NJ Assembly Agrees on Aid to Cities

New Jersey's state Assembly has approved a bill to provide $139 million in aid to cities and another $1.5 million to oversee the spending.

The bill passed in the Assembly 67 to 11 with one abstention.

The aid has been held up since June over a political tussle over a relatively small portion of it.

Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the spending in June, saying the aid needed to include $1.5 million for his administration to monitor the expenditure.

Democrats balked and did not vote on the measure until Monday. The Assembly approved dispersing $139 million to the cities. Instead of including the monitoring funds in that amount, the Assembly wants to spend an additional $1.5 million.

The Senate has not voted on the measure.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)