Bill Baroni

No More Double-Dipping Pensions

Senator Bill Baroni (R-14) has drafted pension reform legislation that is designed to prevent excessive government payouts from state pension funds to those who continue in post-retirement public service employment. The legislation would help shore up distressed state pension funds by preventing individuals who work in full-time positions from collecting both a paycheck for public employment and a pension check simultaneously.

“This legislation will protect the state pension funds that hundreds of thousands of current and future public service retirees depend upon,” said Baroni. “It has become increasingly difficult to maintain solvent pension funds when people who come out of retirement to work in full-time positions are allowed to continue receiving checks and draining funds from the pension system. If we fail to address this issue now, we would be complicit in putting the pensions of all retirees at risk, including those who depend on a state pension as their main source of retirement income. If you’re an employee, you should get paid. If you’re retired you should get your pension. But not both.”

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HAMILTON -- Governor-elect Christopher Christie continued his post-election education theme today, appearing in front of hundreds of students at Steinert High School in Hamilton Township this afternoon. 

The suburban environment surrounding the school, which counts Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as an alumn along with two legislators who attended the assembly - state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) - provided a striking contrast to Christie's campaign stop on his first full day as Governor Elect, at the Robert Treat Academy in Newark. 

After praising the school's academic record, Christie told the students that kids in New Jersey's cities deserve the same quality.

"Those people, because of where they're born and where they live, are not getting the same education," he said. "Those kids in Trenton, Camden, Newark, Jersey City, Asbury Park - those kids deserve the same kind of education you all get in Hamilton -- at Steinert."

About half of the students gave Christie a standing ovation when he was introduced. 

Most of the assembly was taken up by a question and answer session, with students  asking Christie questions they wrote out on note cards.

State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) said the Christie campaign realized they won the race at about 9pm, when they learned they won Woodbridge – a critical town in Middlesex county.

“We knew early when we got the call that we won Woodbridge,” he said   “It was towns like Woodbridge, Sayreville and Hamilton – these blue collar Reagan Democratic towns that went overwhelmingly for Chris Christie.  Their margins were amazing.  Jamesburg – democratic towns.”

"Republican towns delivered huge numbers, and blue collar Democratic towns swung back into the Republican column.”

It's not that the numbers added up to an automatic Corzine victory, Baroni said, but it showed the Republicans won the message.

"It was emblamatic," he said.

Senator Baroni’s District Office Will Open Early to Assist Residents with Applications

Senator Bill Baroni (R-14) wants to remind all residents that the filing deadline for both the Property Tax Reimbursement Program, also known as the Senior Tax Freeze, and the Homestead Rebate is this coming Monday, November 2nd. The Senator’s district office will open early at 8 AM on Monday to ensure help is available to those who need assistance completing their applications before the deadline.

“The people of New Jersey pay the highest property taxes in the nation,” said Baroni. “Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that homeowners not miss out on any opportunity for property tax relief. My office will be open early to ensure that all residents have the opportunity to file by the Monday deadline.”

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Legislation Makes It Easier for Citizens to Perform Public Service

Legislation sponsored by Senator Bill Baroni (R-14) that would make it easier for concerned citizens to participate in their municipal government has been signed into law. The measure, S-1426/A-2784, is meant to help residents find out what positions are available on local authorities, boards and commissions, and to make it easy to apply for appointments to positions that are vacant.

“With numerous municipal authorities, boards and commissions to follow, it can be difficult for citizens to keep track of how their local government operates,” said Baroni. “With rising property taxes, we need more citizen involvement and this groundbreaking legislation – written in a bi-partisan fashion – will ensure that people have the ability to apply and participate when there are vacancies in their local government.”

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Bill would allow towns to limit where predators live

State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) says that the State Investment Council's investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in pension funds related to a company whose founder started a hedge fund that Governor Corzine invests in demonstrates at least "the perception of politics" in how the state chooses to invest.

Baroni pointed to three funds the state invests with related to Texas Pacific Group (TPG), which shares an address with TPG-Axon, a hedge fund Corzine personally invests in.  Republicans insist the two funds are related, though Corzine and spokesmen for TPG and TPG-Axon say they're administered completely separately.  

"People can make all kinds of arguments about this fund that name and their offices are right next to each other but they don't know each other. That may work on Wall Street, but that does not work on Broad Street in Hamilton," said Baroni in a conference call with reporters.

Baroni said that the investment is an effect of a policy shift that the State Investment Council undertook in 2005, in which they have hired more outside money managers to invest state funds.  It's a policy of diversification that the leaders of the council champion, though Baroni argued that it "opened up the door to the perception of politics."

"That door has now been kicked in," said Baroni, who represents the legislative district with the most public workers in the state. 

As Gov. Jon Corzine prepares to for the gubernatorial debates, he has asked Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-West Deptford)  to play his Republican opponent, former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.  That may cause some buzz among Democrats who have noticed that Corzine did not ask Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland), who was New Jersey's Governor from 2004 to 2006.  Sweeney is expected to challenge Codey in a leadership fight set for after the general election. 

Christie has picked State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) to play Corzine.  Baroni has played Corzine in Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Franks' 2000 debate preparations, and played U.S. Senator Robert Menendez when Republican Tom Kean was preparing for his 2006 debate.

State Sen. William Baroni (R-Hamilton) says he will attend today's meeting of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission to oppose New Jersey Network's application to move the gubernatorial debate from October 1 to October 22.

"As a passionate supporter of New Jersey's gubernatorial public financing system, I find the attempt by NJN to alter the timing of the debate to run counter to the letter and intent of the law that mandates debates among the candidates for governor," said Baroni, a law professor and one of the Senate's leading supporters of Clean Elections legislation.  "On behalf of no one but myself, I hope to convince the ELEC commissioners that NJN's attempt to move the debates is against the law, against public policy, and wrong."

State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown) accused Gov. Jon Corzine and his campaign of trying  to manipulate the debate schedule.

State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) wants the Senate leadership to allow a vote on his proposal to immediately suspend indicted elected officials, saying that temporarily replacing officeholders accused of crimes until due process has been completed would be in the best interests of their constituencies.

"This bill balances due process -- not suspending an official until a grand jury of his neighbors has handed up an indictment -- with the overwhelming public interest in removing these indicted public officials from their positions," Baroni said. "This bill strikes a fair, reasonable balance that will go a long way to helping us end New Jersey's culture of corruption"

Baroni says that his bill would deal with someone like Assemblyman Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy), who has been indicted on state and federal corruption charges, but Vas has refused and continues to serve in the Legislature. 

There has been a public outcry for the resignations in Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, where mayors were arrested last Thursday on federal corruption charges.  So far none have resigned; neither have two legislators who were also charged, despite calls for their ouster by legislative and party leaders.  None of these officials have been indicted, and Baroni's plan would not kick in until a grand jury returned a formal indictment.