“I did exactly what I said I was going to do. I said we weren’t rushing it through,” Senate President Steven Sweeney, the measure's main sponsor, told reporters during a Thursday afternoon voting session.

Last week, the governor signed a similar measure appropriating $9.5M to state family planning services.

Six towns in the state fit the bill under the measure, which is effective immediately, that allows for a levy of up to 3.5 percent.

“With all due respect, limiting hard alcohol ain’t going to get it done,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at his monthly WBGO radio segment on Jan. 8.

With less than a week left in the current legislative session, talks surrounding a new corporate incentive scheme are likely to pick up again after the task force looking into the Grow New Jersey and ERG programs finishes its work.

“Sports wagering is a high-wage, high-growth sector that has already benefited New Jersey’s economy,” Tim Sullivan, who heads the NJEDA, said in a statement. “Creating good-paying jobs and cultivating a talent pipeline to support this burgeoning industry is critical.”

In 2013, a study commissioned by the New Jersey Historic Trust reported that in 2012, 11 million tourists visited New Jersey for its historic sites and spent more than $2.8 billion, generating $335 million in state and local taxes and $380 million in federal taxes.

“We are committed to making the environment at all of our events safe and welcoming for everyone, but the recent Star-Ledger article has prompted us to take additional measures beginning with the upcoming Walk to Washington,” State Chamber Presdient and CEO Tom Bracken said in a Jan. 7 statement.

Members voted unanimously in support of most of the measures, several of which were widely popular under Obamacare. 

With an eye toward passing the measure before lame duck expires, two Assembly committees approved a measure that would ramp up the state's electric vehicle market over the next decade.

Efforts to pass legislation to decriminalize cannabis in the state seem to have gone up in smoke.

Wall Street rating agency Moody’s boosted Atlantic City's credit rating by two notches – from B2 to Ba3 – still junk bond status, but far better than when the struggling seaside town was teetering on the brink of default nearly four years ago.