Adam F. Scales is a professor at Rutgers School of Law-Camden.
When I testified before a state Senate committee in Trenton this week, I wore my Batman tie. I did so in honor of the sponsors of a higher-education restructuring bill, who had at last emerged from their cave.
After decades of development, endless rounds of engagement with stakeholders, and a couple of all-nighters last weekend, Sens. Donald Norcross (D., Camden) and Joseph Vitale (D., Middlesex) stepped into the daylight to announce the price of the most complex reorganization of Rutgers, Rowan, and other New Jersey universities in 50 years.
The answer? Practically nothing.
That’s right: This 100-page plan won’t cost a dime. Heck, with all the efficiencies they found lying around, the sponsors suggested, we’ll actually make money! They did not explain how, though, and it was only under persistent questioning that anyone would admit these may not have been official estimates.
It seems Senate Bill 2063 is the legislative equivalent of an invisible plane, with no wings or engine in sight — just hope. Maybe I should have worn my Wonder Woman tie.
Is this how public policy is made in New Jersey? It would have been bad enough if anyone on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee actually appeared to trust the sponsors’ assertion that the bill would pay for itself — just days after they were unable to offer any estimate whatsoever. It was worse still to see the bill waved through the committee even though no one in the room seemed to believe them.
Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D., Bergen) certainly didn’t. He seemed exasperated and incredulous that the sponsors — who presumably didn’t want to embarrass him while asking him to look the other way for the team — gave him so little to work with. I like Sarlo, and I would like to think that, deep down, he wants to take some of his own questions seriously. But he couldn’t have.
That was a theme yesterday, and indeed at every hearing on this bill, which is scheduled for a vote by the full Senate today. Senators and representatives ask questions, often good ones, but they ignore the answers. That’s because everyone already knows the answer.
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