By Senator Chris Brown
Mr. and Mrs. Peterson work hard to provide for their family, respect their neighbors, and, like the thousands of other families in Atlantic County, made sacrifices to help flatten the curve to keep our communities healthy and safe. And, like everyone else, they are anxious to get through this pandemic. Unfortunately, Trenton’s bureaucracy is living up to Yogi Berra’s observation, “You’ve got to be careful if you don’t know where you are going because you just might get there.” From not paying unemployment benefits to making families wake up at the crack of dawn just to wait in line for a driver’s license to raising the gas tax and tolls, Trenton clearly doesn’t know where it’s going, which is why I voted against Trenton’s bureaucracy and will continue to fight to put our Atlantic County families on a real road to recovery.
The Petersons adjusted to the pandemic by wearing masks, keeping socially distant, and even postponing their daughter’s wedding as ways to responsibly protect themselves and others from spreading the coronavirus. When our casinos closed in March, the Petersons tightened their belts while they were furloughed for over three months. Of course, at the time, they trusted the system to help them make it through this difficult time.
But when the Petersons applied for unemployment, the system didn’t pay their benefits for over two months. It’s atrocious to make families struggling to make ends meet to wait for help when they need it the most, especially from a system they paid into for times like these. To fix the unemployment debacle and make the bureaucracy start working for our families, I voted to direct $50 million to get unemployment benefits into our families’ hands quicker. More importantly, the bill holds the Department of Labor accountable by mandating it to tell us how it plans to promptly pay our families the benefits they are entitled to.
The Petersons have a son who depends on a restaurant job to help afford his college expenses. Yet, many of our local mom and pop restaurants were closed without any follow up direction or support from Trenton. Now, many establishments are on the brink of closing permanently. Atlantic County’s mom and pop establishments won’t be able to survive forever on take out, outdoor dining, and limited indoor alone. To provide hope and sustain local businesses and their employees, I sponsored a bi-partisan bill, passed by the Legislature, throwing a financial lifeline to our restaurants and bars until they can offer full services when things return to normal and can hire more of our families.
As if being out of work for over two month wasn’t bad enough, Trenton made it difficult for the Petersons to drive to work once the casinos re-opened. First, they had to get up at the crack of dawn and wait in line at the MVC agency for hours to renew a driver’s license and, second, they are being hit with higher tolls and taxes after their bank accounts were drained during their unemployment.
When the MVC agencies were shut down in the spring, Trenton had four months to figure out a way to make the system customer friendly by the time they re-opened in July. Yet, Trenton forced many of our families and seniors to wait nearly a full day in line. To straighten this debacle out, I sponsored the bi-partisan law requiring the MVC to extend the time that a stored driver’s license photo can be used from 8 years to 12 years and indefinitely for our seniors. Further, to make it easier for older drivers, the law also allows for agencies to reserve certain times to provide appointments for seniors during the pandemic.
It doesn’t make sense to the Petersons why Trenton raised tolls during a pandemic while automatically increasing the gas tax just because families are driving less. I voted against the gas tax and fought against raising tolls in a pandemic because these increases only add to the financial burden of our families during this pandemic-created recession and will make it harder for our region’s economy to recover.
In the beginning, our Atlantic County families willingly accepted making sacrifices to help flatten the curve for the greater good. Instead of rewarding their trust, Trenton issued mandates, over my objections, without sharing with our families any clue where the State was headed or helping our families with the consequences of those mandates. Our families and retirees deserve meaningful help and to have their faith rewarded with common sense solutions to put us back on the path to normalcy.
