Assembly Republican Conference Leader Peter Biondi

BIONDI: HARPER'S INDEX IS YET ANOTHER BLACK EYE FOR NEW JERSEY ON ETHICS

MAGAZINE CITES NUMBER OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS INDICTED AS SHOCKING STATISTIC -- AND ACTUALLY UNDERCOUNTS

Assembly Republican Conference Leader Peter Biondi pointed to the recent inclusion in Harper's Index of the shocking number of public officials indicted in our state during the past five years as just the latest eye opening evidence of how bad the culture of corruption has become in New Jersey.December 18, 2006
Conference Leader Peter Biondi/908-252-0800
Assembly Republican Office/609-292-5339

BIONDI: HARPER'S INDEX IS YET ANOTHER BLACK EYE FOR NEW JERSEY ON ETHICS

MAGAZINE CITES NUMBER OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS INDICTED AS SHOCKING STATISTIC -- AND ACTUALLY UNDERCOUNTS

Assembly Republican Conference Leader Peter Biondi pointed to the recent inclusion in Harper's Index of the shocking number of public officials indicted in our state during the past five years as just the latest eye opening evidence of how bad the culture of corruption has become in New Jersey.

"While the indictments of these public officials demonstrate that law enforcement is doing a good job of cracking down on corruption, it also shows that our ethics laws are doing little to discourage this behavior," said Biondi, R-Somerset. "We need to enact tough ethics laws that will send a strong message that corruption will not be tolerated and that will eliminate the incentive for officials to push the envelope."

According to an editorial this weekend in The Record of Hackensack, not only did Harper's choose to include the number of public officials indicted in New Jersey as a surprising statistic -- it actually undercounted the number of indicted officials by nearly 100 indictments.

"Minimum number of New Jersey public officials who have been indicted since 2002: 104," read the entry in the Index. But as The Record points out in its editorial, the real number as reported by the Associated Press is around 200 public officials.

"It's pretty sad when outsiders look at our state as a stunning example of public corruption, even as they are underestimating the extent of that corruption by half," Biondi said. "It is time for the Legislature to make ethics reform a top priority and to pass tough ethics measures, including a comprehensive ban on pay-to-play and a pension forfeiture law for corrupt officials."

Biondi noted that Democrat legislators promised to fast track sweeping ethics reforms by the end of the year, but it never happened. He again called on Democrats to act on a bipartisan "Blueprint for a Corrupt-Free New Jersey," proposed by Republicans earlier this year.

That proposal included a number of reforms including:

- Requiring mandatory jail time for public officials who break the law.
- Suspending pay for public officials who are indicted.
- Suspending pension and health benefits for convicted public officials.
- Giving private citizens full control of the Legislative Ethics Committee.
- Making the ethics complaint process user-friendly.
- Strengthening the Legislative Code of Ethics
- Stopping pension boosting and tacking by public officials.
- Expanding and toughen anti-nepotism laws.
- Ending dual office holding.
- Reforming campaign finance laws.
- Banning pay-to-play at all levels of government.
- Banning the wheeling of campaign dollars.

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