Sweeney Joins In Annual Retreat of Legislative Black Caucus

Speaks To Shared Legislative & Budget Priorities

TRENTON – Senate President Steve Sweeney today joined with members of the Legislative Black Caucus for its annual retreat where he spoke about recent accomplishments on shared priorities and about current legislative and budget issues they will work on together. The day-long working meeting brings African-American legislators from both the State Senate and Assembly together in Trenton to focus on a legislative agenda that addresses the needs and goals of caucus members.

Senator Sweeney gave tribute to the late Assemblyman Jerry Green, who passed away this week, for his career of accomplished leadership in public service and for his selfless friendship with his legislative colleagues. Assemblyman Green was the First Vice Chair of the Black Caucus.

“It is a privilege to join with my friends and colleagues in the Legislative Black Caucus in a working discussion on our shared priorities and the opportunity we have to accelerate the pace of progress,” said Senator Sweeney. “I believe that we are building a record of accomplishments on issues of importance to African American legislators, that we can make greater strides with Assembly Speaker Coughlin and Governor Murphy in office and that we can look to the immediate future with optimism.”

Senator Sweeney referred to recently-accomplished laws to expand voter participation, to long-awaited funding for women’s health clinics that serve low-income women and the continued success of bail reform in removing the reliance on cash bail. With the Legislature now working on the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Senator Sweeney talked about school funding, support for prison reentry programs, and the use of Urban Enterprise Zones to reinvigorate urban economies.

“On education, I’m pushing for a fair school funding formula and I will not rest until we fix this formula once and for all,” said Senator Sweeney. “We’re going to put more money into our public schools, but we have to put it in the right places, in the right districts.”

He also spoke about the effort to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, saying that revenue should be used for early childhood education and to help communities disproportionately hurt by the “war on drugs,” and there is the opportunity for expungement of past convictions for marijuana possession and that there is access to the new marijuana marketplace for black residents.

“We understand that there is nothing more important to achieving equality in employment and education than equal access to the ballot box,” said Senator Sweeney. “We need to make it easier for people to vote, not harder.”

Senator Sweeney also talked about his legislation to require independent investigations for police-involved fatalities, transferring the investigations to law enforcement officials in other jurisdictions.

Senator Sweeney said that he supports reinstating the Minority Owned Business Enterprise Program to promote the participation of minority-owned businesses in obtaining contracts for public work. And the state has to increase minority representation on boards and commissions and other positions of power within the government.