Albert Coutinho

SENATE PANEL CLEARS SCHAER/LAMPITT/COUTINHO BILL TO TEACH KIDS FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Legislation Would Create Pilot Program To Educate High Schoolers On Sound Financial Practices

(TRENTON) – Legislation Assembly members Gary S. Schaer, Pamela R. Lampitt, and Albert Coutinho sponsored to initiate a pilot program to educate high school students on personal finance management so they can avoid irresponsible spending habits that lead to excessive personal debt and bankruptcy was released today by the Senate Education Committee.

“Too many young people have taken an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude to their personal finances, setting themselves up for financial hardship before they even get their college degree,” said Schaer (D-Passaic/Bergen/Essex), a professional financial advisor. “We must do a better job of preparing students to be financially responsible adults.”

ASSEMBLY BILL TO EASE NEW JERSEY CORPORATE TAXES NOW LAW

(TRENTON) - Legislation sponsored by Assemblymen Joseph Vas, Louis D. Greenwald and Albert Coutinho easing New Jersey corporate taxes was signed into law today by Gov. Jon S. Corzine. The bill - long-sought by New Jersey businesses - is among many pushed by New Jersey Democrats to help New Jersey emerge stronger from the global economic crisis.

North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos

NEWARK – Among Newark elected officials, the election of Barack Obama last week sparked hope for healthcare reform, more federal aid, a re-invigorated sense of American leadership - and a special place on the president’s to-do list for the Brick City.

Inevitably, the Democratic victory also opened up questions about the future of Mayor Cory Booker, a supporter of Obama’s from the beginning of his campaign, who now serves on the president-elect’s transition team as it relates specifically to urban affairs.

As mayor of one of New Jersey’s biggest and one of America’s oldest cities with a battered infrastructure, Booker will join over 20 other New Jersey mayors in Newark on Wednesday for a conference to redefine urban needs for the new administration.

COUTINHO: MONUMENT TO ‘GREATEST GENERATION’ WILL TEACH GENERATIONS TO COME

(TRENTON) -- Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Essex) released the following statement on New Jersey’s World War II Memorial:

“Sixty-three years following the Japanese peace treaty signing that effectively put an end to the Second World War, we have found a way to honor the more than 406,000 U.S. Military dead and 600,000 wounded in this fight that spanned two continents and lasted for six years..."

STRENGTHENING NEW JERSEY’S ECONOMY

TODAY’S ASSEMBLY STEPS ARE LATEST SIGNIFICANT MEASURES TAKEN TO BOLSTER STATE’S BUSINESS CLIMATE

(TRENTON) –Today’s Assembly efforts to help middle-class New Jerseyans and the small businesses that employ them emerge strong from the national economic crisis are the latest significant measures taken to strengthen New Jersey’s economy.

Bills advanced today would promote new jobs and retain existing ones by revamping small business taxes and enhancing grants and incentives for small businesses.

Steve Adubato, Jr., presides over a meeting between Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, center, and Sen. Joseph Kyrillos.: Politicker photo 

SPRING LAKE - They drove and were driven to the Irish Riviera from all corners of New Jersey, in cars with government plates on them and dark SUVs and sedans with tinted glass, sporting sunglasses and paunches covered with sports jackets, mostly Democrats and a handful of Republicans, converging on this mansion by the sea.

Congressmen and mayors and assembly people and state senators and opposition researchers and retainers.

Standing at the front of the Seashell Dining Room in the Breakers to greet them was Steve Adubato, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and welcoming smile - and casting an eye that invariably sharpens human activity into the lineaments of political theater.

"I believe in the luck of the Irish," said the executive director of Newark’s North Ward Center and head of the Democratic Party in the North Ward, facing a sun-filled room packed with rivals hunched over plates of eggs and bacon: Gov. Jon Corzine and Republican State Party Chairman Tom Wilson; former Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, and Assemblyman Albert Coutinho and Assemblwoman Grace Spencer; Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo and Assemblyman Thomas Giblin (D-Montclair).

In this poor man’s Olympiad of Jersey ethnic groups gathered under one roof, Adubato highlighted - as he does annually at this North Ward Center-sponsored breakfast - the Irish, who now number 141,379 registered voters in New Jersey, or 47,514 Democrats, 36,063 Republicans and 57,802 independents.

Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) on Adams Street in the Ironbound: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - Standing outside East Ward Democratic Party headquarters on Adams Street, Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark) occupies that central part of the 29th Legislative District that encompasses north and south Newark.

Coutinho’s running mates, state Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) and Assemblywoman Grace Spencer (D-Newark) come out of the north and south wards Newark respectively.

The East Ward, which is made up Portugese and Italians, and fits into the Ironbound neighborhood, is Coutinho’s home.

"We’ve always been an independent ward," says Joseph Parlavecchio, the assemblyman’s mentor, who on this day sits inside party HQ, giving an interview to a young woman who’s writing a book about city politics.

Freshman Assemblywoman Grace Spencer, a protégé of Newark Mayor Cory Booker, is suddenly #1 on the list of most vulnerable legislators for 2009.  There is considerable speculation that the Essex County Democratic organization will dump Spencer and back incumbent Albert Coutinho and former Assemblyman William Payne in the Newark-based 29th district.  In turn, Payne, his brother, Congressman Donald Payne, his nephew, Newark City Councilman/Essex County Freeholder Donald Payne, Jr., State Sens. Ronald Rice and Teresa Ruiz, and North Ward Democratic leader Stephen Adubato will back a challenger to Booker – possibly North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, Jr. – for Mayor in 2010.

Gov. Jon Corzine signs the new schools construction bill at the Oliver Street School: Politicker photo 

NEWARK - Gov. Jon Corzine returned to the Ironbound this afternoon to sign a bill authorizing $3.9 billion in borrowing for new schools construction, which he said would fulfill the state’s constitutional duty to provide a thorough and efficient education, and create construction and other jobs.
    
Of an estimated 27 school projects statewide, six of the targeted schools are in the East Ward Ironbound, where the governor in late May announced his commitment to the legislation.

The six Ironbound schools were built before 1900 and are all overcrowded, according to the governor.

“We are doing what is right under the law and doing what is right for the state,” said Corzine, who praised the work of Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D-Newark), Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Newark), and others who banded together to pass the borrowing measure, which passed by one vote above the threshold in the Senate and three votes in the Assembly.

Former Assemblyman William Payne (D-Newark), right, with Gov. Jon Corzine today in the Ironbound 

NEWARK - Former Assemblyman William Payne (D-Newark) today wouldn’t rule out a return run for his old Assembly seat.

"If I ran, it would be for the Assembly," said Payne, who was in attendance at Governor Jon Corzine’s schools construction bill signing at the Oliver Street School in the Ironbound.

"But right now, I don’t have any intentions of running," Payne added.

Thrown off the line last year when he insisted on challenging for Sharpe James’s vacated Senate seat in the 29th District against establishment choice and eventual winner M. Teresa Ruiz, Payne would have to run against Assemblyman Albert Coutinho or Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer.