6 events in Passaic County with a date

Protect transparency. NJ comptroller must remain independent

 

..... New Jersey Senate President Nicholas Scutari's allergy to transparency continues to worsen.
..... In his latest move to limit accountability in Trenton and beyond, Scutari has introduced a bill that would consolidate the watchdog capacities - the investigative "powers, functions and duties" - of the Office of the New Jersey State Comptroller with the State Commission of Investigation.
..... The bill would continue the "process of consolidating and eliminating duplication among state government oversight entitles." Moving the investigations work out of the comptroller's office and instead consolidating it within the SCI "provides necessary insulation from partisan influence, changes in executive administration and changes in legislative personnel," the bill's language says.
..... As propose, the legislation, we believe, rests an enormous amount of power in the SCI - an agency that lost its bite amid conflict and chaos that is now trying to find a path forward, as the Asbury Park Press has reported extensively - and unnecessarily so. the comptroller's office's investigative functions are independent and should remain so.
..... Further, the legislation would further limit the public's ability to access records related to SCI investigation - even after they're closed.
..... We oppose those limits.
..... The proposed legislation was presented in Trenton on December 1 [2025] at a meeting of the Senate's State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee.
..... It's horrendous legislation that must be scrapped altogether. If it advances and is passed by the Legislature - a real possibility, sadly - Governor Phil Murphy must veto it.

Scutari's latest attack on transparency

..... Scutari, of course, already has his fingerprints on a litany of damaging moves that have sorely damaged transparency at all levels of government in the Garden State.
* He shepherded the gutting of the offence-rubust Open Public Records Act.
* He presided over the defanging of the New Jersey election Law enforcement Commission.
* He facilitated the killing of longstanding practices related to the publishing of pubic notices.
..... That's some record.
.... With this latest move, Scutari's transparency allergy has become chronic. And that's saying something - even for the Union County Democrat and Attorney who is on the record suggesting that New Jersey's state government is burdened by watchdogs.
..... "I think what we have is a lot of watchdogs, a lot of them. We have ELEC, SCI, we have comptroller, the Attorney General's Office, we have county prosecutors," Scutair said to members of Trenton press corps in January [2025] forecasting his latest proposal. "one of these days we're going to have to look at consolidation of those efforts."
..... Scutari, as he did in earlier attacks on transparency, presents this proposed legislation in a spirit of alleged government "efficiency," a streamlined transparency mechanism will save taxpayers money is the notion.
..... That's ridiculous.
..... In a state like New Jersey - with a decades - old culture of political corruption fueled by all sorts of malfeasance and betrayal of the public trust - it's astonishing - gallingly so - that an elected official like the president of the state Senate could suggest that there's too much oversight of government.
..... Of course, the Democrats' track record on transparency during these eight years of the Murphy administration, it's also entirely unsurprising.

Questionable timing

..... The latest move to turn back the clock in Trenton - an attempt to return to darker, mid-20th-century days of corruption - has highly questionable timing.
..... The bill was introduced the day before a holiday - months after the state Senate last convened.
..... The bill cleared the Senate's State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee after a tense public hearing on December 1 [2025] in which state senators - notably state Senator James Beach, the Camden County Democrat - took shots at Senator Andy Kim, who spoke in opposition to the legislation.
..... If passed, Scutari's bill will land on the desk of a lame-duck governor.
..... The rush stinks.
..... Acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh called the legislation "NJ transparency' at its worst" in a social media post on November 26. [2025]
..... Later, in a call with the pres corps, Walsh was more direct - hitting back hard at Scutari's notion that the proposed consolidation was in the spirit of saving and efficiency.
..... The bill is "designed to make it easier to be corrupt in New Jersey and to avoid detention," Walsh said.
..... "The bill says it is about efficiency, but no one could possibly believe that," he went on. "they are coming for the state comptroller's powers because we have showed how political power and corruption go together in New Jersey."
..... Attorney General Matthew Platkin was equally sanguine.
..... The bill, Platkin said, would amount to "killing a government watchdog that stops wasteful spending, giving politically powerful individuals broad powers to intimidate law enforcement fighting corruption."
..... The attorney general is right.
..... New Jersey politics are transactional - as is the business of governance in the Garden State. Transparency matters.
..... Agencies like the comptroller's office and the SCI, tasked with regulatory and enforcement powers that seek to preserve it, matter.
..... Keep the comptroller's office independence of the SCI.
..... Legislators in the state Senate and Assembly must oppose this legislation.

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