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6 bills to watch during Christie’s lame-duck session

Gov. Chris Christie in a file photo.

All eyes are on Democratic Gov.-elect Phil Murphy as he prepares to take office Jan. 16, but outgoing Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, and the Legislature still have seven weeks to wrap up some unfinished business.

Christie’s lame duck period could yield new laws related to gun control, fire safety, local property taxes and other issues. Activity in the State House will ramp up this week with a series of committee hearings scheduled for Thursday.

Here are some of the bills to watch in the final weeks of Christie’s tenure as governor.

Cap on police and fire salaries

Police badge, close-up

A law capping at 2 percent the amount that police and fire officials can be awarded when their labor contracts are in dispute is set to expire at the end of the year.

Christie has said the so-called interest arbitration cap has helped slow the growth in local property taxes and should be renewed. The governor’s appointees to a commission studying the cap said in a September report that the law has saved taxpayers $530 million since it was enacted in 2010.

But that report was issued without the endorsement from committee members  appointed by Democrats who say they oppose extending the law. The Democrats who control the Legislature, as well as Murphy, have not said whether they would renew the cap.

Fire safety in apartment buildings

Flames consume the Avalon at Edgewater apartment complex on Jan. 21, 2015.

Prompted by the January 2015 fire that ripped through a large Edgewater apartment complex and destroyed the homes of some 500 people, an Assembly committee on Thursday is taking up a bill to tweak New Jersey’s building code to try to prevent future conflagrations.

The measure, A-96, would require more robust sprinkler systems in large wood-frame apartment complexes, which have grown increasingly popular among builders in New Jersey. It would also limit the buildings’ height and square footage to constrain how large a fire could grow and to make it easier for first responders to battle the flames and rescue residents.

A second bill, A-97, would require a fire safety expert to monitor any construction site where multi-unit residential buildings, such as apartments or hotels, are being built. Advocates have called for so-called "fire watches" in light of recent fires at an apartment complex under construction in Maplewood and elsewhere across the country.

Bump stock ban

A bump stock device is installed on a AK-47 semi-automatic rifle, making it similar to a fully automatic rifle. George Frey/Getty Images

New Jersey could become the second state to ban bump stocks since the devices, which attach to the stocks of semiautomatic rifles to enable them to fire faster, were used by the shooter in the Oct. 1 Las Vegas massacre that left at least 59 dead and hundreds more injured.

Under a bill set to be discussed in an Assembly committee Thursday, it would be illegal to possess, sell, transport, ship or manufacture a bump stock in New Jersey regardless of whether a person possesses a firearm or not.

Christie, who has rejected multiple efforts by Democratic lawmakers to strengthen New Jersey's gun laws, has said that such a measure would not constitute a "gun law" and that he is open to signing it into law.

Efforts to ban bump stocks at the federal level, which had momentum in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, have stalled. Massachusetts was the first state to ban bump stocks since the shooting, while several other states already have laws on the books restricting such devices.

NJSPCA

A dog saved from abandonment and abuse in Piscataway by the NJSPCA in 2011.

Lawmakers will also consider Thursday whether to strip the New Jersey Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of its power to enforce animal-cruelty laws and hand the authority over to local prosecutors, following a report that slammed the “wannabe cop” culture of the nonprofit.

In October, the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation said the SPCA has been beset with waste and abuse for years, including expensive purchases of law-enforcement apparatus while neglecting to enforce laws intended to protect animals. The SPCA disputed the findings and said local law-enforcement agencies have resisted taking on its duties because they’re already overburdened.

Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, introduced a bill to disband the state SPCA and turn over its powers to county prosecutors. Local SPCA chapters would promote animal welfare but not enforce laws, and the prosecutors would establish a hotline to report cases of alleged animal abuse.

The state SPCA has signaled its opposition to the proposal.

Development in the Highlands

The Wanaque Reservoir, in the New Jersey Highlands.

The Legislature is on the verge of rescinding a new rule that would allow more residential development in the Highlands, a regulation adopted by the Christie administration earlier this year but criticized by environmentalists and mostly Democratic lawmakers as putting New Jersey’s drinking water at risk.

Lawmakers have said the rule, which could result in up to 12 percent more septic systems in the region, goes against a 2004 state law that severely restricted development. Both houses of the Legislature have already passed one resolution calling on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to amend or withdraw the rule; a second resolution would force the agency to rescind it.

Spanning 800,000 acres over seven counties, the Highlands is North Jersey’s premier water-generating region. Landowners there have complained for years that their property values have unfairly plummeted due to the development restrictions.

Amazon tax breaks

Gov. Chris Christie, seen at the Amazon fulfillment center in Carteret in April, has said "Newark is prime for Amazon's HQ2 development."

Christie and legislative leaders from both parties have committed to granting Amazon up to $5 billion in tax credits to attract its second headquarters to the state.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said the issue won’t get taken up in lame duck unless Amazon signals it intends to come to the state, which under Christie has selected Newark among other cities to host the project. Amazon said it won't make a decision on its new headquarters until sometime next year.

“If Amazon comes, we’ve committed. We wrote a letter of support to do these changes. If Amazon comes, we’re gonna pass the incentive,” Sweeney said.

While Murphy has said he supports Amazon bringing its estimated 50,000 jobs to New Jersey, he has stopped short of backing the tax credits explicitly.

This article contains material from The Associated Press. Staff Writer James Nash contributed. Email: pugliese@northjersey.com