According to Marc Pfeiffer at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, comparing the budget gaps of Jersey City and New York City is “not only apples and oranges, it’s cookies and vegetables.”
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A Progressive Perspective: June 30 Mercer County Democratic committee members have an important decision
According to Rubin, “New Jersey primary voters are encouraged by the county parties, and conditioned by years of practice to vote for all the candidates on the county line,”
How Much Can My Landlord Raise the Rent?
In some localities, rents cannot rise as fast as inflation, while in Oregon, a statewide rule from 2019 allows rents to rise more quickly, limiting increases to 7 percent above the Consumer Price Index. Mark Paul, an economist at Rutgers University, said that permits landlords in Oregon to raise rents an average of 9 or 10 percent a year, which makes it less of a traditional rent control policy and more of an “anti-gouging” measure.
Hetling, Yeo, & McFarland Research Easing Administrative Burden in the Public Safety Net
A study by Rutgers researchers Andrea Hetling, Vee Yeo, and Lillian McFarland found that trauma-informed approaches, strong case management, peer support, and flexible services can make public safety net programs more accessible and effective for survivors.
Pfeiffer Opinion: N.J. handed MSU public TV without fixing the laws that could doom it
According to Marc Pfeiffer, NJ handed Montclair State a big responsibility: rebuild public broadcasting from scratch. The risks are real, including political pressure, budget shifts, and no structural safeguards if leadership changes.
Engaged citizens built America. Today, civics education is coming back.
“We need to figure out how to find common ground,” Professor Longo says. “So I think there’s some basic civic skills that we all need to have. And it should be built into our educational settings. How do you get good as a musician, as an athlete? You get good through practice.”
The Wrap: Electricity Rates, Hotel Controversies, Home Rule
According to Marc Pfeiffer at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, a major contributing factor to the state’s high property taxes is the duplication of services and staff across all those municipalities and school districts.
New Jersey ranks last in regional business climate report for 8th straight year, while Pennsylvania scores best
“A century ago, we had the European waves of immigration that fed our factories, and now our highly educated workforce fills the high-technology jobs of the present and future,” he said. “In many cases, firms treasure their New Jersey employees and don’t want to lose them by moving out of state, so they do keep operations here.”
Rabble Rousers shown at Jalopy with a panel including Councilmember Aviles
Much of the following panel centered around the importance of organizing. With Leyva facilitating, the panel included Housing Advocate Tito Delgado (Cooper Square CLT), Professor James DeFilippis (Rutgers University), Council Member Alexa Aviles (District 38), and Community Organizer Elise Goldin (New Economy Project). The lively discussion explored how commercial leases fund CLTs, the importance of fun in community organizing, and the political significance of land. It also frequently returned to the plight of the NYC Housing Authority–the City’s public housing provider which continues to grapple with the results of decades of disinvestment, increasingly turning to privatization to help fund rehabilitation of its units.
NJ’s newly crowded primaries prompt call for ranked choice voting
“The most obvious solution is to adopt ranked choice voting, which also would diminish the power of outside money to propel a single candidate to victory,” said Sass Rubin, the Rutgers professor. “At the very least, the legislature could adopt ranked choice voting for congressional races, which have been attracting the largest numbers of candidates.”