NJ proposal would require public employees to live in the state

All public employees in New Jersey would be required to live in the state if a proposal from one state senator is enacted.

All public employees in New Jersey would be required to live in the state if a proposal from one state senator is enacted. [audio:100310PGRES.mp3]

Senator Donald Norcross says about 10,000 public workers in New Jersey do not live in the Garden State, and he’s introduced a measure that would establish a residency requirement for all government and educational system employees.

Norcross:
Very simply if you want a paycheck from the taxpayers you should live here and pay your taxes here.

The idea is meeting with some resistance from a union that represents public workers. Hetty Rosenstein is the New Jersey Director of the Communications Workers of America.

Rosenstein:
I don’t even really understand what he’s trying to accomplish by making people sell their houses, making kids leave their schools and their neighborhoods. Why would you want to do that?

The Norcross bill would require current workers to establish a New Jersey residency within two and a half years.

Newly hired workers would have to do so within four months.