Guest post from colleague Scott Fallon on a Meadowlands Matter:
“Legislation that has already prompted concerns about the future of Liberty State Park would turn a state environmental agency into a non-profit, a move some fear would weaken an organization that has helped restore the region’s ecological health.
The Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute, the environmental arm of the state Meadowlands Commission, has conducted scores of scientific projects to help the region’s wetlands, which have long been polluted by industrial waste, landfills and illegal dumping. The institute has capped toxic sediment of the Kearny Marsh, dropped thousands of oysters into the lower Hackensack River to naturally filter contaminated water and set up monitors to gauge rising sea levels.
But one sentence in a bill that was quickly passed by the Legislature last month and is awaiting Governor Christie’s signature would turn the institute into a not-for-profit organization.
The measure doesn’t offer any more details on how the organization would be run. It does not say whether the new non-profit would be completely on its own, how it would be funded, who would make key decisions or whether it would be folded into another institution, such as a university.”
Lots more on why this shift may or may not be a net gain here.
Meanwhile, this bill is better known for that Liberty State Park component at the top.
Here’s a story on Hudson County legislators now being willing to consider tweaks to the bill to allay fears about the iconic park’s future.
A key factor is the presence of state Sen. Brian Stack, a Democrat who often aligns with Republican Governor Christie. For weeks the near-universal word has been that the bill as approved won’t be signed into law by Christie.
The question for the next few weeks is whether Christie will issue a conditional veto (read: “conditional approval”) that lays out his desires for changes, or if the legislature will change the bill themselves and then see if Christie signs it (the amount of advisory input Christie’s people put into bills varies).