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Uncertainty About What Will Happen In Lame Duck Legislative Session In NJ

New Jersey Statehouse

The New Jersey legislature is not scheduled to meet until after the election.  It's uncertain what might be enacted before a new governor takes office and the current legislative session ends in January.

Governor Chris Christie says he wants lawmakers to pass a measure in the lame duck session that would extend the two-percent cap on arbitration awards for police and firefighters.

He'd also like to get some nominations done.

“Particularly in the judgeship area, make sure that fill as many of the judicial seats as we can so that people are not having a big delay in terms of getting justice. I will tell you that the Chief Justice has told me there are more judges seated now than at any time in his time in service on the court.”

And Christie says he’d like any needed adjustments to the state budget to get done before he leaves office.

“Whatever we know from the first half of the year or so, so if there’s any kind of supplemental changes that we need to make, to make sure that we make those we leave it as clean as we possibly can for the governor-elect.”

Senate President Steve Sweeney says he's not sure what can get done because there might be some resistance from an incoming administration to having certain things enacted.

“We're not talking about not doing anything in lame duck. It's just this is a little different. You're coming into a new administration whether it's Guadagno or Murphy they're going to have their priorities set too. They're going to want to hit the ground running. So we've got to figure out what we can do.”

Sweeney says he has some ideas on what he'd like the Legislature to approve before the current session ends, but won't provide any specifics.