Joel Weingarten

Joel M. Weingarten is an American Republican Party politician who served three terms in the New Jersey General Assembly, where he represented the 21st Legislative District from 1996 to 2002.

Weingarten earned his undergraduate degree from St. John's College, where he majored in liberal arts and was awarded an M.S. from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie-Mellon University, where he majored in business. Weingarten was employed as a management consultant at Deloitte & Touche, and is currently a Managing Director at Quest Associates.

He served on the Millburn Township Committee from 1993 to 1996. In 1995, Weingarten served as Acting Director of the Essex County Office of Management and Budget, where he voted for a $516 million budget.

Weingarten was elected to the Assembly in a November 1996 special election in which he defeated Democratic candidate Robert R. Peacock to fill the one year remaining on the vacant seat of Monroe Jay Lustbader, who had died in office in March 1996. He was re-elected to serve an additional two full terms of office in 1997 and 1999, together with Republican running mate Kevin J. O'Toole. Weingarten served in the Assembly on the Appropriations Committee and the Law and Public Safety Committee. Weingarten also served on the NJ State Leasing & Space Utilization Committee, which he chaired in 1998.

In the legislature, Weingarten sponsored bills to: require a 2/3 of the legislature before there could be any new tax increase, to eliminate the transfer inheritance tax, and to provide a 50% capital gains deduction under the gross income tax.

Weingarten sponsored a bill to impose state sanctions on Swiss Financial service institutions to prod the return of funds owed to the heirs of Holocaust victims. The legislation, which passed the NJ Assembly on May 18, 1998—the first such bill passed by any US legislature—called for prohibiting NJ from investing funds in Swiss Banks and to divest its existing holdings in Swiss Banks. This legislation, and subsequent sanctions proposed by other states helped compel Switzerland to reach an ultimate settlement of outstanding claims. The Swiss said that the settlement was contingent on public officials agreeing not to pursue proposed sanctions by political subdivisions.

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