POLISTINA AND AMODEO TO INTRODUCE LEGISLATION TO END SECRETIVE VOTES BY LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEES

BILL WOULD FORBID VOTES ON LEGISLATION THAT HASN’T BEEN AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC FOR AT LEAST ONE FULL BUSINESS DAY

    Saying democracy cannot function when elected officials purposefully preclude public participation, Assemblymen Vince Polistina and John Amodeo announced today they will introduce legislation to forbid Assembly committees from voting on any measure that has not been publicly available for at least one full business day.

    “The Democrats who control Trenton frequently call for votes on legislation without providing copies to the public or sufficient time for lawmakers to read what they are voting on,” Polistina said. “They are turning what is supposed to be a participatory democracy into an oligarchy marked by an arrogant elitism that shuns public participation and input. This repressive climate favors special interests and selfish motives over the public good.”

    The legislation would amend Assembly rules to forbid a vote on any bill – including resolutions, amendments and substitutes - unless there has been at least one full business day (defined as between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.) in which the legislation has been publicly-available. The proposed rule could only be waived by a unanimous vote of the committee.

    Polistina, along with Amodeo, both R-Atlantic, plan to introduce the measure Thursday when the Legislature is in session to approve a $29 billion budget. Democrats on the Assembly Budget Committee approved the substitute budget bill on Monday without the public availability that the legislation would impose.

    “This is a fitting time to introduce this legislation because in recent years, the Legislature has voted on budgets that were still warm from the printer,” Amodeo said. “That practice is not fair to citizens and only leads to bad government. There are few times, if any, when it would be absolutely necessary to vote on something with such haste that we cannot give the public an opportunity to see what its representatives are doing.”