The Jaffe Briefing - July 5, 2022

TRENTON – With the state budget signed and the governor heading off to his Italian villa on vacation, it’s time to catch up on all that was missed. Hmm. Here’s one, from the pile:  New Jerseyans who buy electric cars receive a nice gift from the state, up to $5,000 off the purchase or lease, besides not having to pay sales tax. Very generous, thank you. But now the state is wondering if the “Charge Up” program is a wee bit too generous, deciding to reduce the maximum incentive for the 2023 fiscal year to $4,000 to spread the wealth, so to speak. If you are ready to jump aboard the zero-emission bandwagon, do it now. The Asbury Park Pressreports that funding may vanish by mid-September if the Legislature doesn’t throw more money into the $35 million program.

TRENTON – For state lawmakers, Christmas comes in June. That’s when all the last-minute goodies are thrown into the state budget. This year, the so-called Christmas tree projects totaled $2.1 billion. There were some good things, like property tax relief and anti-hunger initiatives. There was also a lot of head-scratching granular stuff, NJ.com reports, such as $3 million for a skating rink in East Brunswick, $2 million for an Astroturf athletic field in Metuchen, $2 million for the Collingswood Grand Ballroom and more than $1 million for police athletic facilities in South Plainfield and West Orange. Republicans bemoan this stuff, calling it all a lack of transparency and limiting tax rebates. Perhaps. It’s also how business gets done in Trenton year after year, no matter who is in charge.

BRIEFING BREATHER 

A NASA engineer designed the Super Soaker water pistol. 

ATLANTIC CITY – Boy, that was close. At the last possible second, with hordes of tourists coming to Atlantic City for the long holiday weekend, the casinos finally settled with union workers poised to strike. Casino workers wearing union pins told the Jaffe Briefing last week that it seemed inevitable that they would be walking out just when the casinos would be crunched with guests. The Hard Rock was the final hold-out, reaching an agreement Saturday, avoiding a 12:01 a.m. strike on Sunday. Last-minute deals were also hashed out with Borgata, Caesars, Harrah's and the Tropicana, with only Resorts and the Golden Nugget still hammering out contracts that appear on their way this week. Now, with everyone swimming in the same direction, here’s hoping for cash windfalls for everyone working at the state’s gaming resort.

ON THE ROAD – The battle against red-light cameras continues, despite New Jersey no longer having them. Now, state legislators are going after other states that still use these cameras, which, in our unsolicited opinion, makes the road less safe as people recklessly slam their brakes to avoid automatic tickets. Sen. Declan O’Scanlon is pushing smart legislation that would ban New Jersey from giving driver information to other states, where a New Jersey motorist may have been nabbed by a red-light camera. (We are all very careful drivers, so that seems impossible.) Anyway, if the state refuses to participate, then New Jerseyans won’t get the annoying out-of-state summonses. It’s also a nice slap on New York, which has been using these dang cameras for more than 20 years to snatch even more money from weary Garden State commuters.

IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS

BOSTON – It’s not from the room where it happened. But a stolen letter written by Alexander Hamilton in 1780 is finally back on display. It had been snatched decades ago from the state archives and finally returned after a long court battle. In it, Hamilton writes to Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who served as a general in the Continental Army, about a British plan to attack the French in Rhode Island. It’s signed: “Yr. Most Obedt, A. Hamilton, Aide de Camp.”  The letter was taken during World War II, sold privately and finally rediscovered at an auction in Virginia. The feds were contacted, and it took until last October for the letter to finally be returned to its rightful owner, the people of Massachusetts.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

Is all well in the Williams household? Hard to tell on this day in 2003 when Serena beats Venus to win Wimbledon.

WORD OF THE DAY 

Parry - [PAIR-ee] - verb 

Definition: To evade 

Example: When asked if I planned to finish my ice cream or hand the rest over, I parried my response. 

WIT OF THE DAY 

"Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.” 

-Albert Einstein 

BIDEN BLURB 

"There's one advantage in having been around as long as I have. Everybody in the Senate knows me." 

- Joe Biden 

WEATHER IN A WORD

Comfortable