The latest issue in Bergen County: Gov. Christopher Christie’s plan to end Blue Laws.  Christie says Sunday retail shopping in Bergen County would bring the state an additional $65 million in annual revenue.  Expect legislators from both sides of the aisle to oppose the plan – this is one issue where Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge), who will run the budget hearings, and conservative State Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest) are in agreement.  Polling has showed the repeal of Blue Laws to be politically toxic among Bergen County voters.

The plan may not be entirely within the control of the governor and the Legislature.  County Clerk Kathleen Donovan, the likely GOP candidate for County Executive, says that any repeal of Blue Laws would have to be approved by voters in a countywide referendum – and approved by voters in any municipality where the Sunday prohibition would be set aside. 

“Clearly, this is an issue that should and will be left to the voters,” said Donovan, who has said she would vote against the repeal.  Donovan has also noted that the courts have upheld a local Paramus ordinance prohibiting work of any kind on Sundays.

SARLO: GOVERNOR GIVES SENATE BUDGET PANEL 'PLENTY TO CHEW ON' AS FY11 REVIEW BEGINS

TRENTON - Senator Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, today released the following statement on Governor Chris Christie's proposed Fiscal Year 2011 state budget:

"The Governor has certainly given the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee plenty to chew on over the next eight weeks.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-ridge) doesn’t know what Gov. Chris Christie’s budget for next year is going to look like, but he’s it’s going to be tough and that Republicans are going to have to vote for it.  

“I think what’s going to be unique about this year… is our colleagues and friends on the Republican side of the aisle have been able to sit back, criticize and not put up any difficult votes in difficult budget years,” he said.  “That most likely will change this year, and they’re going to have to be prepared to provide sufficient votes on.”

Sarlo said that since budget details have not yet been released, it’s far too early to tell whether it would win any Democratic votes.  The budget will need at least four Democratic votes to pass, even if Christie has all seventeen Republicans present and firmly behind it. 

“We really have to look at the whole budget and the impact and pain it spreads across the state,” said Sarlo.

TRENTON - Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo today announced an aggressive 8 1/2-week schedule for the panel's hearings on the Governor's proposed FY2011 state budget.

"The Governor's budget address will come at a critical point for the state and it only follows that this committee not waste time in getting down to business," said Sarlo (D-Bergen/Essex/Passaic). "While we will be aggressive in our timetable, we will not skimp one bit in giving the Governor's budget the careful review it demands and deserves."

Developer Michael Kasparian plans to seek a new term as Bergen County Democratic chairman, and it remains to be seen whether he will run unopposed.

“I will be running for the chair this June, and no one has informed me of any intention to challenge my candidacy,” Kasparian told PolitickerNJ.com.  He preferred not to go into any further detail. 

Kasparian took the helm of a party shaken by the corruption indictment and subsequent conviction of its former chairman, Joseph Ferriero, a fundraising powerhouse who took over the Democrats as a perennial minority party and transformed them into a fundraising powerhouse that by 2007 controlled all but one countywide office.

But while Ferriero wanted Kasparian to be his replacement, the new chairman has taken pains to highlight his own less autocratic leadership style.  Most Bergen Democrats acknowledge that he is anything but autocratic, even the anti-Ferriero.  But it has come at a price.

“We complained that we had a machine when we were winning, and now we’ve lost that machine and we’re losing,” explained one Democratic elected official with ambivalent feelings about Kasparian who did not want to be identified.

Both privately and publicly, prominent Bergen Democrats have complained that Kasparian is indecisive, that the strong leadership they’re used to is lacking.

Although there had long been public infighting in the Bergen County Democratic Organization between Ferriero loyalists and a faction of reform advocates led by state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), elections were tackled with coolness and efficiency.  The public infighting was, for the most part, relegated to the Bergen County Republican Organization.

When Westwood Mayor John Birkner dropped out of the race for freeholder last week, some Bergen County Democratic insiders said he couldn’t muster the support, despite being backed by state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-ridge) and Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck).

“It’s not the case,” said Sarlo.

Sarlo said that Birkner got mixed signals from Democratic Chairman Michael Kasparian, who recruited him, and his wife’s recent treatment for breast cancer also made him reluctant to run.  Sarlo said that he and Weinberg never mounted a real push.

“We didn’t really try.  We were trying to get directions from the chairman on what he wanted to do.  He gave no direction.  He invited the guy in, told the guy to go to the Building Trades,” said Sarlo.  “But he was torn, because he was invited in by the leadership. So he didn’t want to disappoint the leadership and the unions, but at the same time the chairman brought him in and he was confused if he supported him.”

Kasparian wound up endorsing Northvale Mayor John Hogan, who was the non-incumbent who won the party line for the seat of retiring Freeholder Tomas Padilla. 

“All of that should have been avoided. There was no need to invite this guy in, get the unions and the Building Trades to support him, and then decide you don’t really want to go with him,” said Sarlo. 

Joseph Ariyan, the party’s counsel and a Kasparian confidante, did not want to get into a faceoff with Sarlo.

Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) has asked the State Auditor to review the finances and assets of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) before the Legislature decides if they should approve a requested $30 million subsidy to the debt-ridden authority.

The Senate Legislative Oversight Committee, which Buono chairs, held a public hearing today to consider the future of the NJSEA. 

“We had the chance to hear from a number of stakeholders, both within the Sports Authority and outside. Several things became abundantly clear. The state has been shouldering the authority’s debt at an increasing rate since 1992,” Buono said.  “The authority ventured far afield of its original mission as a result of decisions that were based on sports preferences rather than economic viability and sound land use planning. The operating model that worked in the early days of the authority has become unsustainable.”

Buono says the results of the State Auditor’s report will be shared with a commission appointed by Gov. Christopher Christie last month that is taking a look at the state’s sports and gaming industry.

Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge), whose South Bergen district is home to Giants Stadium, the Izod Center arena, and the Meadowlands Race Track, said that the NJSEA-run complex is “New Jersey’s most valuable piece of real estate.”

SARLO: AS NJ'S 'MOST VALUABLE REAL ESTATE,' MEADOWLANDS MUST BE MADE TO SUCCEED

TRENTON – Senator Paul Sarlo, a member of the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee, released the following statement on today’s committee hearing into the fiscal health and future of the Meadowlands:

“While we can discuss best practices for operating the Meadowlands, one thing is clear: This is New Jersey’s most valuable piece of real estate.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-ridge) said that Bergen County Democrats are not making a mistake by not fielding a candidate to run against U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) in the 5th Congressional District.

Sarlo would rather let Democrats from one of the district’s rural counties field their own candidate – a first, since all four candidates that Democrats have run against Garrett have come from Bergen.

“It’s such a diverse district…  A more viable candidate, in my opinion, would come from Sussex and Warren,” he said.

Bergen County contains about two-thirds of the 5th district’s population.  The district also includes four towns in northern Passaic County, all of Warren County and most of Sussex County.

“Most of the population is in Bergen but the conservative vote that usually wins that district is in Sussex and Warren.”

Privately, most Democratic leaders admit that they do not stand much chance of unseating Garrett this year, and would rather take their chances with the 2011 redistricting.  They saw a glimmer of hope in 2008, when blind rabbi/psychologist Dennis Shulman ran a spirited campaign and spent over $1 million, but morale was crushed when he wound up losing to Garrett without improving on the losing margin of his 2006 challenger, Paul Aronsohn.

SWEENEY & SARLO: $150 MILLION IN NEW STIMULUS HELP AGAIN SHOWS NEW JERSEY HAS A PARTNER IN WASHINGTON

TRENTON - Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney and Budget and Appropriations Chairman Paul Sarlo today said an announcement by the federal Department of Health and Human Services that it will decrease the amount New Jersey will have to reimburse Medicare for some prescription drug payments shows once again how the state is being helped by the policies set by the Obama administration.