make everyone a little less unhappy."

George White, executive director for the New Jersey Press Association, also declined to discuss the details of the negotiations Sunday night, but said he remained hopeful a compromise could be reached.

"What makes it so horrible from a public policy standpoint is the public notices statutes were written intentionally to remove politics from the public notice process," White said.

The current version of the bill could allow public officials to reward a newspaper with legal ad revenue if they like the news coverage, or pull the ads if they think the publication is not treating them fairly, he said.

New Jersey would be the first state to repeal the legal ad requirement, White added.

"We are going to be down there tomorrow (Monday) and we hope we end up with a bill that will better serve the public and not destroy the public notification process the public deserves," White said.

Committees in both the state Senate and Assembly approved the original version of the bill on Thursday. The measure is up for a final vote in both houses Monday, and would most certainly be signed into law quickly by Christie, who has called it a much-need savings for property taxpayers.

Christie's office contends more than $80 million is paid annually by taxpayers and private businesses to publish legal notices. The governor's office said it based its figure off of "an internal tally of a sampling for daily newspapers."

The press association, however, say legal ads are a $20 million revenue source for the struggling industry, with about 70 percent of ads coming from private sources such as banks doing foreclosures. Without the revenue, 300 jobs could be eliminated based on an average salary benefits package and payroll taxes of $65,000 per employee, White said.

Government officials who choose to stop paying for print legal ads would have to create a secure and searchable legal notice webpage, which could cost money to establish and maintain. An analysis by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services said it could not determine how much that would cost local governments.

The campaign for and against the bill ramped up in earnest Friday night, when Christie launched a barrage of tweets against Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) and Sen. Robert Gordon (D-Bergen) after they expressed concern in a press release that "the legislation is reportedly being pushed by the governor to exact revenge on the press whose investigative reporting helped to uncover Bridgegate and the involvement of the governor's staff."

By ending the printed ad legal mandate, "Government accountability and transparency and a well-informed public ... are at stake," they wrote.

Christie's string of tweets to his 796,000 followers included this one: "Sens. Weinberg & Gordon 'revenge' on taxpayers? Force them to pay $80m a yr to newspapers rather than free posts on the web. Need tax relief"

Christie also called Weinberg and Gordon hypocrites for voting yes on a similar measure in 2004, which ultimately failed to pass. Weinberg acknowledged her earlier vote, but said the need for government accountability, and the way newspapers operate "are not the same they were 12 years ago."

On Sunday, Christie published an op-ed on Medium.com that blasted the press association for its blatant "greed."

"Contrary to the flailing assertions of the NJ Press Association, there will be no lack of transparency and no harm to the public as a result of this reform. These are merely scare tactics by their paid Trenton lobbyists designed to protect the interests of newspaper companies who argue for a free press, but are really arguing for a taxpayer funded subsidy in disguise," Christie wrote. "This bill, and their fight over it, unmasks their greed."

The press association also ignores "the fact that this legislation is optional," according to Christie's piece. "If municipal clerks can't manage to transfer the text of a legal notice and post it on their website, they are not required to change their process. However, 532 of the 565 municipalities in New Jersey already maintain websites that provide public notices and information -- adding the legal notices that are currently published in newspapers will not be a major leap."

Most of the Gannett-owned daily newspapers took the unusual step Saturday of running front-page editorials urging lawmakers to vote down the bill.

"Hundreds of newspaper employees dedicated to keeping your officials honest will lose their jobs and dozens of towns will lose their community newspapers if the bill is passed," according to the editorial in the Asbury Park Press, one of Gannett's papers. "Don't let them get away with it."

The other controversial bill on the docket Monday would allow a sitting governor and any cabinet member to profit from a book while in office, and give pay raises to high-ranking employees in all three branches of government.

The pay raises would cost county and state governments $7.45 million next year and $10 million in 2018, according to an analysis of the bill (S2855/A4429) by the Office of Legislative Services.

The bill was sponsored by state Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and outgoing veteran state Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).

Legislators who support the newspaper ad bill say it is a cost-saving measure that has no relationship to the book and salary bill. But both are moving through both houses at break-neck speed -- a week from start to finish.

Phil Murphy, a Democrat and one of several candidates who plan to run in 2017 to succeed Christie, issued a statement Sunday to criticize the legislation.

"This legislative package being voted on tomorrow is about personal enrichment, punishing perceived enemies, and stifling a free press," Murphy's statement said. "It is about rolling back state ethics laws to allow Governor Christie to personally profit off his service, while creating yet another loophole that can easily be abused for others to follow suit."

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.