Joan Voss

*** MONDAY ADVISORY ***

SPEAKER ROBERTS & RENOWNED AUTISM ADVOCATE BOB WRIGHT TO BACK INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR AUTISM TREATMENT

Bill Would be Another Step in N.J.’s Campaign Against Nation’s Highest Autism

(TRENTON) – Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. and renowned autism treatment and research advocate Bob Wright will testify Monday before the Assembly Appropriations Committee in support of legislation Roberts is sponsoring to require insurers to cover autism treatments.

The Speaker and Wright will be joined by Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), Assemblywoman Joan Voss (D-Bergen) and Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson). Voss and Prieto sponsor the bill with Roberts and Vitale sponsors the Senate version.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. Monday in Committee Room 11, Fourth Floor, State House Annex, West State Street, Trenton.

Former Republican state Sen. Louis Kosco said that he occasionally gets calls from his friends who follow politics asking if he feels happy to see the Democrat who beat him in 2001 in legal trouble.

With Coniglio convicted today of six counts of mail fraud and extortion, Kosco, who moved to Lacey Township from Paramus four years ago, said he's just sad.

"People call me and say ‘aren't you happy about this,' I say ‘absolutely not,'" he said.  "It's not something that I'm gloating over, believe me," he said.

Kosco spent eighteen years in the Assembly and state Senate representing District 38, which was then a swing district.  Like Coniglio, he served on the Paramus Borough Council before the moving up to the Legislature.  He even lived ten doors down from Coniglio, though he said he did not know him well.

"I spent all those years in the legislature keeping that district as clean as it could possibly be. It just makes it look bad for all the honest politicians that are there, and there are a lot of them that do the right thing," said Kosco.

Ridgefield Councilman Nicholas Lonzisero has filed a letter of intent with the Bergen County Republican Organization to run for assembly in Legislative District 38, according to the party's chairman, Bob Yudin.

So far, no other Republicans have come forward to run in the Democratic-leaning district, which some members of the party think maybe, just maybe could be put in play in light of the state's economic woes and the pending federal corruption trials of former State Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus) and ex-Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero.

"We're actively recruiting now," said Yudin.

ASSEMBLY BILL TO BOOST PROPERTY TAX RELIEF FOR SENIOR CITIZENS AND DISABLED SIGNED INTO LAW

Measure Increases Income Limits for Property Tax Relief Program

(CLIFFSIDE PARK) – Gov. Jon S. Corzine today signed into law an Assembly bill to help more senior citizens and disabled residents receive property tax relief.

The bill (A-3460) raises the income eligibility limits for senior citizen and disabled homeowners to apply for the Senior Freeze property tax relief program, increasing household income limits from $55,000 to $80,000 over the next three years.

The law is sponsored by Assembly members Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester), Joan Voss (D-Bergen), Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex), Sandi Love (D-Camden/Gloucester), Nellie Pou (D-Passaic) and Patrick J. Diegnan (D-Middlesex).

“Making it easier for senior citizens and disabled homeowners to take advantage of this property tax relief will help ensure the global economic crisis doesn’t force residents on fixed incomes out of their homes,” Moriarty said.

GREENSTEIN/McKEON/VOSS LAW TO ENSURE NOTIFICATION OF PLANS TO CLEAN POLLUTED SITES TAKES EFFECT

(TRENTON) – A law sponsored by Assembly members Linda Greenstein, John McKeon and Joan Voss to ensure local officials and residents are properly notified when polluted buildings and properties are cleaned up has taken effect.

McHOSE/GREENWALD/VOSS BILL ALLOWING PARENTS
OF TWINS TO DETERMINE CLASS PLACEMENT NOW LAW

(TRENTON) - Bipartisan legislation Assembly members Alison McHose,  Louis Greenwald, and Joan Voss sponsored to give the parents of twins or other multiple-birth children the authority to decide whether their kids learn in the same classroom was signed into law today by Governor Jon S. Corzine.

A four-hour impasse over public employee benefits reform legislation Monday night in the General Assembly left a number of top Assembly Democrats fuming after several Hudson Democrats held out their votes on the measure causing the delay.  The boycott -- apparently orchestrated by State Senator Nicholas Sacco, who holds three public jobs in addition to his wife's employment with the Hudson County School of Technology, forced Democrats to rely on Republicans to pass the measure, a common occurrence in the Senate but a rarity in the lower House which infuriated veteran Democrats. 

VOSS/GREENSTEIN BILL TO PROTECT ABILITY OF ABUSED
TO CALL FOR HELP CLEARS ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE

(TRENTON) - The Assembly Judiciary Committee today released legislation to ensure victims of domestic abuse are able to contact police, counselors, or family members for help.

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE CLEARS BILL TO CREATE AN ADVOCATE FOR AUTISTIC NEW JERSEYANS

Part of Second Wave of Autism Support Measures Would Establish the Office of the Advocate for Persons with Autism

(TRENTON) - The Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee today released legislation Assembly members Joan Voss, Vincent Prieto and Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. sponsored to establish an Office of the Advocate for Persons with Autism (OAPA).

Some members of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), the state’s largest teacher union, decided a good way to send a message to Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts was to defeat him in Round 1 of the PolitickeNJ.com Smartest Legislator Tournament.  There was an organized effort by the teachers to vote for Joan Voss, the Assembly Education Committee Vice Chairwoman and a retired public school teacher.

After the second day of voting, Roberts led Voss in the voting.  But by Monday morning, Voss had a huge lead, and it looked like the #1 seed Roberts might be facing an upset.  But some readers, according to e-mails sent to this website, became upset that NJEA members were trying to use an online tournament to embarrass Roberts, and suddenly the Speaker’s vote totals began to surge.  Still, Voss continued to receive votes -- presumably from teachers – and maintained her lead.