NJ Cops | Page 28

28 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ FEBRUARY 2014 Government Affairs PBA starts new session with educational approach The new legislative session is underway. Hundreds of bills have been rolled over from the previous session and given new numbers. The vast majority of those bills, like in many prior sessions, will never see a committee hearing and will die two years from now without fanfare. But a few bills remain of significant concern to the NJ State PBA and have triggered substantial discussion with State Legislature leadership and members of the Senate and Assembly during the past few weeks. Many of these issues took center stage in Gov. Christie’s “State of the State” address last month. But, in reality, none of them are new, many have very reasonable solutions the State PBA can support and a handful are topics the State PBA itself have been seeking resolution on for years. However, they all must involve a thorough and honest review of what is needed and what is intended to be “fixed” to ensure that the policy choices made are based on fact and not on politics. NJ State PBA President Tony Wieners rece