News List

Proposed overhaul of NJ public records law

“You can’t really run a government if every draft document that you have of exploring ideas is subject to public disclosure, because it doesn’t represent a final government action,” Pfeiffer said. “You really can’t do business in a full transparent mode.”

Dutch hyperloop center aims to advance futuristic transport technology

“This is just another example of policy makers chasing a shiny object when basic investment in infrastructure is needed,” Robert Noland, distinguished professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said in comments emailed to The Associated Press. “It costs too much to build,” he added.

EJB Talks with Professors Joel Cantor and Kathe Newman

Professors ⁠Joel Cantor and ⁠Kathe Newman are part of a new Rutgers initiative, the ⁠Housing and Health Equity Cluster⁠, which aims to address health equity issues through interdisciplinary collaboration across university departments.

Morning Digest: Tammy Murphy, New Jersey’s first lady, drops Senate bid

This system allows parties to give preferential ballot placement to their preferred candidates, putting endorsees in a prominent location while relegating others to less visible spots known as “ballot Siberia.” That design confers an extreme advantage: Rutgers professor Julia Sass Rubin concluded that between 2002 and 2022, candidates on the county line enjoyed an average boost of 38 points.

Kim’s Stunning Senate Run Poised to Further Disrupt NJ Politics

“It’s really difficult for state legislators to have any independence. If they don’t vote the way these folks want them to, they lose the Line, and then they lose their election,” Rubin said.
Kim’s campaign, and his push against the Line, had elevated the primary race from a typical political contest to a symbolic fight over the state’s murky political ethics.

Should state agencies help pay for events in Atlantic City?

One of the issues with these subsidies is the lack of accountability, Pfeiffer said. A 2019 report stated that CRDA failed to monitor the actual cost and economic impact of the Miss America Competition when it negotiated the second contract with the organization in 2016, according to an audit of the agency.

NJ lost 34,000 jobs in the past year. Are there choppy waters ahead?

Those higher-paying sectors — white-collar jobs — became saturated after having a “hard time filling their open positions” coming out of the pandemic, Hughes said. “They’re filled now and they’re holding on to the people they have, but they’re not adding new people,” he said.

The future of New Jersey politics is on the line

“You’re going to start seeing a lot more bravery by legislators and you’re going to see primary challengers that are more successful,” said Sass Rubin, the Rutgers professor. “So you’re going to have more accountability.”

Video: Will We See an End to NJ’s Party Line?

David Cruz talks with Julia Sass Rubin (Bloustein School, Rutgers) about Rep. Andy Kim’s party line lawsuit, being an expert witness in the case & history impact of the line

NJSPL – New Jersey’s 2025 Tax Revenue Projections

Adjusted appropriations for FY 2024 are nearly $1 billion higher than in the original budget, while FY 2024 revenues are projected to be about $500 million lower. As a result, the current projection would see the budget surplus drop from $10.7 billion at the outset of FY 2024 to $6.1 billion at the end of FY 2025.

Op-Ed: Three reasons why NJ should cut the ‘county line’ from ballots

For example, Professor Julia Sass Rubin from Rutgers University has argued that the county line system impacts elections by “steering voters towards specific candidates” and “increases voter confusion, contributing to overvotes and undervotes” by as much as 50 percentage points in some races.

Too late to change ballots NJ’s political bosses use to sway elections? Judge pushes back.

The defense cross-examined Sass Rubin, asking her whether she could specify whether the races she analyzed could have been affected by name recognition of the candidate, or the amount of money spent on the race.
“Potentially,” Sass Rubin said. “But you’re seeing the same pattern being on the county line and having the same results across 45 races.”

Dean Shapiro: A hidden way politics shapes regulation

To address these questions, two forces should be brought to bear. The first is expertise, which is housed at the agencies of the executive branch. The second is political responsiveness, which comes from the president. The push and pull between expertise and responsiveness is hard to balance, but few would argue that neither should be present.

VTC’s Leigh Ann Von Hagen Named Sustainability Hero

Sustainable Jersey named Leigh Ann Von Hagen a 2024 Sustainability Hero. Leigh Ann is a managing director and adjunct professor with the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center and a founder of the Planning Healthy Communities Initiative.

Controversial bill to revamp NJ public records law yanked

I would suggest there’s no pressing reason to rush anything through in a few months,” Pfeiffer told NJ Spotlight News. “The attention that’s been placed on this has given the Legislature and the governor the opportunity to really rethink how we manage public records in the state of New Jersey…”

Op-Ed–We need to fix OPRA – Let’s start here

It is widely acknowledged that OPRA needs fixing. Recent legislative hearings highlighted that. But debates about changes often involve accusations between parties, making productive discussion impossible. Reforms attempted in private by a few groups fail because they do not consider different viewpoints or unintended impacts. This causes more public distrust in government.

NJSPL – Marc Pfeiffer On Fixing the Open Public Records Act

OPRA, the state’s Open Public Records Act is showing its age. Now 22 years old, this important public policy suffers, in part, from age, neglect, unintended consequences, and unexpected use cases. Efforts to repair OPRA must recognize that the law affects all levels of New Jersey government, not just municipal.

Op-ed:The time has come to abolish the line

Professor Julia Sass Rubin has studied the impact of the line on election outcomes and policy. One of her studies found that the line conferred an average 35 percentage point advantage in primaries.

A Chance to End the Party Machine’s Undemocratic Control in New Jersey

One study by Rutgers University [written by Professor Julia Sass Rubin] found that being granted the line gives congressional candidates a 38-point advantage. Though party machines dominate other states, too, this particular method of control is unique to New Jersey. One expert described it as that “special New Jersey sauce.”

Who Picks Your Politicians?

 “Elected officials are aware of the importance of the line for their reelection and the power of county party chairs to award the line,” wrote Rubin. “If an elected official does not do as the county chair wants, they can lose the line and almost surely lose the primary, ending, or severely curtailing their political careers.”

Nepo babies of N.J.

“What Egan did, that is a manifestation of how machines operate,” said Julia Sass Rubin, a Rutgers University professor who has researched politics in New Jersey. “You just appoint your successor.”

Fighting New Jersey’s Ballot Bosses

 “Elected officials are aware of the importance of the line for their reelection and the power of county party chairs to award the line,” wrote Rubin. “If an elected official does not do as the county chair wants, they can lose the line and almost surely lose the primary, ending, or severely curtailing their political careers.”

Sarlo’s OPRA stink bomb needs to be defused

Pfeiffer’s take is blunt: “Bludgeons create a mess, and rapiers are surgical. This bill uses a bludgeon to try to deal with outliers that exist within OPRA.”

NTI Director Billy Terry featured on Mpact Podcast

Billy Terry, Executive Director of the National Transit Institute at Rutgers and India Birdsong Terry, CEO and General Manager of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) talk about culture change in Ohio’s biggest transit agency.

Three companies own more than 19,000 or nearly 11% of rental houses in metro Atlanta

“Corporate landlords like places that are growing, and they like places where housing is relatively cheap,” Shelton said. “But the other box that Atlanta checks is that we have very lax tenant protections.” To address the situation, Shelton and his fellow researchers (Eric Seymour) decided to make their methods of investigation available to the public.

Departing RealPage Exec’s Flimsy Rant Against Rent Control

Let’s first consider the AER survey and New York study, which were both published over 30 years ago (in 1992 and 1972-89, respectively). As Rutgers economist Mark Paul has written, decades-old theoretical assumptions about rent control are being increasingly challenged by contemporary evidence:

A Ballot Blowup Is Roiling New Jersey’s Senate Race

The political leaders of all 21 counties award “the line”—which is essentially far more prominent positioning on the ballot—to their favored candidate. Everyone else appears in the margins. It sounds absurdly crude and biased, but it is highly effective: A study published last year in the Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy [by Professor Julia Sass Rubin] found that congressional candidates appearing on the line had a 38-point advantage.

Dr. O’Brien-Richardson and Dr. Williams receive team grant for Rutgers community

Patti O’Brien-Richardson Briana Bivens, Madinah Elamin, Anette Freytag, Corina Hernandez, Anthony Jones, Darnell Thompson, and Shar Williams were awarded a grant in the 2023-24 Mutual Mentoring Grant cycle. This collective was formed to build capacity for academic publishing and publicly-engaged scholarship while curating a space to cultivate research and teaching practice in the community. 

Taylor Pickett-Stokes (MPAP/MSW ’24) takes the stage in “Black Girl Magic”

Dual Master of Public Affairs and Politics/Master of Social Work candidate, Taylor Pickett-Stokes will be taking the stage at Mercer County Community College’s (MCCC) Kelsey Theatre March 1-3 with Virginia-based Underground Performing Arts Collective (UPAC) and their presentation of “Black Girl Magic.” 

How a Texas school ruling on hair spreads mental harm, even in New Jersey

Research shows that some individuals who experience prolonged incidents of racial discrimination can exhibit symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder including depression, anger, recurring thoughts of the event and physical reactions such as headaches, chest pains and insomnia.

Exxon CEO blames public for failure to fix climate change

For the U.S. to decarbonize in an orderly fashion, “restrictive supply-side policies that curtail fossil fuel extraction and support workers and communities must play a role,” Rutgers Univresity economists Mark Paul and Lina Moe wrote last year.

AI-powered work: Efficiency gains and human skills erosion

According to Carl Van Horn, professor of public policy, it’s a give and take. “As with other major technological changes, generative AI will create opportunities for some and heartbreak for others.” This could harm some sectors, as graduates with at least one formal education degree want safeguards to protect them from unemployment.

The big property tax promise

Altogether, the state’s tax break programs are a confusing jumble piled on top of each other, said Marc Pfeiffer, “it’s getting confusing,” he said.

Researchers Find Three Companies Own More than 19,000 Rental Houses in Metro Atlanta

Shelton, an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences at Georgia State, along with his collaborator Eric Seymour of Rutgers University, investigated the ownership of rental homes in metro Atlanta and found that more than 19,000 were owned by just three companies — Invitation Homes, Pretium Partners and Amherst Holdings.

Andy Kim Sues to Block Preferential Treatment on Ballots in Senate Race

Representative Andy Kim, a Democrat running for Senate in New Jersey against the state’s first lady, filed a federal lawsuit on Monday that seeks to redesign the ballot before June’s contentious primary election, arguing the current layout unfairly benefits candidates supported by party leaders.

Ban Fossil Fuels? Readers Had Strong Thoughts.

Mark Paul, an economist at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, wrote that he’s a “huge advocate” of putting a price on carbon, as Ho is, but “we simply need to consider a far broader swath of policy tools to facilitate rapid decarbonization.

Why Don’t We Just Ban Fossil Fuels?

A pair of economists, Mark Paul and Lina Moe, wrote last year for an advocacy group called the Climate and Community Project in a piece titled “An Economist’s Case for Restrictive Supply-Side Policy.

NJSPL – New Jersey Employment Concerns Revisited

As 2024 began with yet another surprisingly strong jobs report for the U.S., and with a full year’s worth of 2023 state-level employment data now available, it’s worth briefly revisiting some of the trends discussed in our early December post on New Jersey’s employment situation.

NJ Health Data Project Approves Research Addressing Population Health

. “In the last year, we doubled the roster of experts on the project’s Research Advisory Committee and increased the number of applications for data access by half. With each application cycle, the iPHD is continuing to build an active, engaged community of researchers and health policy makers.” – Joel Cantor

No strikes again

Mia Gray, professor of economic geography at Cambridge University, and James DeFilippis, professor at Rutgers’ school of planning and public policy, have argued that unionized workers provide a unique benefit to Vegas’s hotels and resorts.

Experts see clouds on the fiscal horizon for NJ government

During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, several members of the workgroup offered their takes on the likelihood of there being enough revenue available by then to launch an altogether new relief program in the current economic environment. “Right now, it’s a wait-and-see,” said Marc Pfeiffer,

Laurie Harrington named the Acting Executive Director of the Heldrich Center

Laurie Harrington, Assistant Director for Evaluation at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, has been appointed Acting Executive Director of the center. She succeeds Kevin Dehmer, who was nominated by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to serve as New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education.

New Jersey: A Hidden Home of Voter Suppression

According to Prof. Rubin’s findings, primary challengers will frequently drop out because they fear wasting the time and expense of running for office if they don’t have the line.  

Have you heard of this thing called ‘the line’?

Murphy could choose independently to disavow the line. And experts I spoke to — Rutgers Professor Julia Sass Rubin and Brett Pugach, the lead attorney on a lawsuit challenging the line’s constitutionality — agreed that’s the case.

Mark Paul Featured on The Majority Report

Professor Mark Paul joins Emma Vigeland on The Majority Report podcast, diving right into the inspiration for his piece on an Economic Bill of Rights (and his economic work as a whole) in seeing the richest nation in history make its citizens suffer through the 2008 financial crisis, both conceptualizing that wealth and why GDP doesn’t present the full picture of a country’s well being under capitalism.

NJSPL – Climate Education Initiatives in New Jersey

In 2020, New Jersey became the first state in the country to require climate change education to be incorporated across multiple subjects in K-12 schools. Two years later, Sustainable Jersey released a report on K-12 Climate Education Needs.

Fewer women in NJ legislature, Eagleton finds

“Everybody else is scattered across the ballot in different ways but always in a different column or row from the people on the line, and this has the effect of confusing voters as to what their choices are,” Rubin said.

10% of Emergency Department Patients See No Physician

Kurtzman and colleagues conducted a study to answer the questions: When patients do see a physician, how are those patient visits different from those that do not see a physician? Are there differences in the practice patterns when an ED patient is seen by at least one physician compared to when a similar ED patient sees no physician at all?

Andy Kim’s Calibrated Populist Progressive Message

Indeed, a statewide primary candidate’s line position in most counties makes him or her virtually unbeatable. This was extensively documented by a recent study by the eminent professor, Dr. Julia Sass Rubin at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

Compare Electric Rates in New Jersey

New Jersey deregulated its energy market in 1999, allowing people to choose which companies generate the electricity that powers their homes. “Not everyone is making the effort to take advantage of the opportunity to change,” said Clinton Andrews,

We can still make a good economy much better

“Progressives do not have the power — at least not yet — to win an economic bill of rights,” Mark Paul concedes. “To see poverty eradicated, progressives will have to continue pressing their case — via mass movements and grassroots organizing, over the dinner table, and in the public sphere.”

NJSPL – Are E-Scooter Users More Seriously Injured than E-Bike Users and Bicyclists?

Do e-scooters lead to more severe injuries than other micromobility modes? Which micromobility injuries are most commonly associated with a motor vehicle? What are some demographic differences related to e-scooter injuries (with equity implications)? Researchers Hannah Younes, Robert Noland and Leigh Ann Von Hagen worked on this study.

New Jersey Hit By Cyber Attacks On Schools, Hospitals

Class was canceled Monday across the Freehold Township school district, but not for the familiar January troubles of slushy roads, frozen pipes or a busted boiler. No, this was “a cybersecurity event” that ground school business to a halt. Marc Pfeiffer weighs in on ways to protect against such attacks.

Scientific Research needs a Radical Restructuring

Because senior researchers hire postdocs according to their projects’ need for labor, rather than the number of faculty openings awaiting the trainees, postdocs now vastly outnumber available faculty positions. The result: We have transformed a competition based on skills and talent into a lottery where few can win.

Tammy Murphy’s connection to Joe Biden could give her a big advantage in Senate primary

It took Tammy Murphy just weeks to win the backing of key New Jersey Democratic leaders in her bid for Senate. In a state where party bosses still carry strong influence in elections, that could ordinarily be enough to ensure her nomination — giving the New Jersey first lady preferential ballot positioning right below President Joe Biden in many critical counties.

NJSPL – 50 Years of Protecting the Shore: What’s Next for CAFRA?

CAFRA’s history has mirrored 50 years of evolving public concerns including coastal industrial development and environmental impacts, and it contains threads that lead straight to present-day issues, including coastal retreat and the ever-sensitive issue of regulatory jurisdiction with regard to local land use.

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