Salvador Rizzo

NorthJersey.com

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno on Wednesday derided a bill that would let her boss, Gov. Chris Christie, get around a New Jersey ethics law so he can cash in on a book deal while in office.

The criticism from Guadagno — who called Christie’s legislation “ridiculous” — was a rare example of discord in the administration over a legislative package that could help pad Christie's bank account while raising salaries for dozens of political insiders, costing taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

Another part of Christie’s plan would punish the New Jersey press by cutting off a legal requirement that government bodies and private groups publish official notices in printed newspapers. Christie's office spent the day marshaling arguments in favor of that bill.

The governor has had an adversarial relationship with the press, which has reported on a constant stream of credit downgrades for New Jersey, the state's foundering pension system, and most notably, the Bridgegate scandal, which was seen as a major obstacle in Christie's failed run to be the Republican nominee for president.

Representatives for Christie — who has attacked Democrats and New Jersey public workers for years as greedy and entitled, accusing them of “feeding at the trough” — have refused to discuss the book legislation he negotiated in secret with the leaders of the Democratic-controlled Legislature, and they declined to respond to Guadagno’s criticism.

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RELATED BILL: N.J. newspapers to lose $20 million if bill passes

One of the bills Christie is pushing would loosen a state ethics law that restricts him from drawing any income other than his $175,000 salary, carving out an exemption for income derived from published works, not only for him but also for his Cabinet officers and top aides. The same bill would hike salaries for Christie’s Cabinet members, judges, legislative aides, county prosecutors and dozens of high-ranking public employees.

Because the bill, A-4430, is being rushed through the Legislature this week, government officials have not had time to publish a cost estimate.

But an analysis of the legislation by The Record shows that New Jersey taxpayers would be saddled with at least $10 million a year in new costs, and likely much more. In addition, the New Jersey pension system – ranked by Bloomberg as the worst-financed in the country, with $135.7 billion in unfunded liabilities in 2015 – would go even deeper into the hole as a result of Christie’s salary hikes.

Christie is pushing for the raises during grim financial times for New Jersey. The top Wall Street credit-rating agencies have downgraded the state’s bonds a record 10 times since he took office, noting that the $34.5 billion budget and pension system have been underfunded and mismanaged for years and that the state cannot keep up with rising costs. At the same time, New Jersey’s schools, hospitals and other services have been dealing with deep funding reductions.

A Republican who is likely to run for governor next year, Guadagno has been distancing herself gradually from Christie and his 18 percent approval rating. She loudly opposed another backroom deal between Christie and legislative Democrats that raised the state gas tax by 23 cents earlier this year.

Guadagno made a brief but blunt comment Wednesday morning on Twitter when a reporter pointed out that Christie’s book legislation would make her and her husband, Superior Court Judge Michael Guadagno, eligible for salary increases.

“Which is ridiculous,” Guadagno wrote.

On Tuesday night, Guadagno also posted on her Twitter feed a statement from Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth, who blasted the legislation as a “last-minute attempt to give large raises to the politically connected right before the holidays.”

Beck announced she would vote against it Thursday in the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. The bill will also be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee later the same day. Legislative leaders plan a final vote in both houses on Monday, the last session of the year before lawmakers leave for the holidays.

“Before the ink was even dry on a 23-cent, $1.3 billion gas tax increase, the public is once again subject to a cloak-and-dagger scheme,” Beck said. “This time it’s a plan to give large pay increases to members of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.”

A spokeswoman for Guadagno did not respond to a request for further comment Wednesday.

Sources in the Legislature told The Record that Christie’s book bill and the salary hikes were negotiated concurrently with a separate bill to end a requirement that official notices be published in New Jersey newspapers. If passed, that bill would hurt newspapers’ bottom lines. One legislative source told The Record on Saturday that Christie revived that bill in an effort to punish the state’s newspapers, an assertion that has since been repeated by other sources in the Legislature.

In an emailed statement, Christie spokesman Brian Murray said Wednesday that the legal notices bill “had nothing to do with the press,” and he claimed that it would save taxpayers $80 million a year — a figure that was sharply disputed by the New Jersey Press Association. When a similar version of the bill was floated briefly in 2011, the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services said it could not estimate savings for taxpayers.

The press association said taxpayers spend $8 million a year on legal notices and businesses $12 million. Advertisement rates are set by law and have not increased since 1983, according to George White, the NJPA executive director. Still, the NJPA in a letter to lawmakers has offered to cut its government rates by 50 percent.

White also said that no state in the country allows government bodies to fulfill their obligation to notify residents of bid opportunities and public meetings by posting notices on their own websites, as Christie’s bill would permit. The notices are viewed as an essential part of government transparency, White said, because printed newspapers are a third party not affiliated with government, they are not subject to tampering by hacking, and they fulfill legal requirements about providing the public timely information on government actions.

A survey by the League of Municipalities found that 146 New Jersey towns spent $1.05 million on legal notices in 2015. That sample accounts for 26 percent of the state’s 565 municipalities. If those spending rates held consistent throughout the state’s municipalities, the cost to taxpayers would have been around $4 million in 2015. Counties, businesses and other government bodies were not surveyed by the League.

The League’s executive director, Michael Darcy, said Christie’s office requested the survey recently.