NJ Senate President Says Upper House Will Not Break This Summer [AUDIO]

Typically, Trenton becomes a ghost town after a Governor signs the State Budget into law. Legislators scramble back to their districts to begin their summer-long vacations.

That’s not the case this year for members of New Jersey’s Upper House according to State Senate President Steve Sweeney.

“We are going to have committees throughout the summer,” says Sweeney. “We’re going to be holding hearings throughout the summer and hearing bills and we’re also going to have a voting session or two through the summer…I don’t think that we should take the summer off. In the Senate we haven’t done it since I’ve been the Senate President.”

Sweeney thinks the people of New Jersey, not just those who vote, but everybody deserves to know legislators will not be taking a two-and-a-half-month break.

“Obviously for me there’s a bunch of priorities,” explains Sweeney. “Shared services is still a very important bill for me…We have a lot of work to do. This state is a distressed state. We just can’t say we’re going to come back in September. We have work to do.”

Sweeney says the legislature should build on the momentum of passing the higher education reorganization bill that was done in a bi-partisan fashion. He also thinks the teacher tenure reform legislation proves lawmaker from both parties and both houses can work well together.