{"id":3623,"date":"2017-02-13T14:02:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T19:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=3623"},"modified":"2017-02-13T14:02:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T19:02:51","slug":"ocean-county-senator-fights-bill-to-have-taxpayers-pick-up-cost-of-sanctuary-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2017\/02\/ocean-county-senator-fights-bill-to-have-taxpayers-pick-up-cost-of-sanctuary-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean County Senator Fights Bill to Have Taxpayers Pick Up Cost of ‘Sanctuary Cities’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ICE

ICE officials. (Photo: ICE)<\/p><\/div>\n

New Jersey legislators on Monday were debating a bill that would force the state\u2019s taxpayers to reimburse local governments that lose federal aid under any plan that limits funding to so-called \u201csanctuary\u201d cities.<\/p>\n

The bill drew a quick rebuke from Sen. James Holzapfel (R-Ocean), who called the measure \u201cill-conceived.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legislation has the potential to devastate our state budget by shifting a $15 billion burden onto New Jersey taxpayers,\u201d said\u00a0Holzapfel, in a statement. \u201cWhile this ill-conceived legislation is designed to make a political statement, it lacks a financial statement that addresses the tremendous tax increases it would require.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation is in response to a proposal of President Donald Trump to reduce or eliminate federal funding to cities, counties and other government entities that do not cooperate with requests by federal authorities to detain illegal immigrants\u00a0who have been arrested. Middlesex and Union counties, as well as a handful of New Jersey cities, are considered \u201csanctuaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation would allow municipalities or counties that\u00a0have been denied federal funds to apply to the state Commissioner of Community Affairs for a \u201cdollar-for-dollar\u201d match to compensate for the withheld federal money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should taxpayers across the state pay for the decisions of local governments that declare themselves a sanctuary from immigration law enforcement?\u201d Holzapfel asked rhetorically in the statement. \u201cThis bill could potentially have ten times the financial impact of the gas tax increase that generated a statewide public outcry, yet we haven\u2019t had a single public hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill is being sponsored by Sen. Brian Stack (D-Hudson), who is also the mayor of Union City. Both Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto have said they are in support of the legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am an immigrant. What you\u2019re hearing is my second language,\u201d said Prieto, who was born in Cuba and came to the U.S. in 1971, according to\u00a0NJ Spotlight<\/a>. \u201cThat hits home for me so it\u2019s very important to stand up for these individuals,\u201d Prieto said.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether the bill passes, it is expected to be swiftly vetoed by Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican and Trump supporter. If Christie is replaced by a Democratic governor next year after his term ends, however, the bill\u00a0could potentially be signed into law.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Jersey legislators on Monday were debating a bill that would force the state\u2019s taxpayers to reimburse local governments that lose federal aid under any plan that limits funding to so-called \u201csanctuary\u201d cities. The bill drew a quick rebuke from Sen. James Holzapfel (R-Ocean), who called the measure \u201cill-conceived.\u201d \u201cThe legislation has the potential to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-ocean-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/ero1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-Wr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}