(TRENTON) — Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson) issued a multimedia package Monday on his legislation to extend the state’s existing arbitration award cap for police and firefighter salaries through 2017.
Prieto’s bill (A-3067), which would prevent a 2010 reform law from expiring, was advanced by the Assembly Budget Committee.
A copy of the bill can be viewed here.
The multimedia package consists of commentary from Speaker Prieto on his bill and a transcript and audio of same.
The video can be accessed directly via our website — www.assemblydems.com — or by clicking here.
The audio file is available upon request.
A transcript of Prieto’s comments is appended below:
Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson):
“We have the bill coming up today, it’s for police and fire, there for them to negotiate for raises on their contracts. And it’s very important because the municipalities in the last few years have a two percent cap on their budget and we have imposed a two percent cap on these arbitration.
“Now the employees have been paying a bit more because they’re paying more into their pension, they’re paying more into their health benefits. So we’re trying to strike a balance to keep property taxes low but be able to compensate our firefighters and our police that — basically they put their life on the line every day — to make sure that they’re properly compensated and we make sure that there’s that happy medium: taxpayers save money; they’re [police and fire] well compensated; so that we strike a balance that they can see a little bit more money because, at the end of the day, that more money is more money that they can spend on goods and it helps our economy.”