Is there anything all of NJ can agree on? Yes!
From Newark and Hackensack to Cherry Hill and Cape May, we all cherish our freedom.
That’s why residents of all stripes are asking Governor Murphy to veto a bill that would undermine our freedom by gutting our right to public records.
Please join us. Contact Governor Murphy. Call (609) 292 6000. Text (732) 605 5455. Or go to www.nj.gov/governor/ to send an email.
Urge the Governor to veto bill S-2930/A-4045, which would gut the Open Records law.
Btw, this is NOT a partisan issue. The opposition spans the political spectrum, from:
NJ Working Families Party, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop); to
the founder of the Fair Share Housing Center, the NJ Public Defender’s Office, League of Women Voters, and the NJ Press Association); to
NJ State Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-Dist. 26, Denville area); “a conservative bomb-thrower” per The New Jersey Globe.)
What has drawn together all these strange bedfellows?
“…I fear that if documents are harder to get [via the OPRA process], we will get less transparency and that will lead to more corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse. If your [Assembly / Senate] goal was to save money, be careful. A less transparent government is very likely a more expensive one, I fear….”
Kevin Walsh, founder of Fair Share Housing Project and now Acting State Comptroller of the State of New Jersey [State watchdog] during NJ State Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee Hearing on Mon 3/11/2024
“…this bill [S-2930] is dangerous…giving you [lawmakers] the benefit of the doubt, some of you are just terribly misinformed or intentionally misled…”; ” …and frankly this bill really does look like a list of all the cases that they [defendant municipalities] lost …”
C.J. Griffin, Esq. during NJ State Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee Hearing on Mon 3/11/2024.
“…The Synopsis of the Bill [S-2930] innocuously provides that the Bill “makes various changes to process for access to government records; appropriates $8 million.” In reality, the Bill eviscerates New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act, N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq. (“OPRA”) – a statute that was carefully and painstakingly crafted over a period of fourteen years…
New Jersey Press Association statement dated 3/7/2024