From PressofAtlanticCity.com:

State lawmakers working to increase public workers’ payments toward pensions and health insurance removed a controversial provision from the draft law that would have set restrictions on out-of-state health coverage Monday.

That was enough to win the pension-reform bill approval by the full Senate and by an Assembly subcommittee, setting up a vote Thursday by the full Assembly before the legislation heads to Gov. Chris Christie’s desk.

As 1,000 union members converged on Trenton with tents and signs for an all-day protest of the bill, state Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Salem, Gloucester, Cumberland, and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, D-Essex, Passaic, agreed to remove the restrictions on out-of-state health care. Party leaders saw the move as necessary to win over skeptical Democrats and at least one skeptical Republican assemblyman, Atlantic County’s Vince Polistina, whose combined votes are seen as vital to passing the legislation.

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