New Jersey Continues to Examine and Refine its Pay-to-Play Laws
Several efforts are underway at the state and local levels to re-examine New Jersey’s stringent pay-to-play laws. This is probably a good development. Without question, New Jersey’s pay-to-play laws, put into effect in 2006, are considered by most in the regulated community to be among the most intrusive and confusing in the country. That is not a good combination for those doing business in the state or the lawyers seeking to advise them. Fortunately, it appears that the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) agrees with that assessment and has announced its intention to support revisions to the law.
In its July newsletter, ELEC’s Commission Chair Jerry Fitzgerald English announced ELEC’s plans “to prioritize proposals for legislative reforms that are designed to improve the regulation of campaign financing, lobbying, and pay-to-play.” While recognizing that legal challenges pending nationally will have an influence on New Jersey’s actions, ELEC proposes significant changes to the State’s pay-to-play law.
ELEC’s first proposal, which almost makes too much sense to originate from government, is to revise the state’s pay-to-play laws to ensure that a single law applies at both the State and municipal level. Currently, local municipalities are free to pass a quilt-like patchwork of ordinances; all most none of which bear any relationship to the others. As ELEC points out, in addition to state law, over 50 local ordinances and executive orders also control local contracting and contribution rules. Such a regulatory scheme not only makes compliance exceedingly difficult for major vendors, but fosters costly and discouraging legal challenges with the passage of each new ordinance (this reaction to the Borough of Dumont’s new pay-to-play ordinance being only the most recent example).
Of the various changes proposed, probably the most significant is ELEC’s proposal is to remove the authority of county and municipal governments to circumvent state procurement laws by publicly advertising bids (referred to as the State’s “Fair and Open” provision). These changes, in addition to the ubiquitous calls for increased “transparency” through lower filing thresholds combined with a sensible call for increased contribution limits to provide defense against inevitable First Amendment challenge, appear to indicate that New Jersey is on the road toward common sense reforms.
Consider this blog among those supporting ELEC’s proposals.
