Sagging revenue and a bevy of looming funding needs in the coming fiscal year threaten to pull New Jersey’s $8.1 billion surplus below a threshold that would pause the nascent StayNJ property tax relief program before it sends out a single payment.
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Marc Pfeiffer
West New York police earn high salaries, even more than Jersey City cops
Crime doesn’t pay in West New York, but being a police officer sure does. The working-class north Hudson town of roughly 52,000 spends nearly 20% of his annual budget, or $19.6 million, on its police department, and it doesn’t even have a police chief, according to...
Bar part-time officials from full-time perks, incoming N.J. lawmaker says
“That doesn’t excuse individuals who have consciously abused the system,” said Pfeiffer, now a professor at Rutgers University. “But there are probably any number of cases where elected officials can spend 30, 35 hours a week in their job as an unpaid or low-paid elected official.
While most towns have gone back to in-person meetings, Lakewood remains virtual
Pfeiffer said holding meetings online also risks technical problems, as well as online infiltration: “You should carefully consider the risks of meeting disruptions and make sure you balance the interests of people.”
Marc Pfeiffer Uses Claude AI to Help Write Article: AI in Local Government, Helpful or Harmful?
For local governments, chatbots create exciting opportunities to improve customer service, automate tasks and cut costs. Marc Pfeiffer, Assistant Director of Bloustein Local, Center for Urban Policy Research, uses Claude AI to help write two articles on how to best incorporate this new technology.
TECH UPDATES: What Municipal CAOs Need to Know, Part 1: Tech Fitness and Cyber Hygiene
There are two basic elements of technology that every municipality must have. Most places already do this, but it doesn’t hurt to highlight them. The first is an expert to advise you and your governing body on technology issues. As with other experts you hire—a police...
Pfeiffer – Lakewood schools borrowed millions from New Jersey and still can’t pay its bills
The Lakewood School District in New Jersey is facing severe financial distress, having borrowed $165 million since 2014 and now seeking an additional $93 million loan from the state to stay afloat. This mounting debt has been primarily attributed to the district's...
American Dream lawsuits are stacking up. Here’s why — and how they compare to other malls
The American Dream entertainment complex has faced an onslaught of 82 lawsuits since 2018, encompassing issues such as unpaid construction bills, injuries at its attractions, and defaults on loans, significantly surpassing neighboring malls in legal troubles. The...
Big retirement payouts for top cops, fire chiefs and school brass cost $76M. Why can’t N.J. stop them?
Despite attempts to cap significant retirement payouts to high-ranking officials in New Jersey, such as police chiefs, fire chiefs, and school administrators since 2010, generous payouts continue, impacting the state's highest property taxes and diverting funds from...
New Report from Marc Pfeiffer – First, Do No Harm: Algorithms, AI, and Digital Product Liability
The potential for algorithmic harm(s) are commonly reported to be found in (but are not limited to) technologies such as generative artificial intelligence chatbots, social media, virtual reality, Internet of Things, surveillance tech, robots, etc. This new report provides a pathway to reduce algorithmic harms by incentivizing developers to first, do no harm as opposed to work fast and break things.