Column: Today, Lame Ducks Make a Lot of Sausage

Today is that biannual silliest day of the year in Trenton, though this silliness is not the kind that makes the public smile.

The culmination of the two-month lame duck session, the last full day of a legislative session, is a voting marathon, the last chance for bills to advance to the governor’s desk and nominees to move into new positions before they have to start the whole approval process over again.

Remember that quote about laws being like sausages? Well in the state capitol today, the butchers are on steroids and the meat grinders spinning at hyperspeed. It’s a wonder no one loses a finger. Or a hand.

Actually, the losses can include full limbs and torsos, but legislators are not typically the victims. While many constituencies will dine on the resulting feast, there are others that become the meal.

The Senate’s current board list includes 117 bills, although there’s nothing to stop others from being added as emergencies. The upper house is also on notice to consider gubernatorial vetoes. The Assembly is also slated to judge 117 bills, though most of them are different from what's on the Senate’s list, and its agenda also advises members to be prepared to consider any action the other house takes.

There are also some truly time-sensitive measures, like a bill to extend unemployment benefits for some long-term unemployed New Jerseyans. For most, though, it’s a rush to judgment to try to avoid going back to the starting line with a pet project or some other new program or reform.

No matter how mundane a bill may seem, it’s got some group in favor and one or more against. Well, OK, maybe not Morris County Sen. Anthony Bucco’s bill designating May as Displaced Homemakers Awareness Month; it’s hard to imagine who might oppose the three-sentence resolution, although it was amended to only "request"—rather than "require"—that the governor issue a proclamation addressing the plight of these women annually.

On deck are several controversial measures, such as one to allow logging in state forests and a pilot program to permit betting on horse races in bars and restaurants. Voters could lose the ability to approve or reject school budgets that remain within the state's tax-increase cap if a measure to move the annual school elections to November passes.

And don’t forget the bill that would allow governments to post legal notices on official websites, instead of in newspapers. Municipal officials strongly support this as a way to save taxpayers money, while the loss of revenue from legal ads would deal another financial blow to the state’s struggling newspapers.

Bills are not the only items up for a vote. Before the concurrent voting sessions in the afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to consider 37 nominees. If that committee defies the legislative laws of time and actually starts at 10:30 a.m., and if members do not take a lunch break before the beginning of the scheduled 2 p.m. Senate session, that gives them less than 6 minutes to consider each nominee. More likely, members will quickly approve names en masse without interview or discussion.

Among those whose fates are awaiting action: Matthew R. Petracca of Lincoln Park, who hopes to replace Marianne McConnell on the Morris County Board of Taxation; Scott Digiralomo of Long Valley, up for a spot on the Statewide Public Safety Communications Commission; and Andrew S. Berns of Parsipany, looking to join the Rutgers University Board of Trustees. Former Madison Mayor Mary-Anna Holden is on the list of interviewees for a $125,000 job as a member of the state Board of Public Utilities, but the committee is not expected to vote on her nomination, nor that of Sussex County Freeholder Richard Vohden to be an unpaid member of the New Jersey Highlands Council.

From the repairing of problems subject to an auto recall to an income tax deduction for Girl Scouts, there’s something on today’s agendas that could affect most every Jerseyan.

There’s no way lawmakers can give all these issues the proper consideration in less than a day.

But they can churn out a lot of sausage.

Colleen O'Dea is a writer, editor, researcher, data analyst, web page designer and mapper with almost three decades in the news business. Her column appears Mondays.

Note: This post is shared among multiple Patch sites serving communities in Morris and Sussex Counties. Comments below may be by readers of any of those Patch sites.