Yesterday, a much amended permit extension act was passed in both houses. It was approved by a vote of 70 -9 – 0 in the Assembly and 33 – 2 in the Senate. It now awaits the Governor’s signature. It took just 33 days from introduction to passage in the legislature.
Posts Tagged ‘economy’
0 to 60- Permit Extension Act passes both houses.
Written by Mike Pisauro on June 24th, 2008 in legislation | 1 Comment »Permit Extension Act may not be so extended.
Written by Mike Pisauro on June 12th, 2008 in legislation | No Comments »Today, the Assembly version of the Permit Extension Act of 2008 was heard in the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee. It was last heard in the Housing and Local Government Committee where it was passed out of the committee without hesitation. The version that was passed out of the Environment and Solid Waste Committee was vastly different than the one that was introduced.
For example the original bill reached back to January 1, 2006 and revived the permits and extended those permits until 2012 plus two years. The amended bill only goes back as far as the beginning of this year and it only extends permits to December 31, 2010 plus the remaining length of the permit up till one year. For example if you had one day left on your permit your permit is tolled until January 1, 2011. If you had two years left on your permit that permit is good until December 31, 2011 not 2012.
The amended bill excludes environmentally sensitive areas, certain Highlands and Pinelands areas, and several environmental programs. The programs that are excluded are water quality planning act, center designations under the coastal area facility act or the state planning act.
Most telling on how bad this bill was, the EPA issued a letter to the legislative leaders saying the bill was bad. The regional administrator wrote, “I am concerned that if enacted, this law might be inconsistent with a number of federal environmental law . . .” The letter can be seen here EPA letter to NJ. Commissioner Jackson also testified to misgivings on the bill.
The members of the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee especially Chairman McKeon were great. The Senate version of the bill will be heard in the Senate Economic Growth Committee.
New Jersey wants to stop time
Written by Mike Pisauro on June 5th, 2008 in legislation | No Comments »I came out of an assembly hearing today at which I testified against a bill. I wanted to provide my quick thoughts about the bill and will try to go into a more in-depth review latter. The Assembly Housing and Local Government committee consider A2867 the Permit Extension Act of 2008. The gist of the bill is that the state is in a bad economy and that environmental regulations are in part a cause of that bad economy. So to rectify the problem the bill will extend almost any and all governmental permits or approvals from 2006 to 2012. This will bring back to life permits or approvals that may have already expired in 2006 or 2007 or up to now. Any permit or approval a person has today that is set to expire between now and 2012 has an automatic extension until 2014. The theory behind this is that we need to give the economy a jolt and by extending the permits up to and past 2012 the housing and construction industry will bring the economy back.
I believe this is a false premise. To be sure New Jersey as well as the rest of the country is in bad economic shape. And to be sure it take time to get the various permits and approvals from local government and state government before you can build an office building or housing development. What I do not believe is that those permits that expired anytime around January 1, 2006 expired because of the economy. I suspect most of those permits expired because the permit holder, for whatever reason, decided not to proceed with the project.
I was wonder how extending permits to 2012 will help the economy today. Those projects that have permits today and that do not expire tomorrow can still be built. They are not being built because of the financial markets are not lending the money. At least with office buildings and factories, these projects are not being built because there is not a demand for these buildings. Industry and business are not expanding they are contracting. The soaring price of energy, of oil, of the State’s property taxes are having a negative impact. I do not see how and no one testified today that the passage of this bill will have any positive impact on our economy today or tomorrow.
The other thing I did not hear from anyone today was, “what was the economic impact of the permit extension act of 1992?” For you see we have done this before. So there should be data to show what a great thing this is. If it was such a great success, I would have supposed that someone would have told the committee that after passage of the bill that building and construction soared in 1993 and 1994 and 1995. There was no such testimony. We did hear that the act had to be extended.
If this is such a great thing, where is the cold hard facts supporting what a great job it did for the economy in 1992, 1993, etc. I would truly be interested in seeing that information, because I do know that the passage of this bill will not have a positive impact on are already polluted waters and air. I do believe that passage of this bill will put into grave jeopardy and chance of reaching the Global Warming Response Act’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020. I believe that passage of this bill will make it almost impossible for the State to meet its goals in the energy master plan to reduce energy consumption through enhanced building codes. It will also undo many positive laws and regulations that have been put into place since January 1, 2006.