New Jersey Democrats have struck a deal with Governor Christie that may make a dent in the current budget deficit:
TRENTON – A deal on interest arbitration caps for unionized police and firefighters has been struck between the administration and legislative leadership, according to a source familiar with the discussions. Gov. Chris Christie’s office, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-32) and Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) could roll details of the agreement as soon as tomorrow. The announcement will extend a version of the former law that was allowed to sunset in March, a source said.
Details on a compromise were scant, however talks have been ongoing since the Assembly allowed the law that put a 2 percent cap on interest arbitration to expire after Prieto refused to post a proposal for a vote that was offered by the governor and approved by the Senate.
In March, Senate and Assembly lawmakers passed a bill that would extend the cap, which was set to expire at the end of the month, until the end of 2017. The proposal that went through both chambers also significantly loosened the existing cap. In return, Christie conditionally vetoed the bill to add language to largely put it back in line with the existing cap.
http://www.politickernj.com/...
Commentary, after the Cheetoh.
Short version. New Jersey Democrats and Republicans have agreed to set a hard 2% cap on the annual contracted base salary increases that can be awarded to police and firefighters through arbitration. This compromise means that a bill to extend this limit through 2017, which was first imposed in 2011, will be passed by the Legislature and signed off on by Christie.
Unless they find another way to close New Jersey's 800 million dollar shortfall, like Christie backpedaling on his "promise" to not raise taxes or impose any new taxes, you can expect this trend to expand to cover additional public employee unions.
Now for the other shoe. I suspect that Christie had to give some quid pro quo, in exchange for this agreement. Will report again, when the nature of the deal becomes evident.