DeCROCE TO CORZINE: DON’T SIGN FLAWED SCHOOL FUNDING BILL; REWORK FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING

SAYS LEGISLATURE SHOULD BEGIN AGAIN BECAUSE SIGNIFICANT ERRORS AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEFICIENCIES MAKE THE SCHOOL FUNDING FORMULA UNSALVAGEABLE

- MORE DEBT, HIGHER TOLLS AND ADDITION OF NEW TOLLS WILL SINK NEW JERSEY’S ECONOMY AND TAXPAYERS -

Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce today called on Governor Corzine to acknowledge serious mistakes were made with the school funding formula and his so-called fiscal restructuring scheme will be the biggest mistake his administration or any other.

“The school formula was produced in such haste and is so flawed, legally and factually, that it can’t survive more than a year,” said DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic. “And this new debt scheme Corzine is proposing will sink the state’s teetering economy and severely penalize New Jersey residents. It’s time for Corzine to face the facts. It’s time to take both plans back to the drawing board.”

DeCroce urge Corzine not to sign the new school funding bill into law because “it would be easier to straighten out the mess by starting fresh.”

“I see this morning the governor finally issued a statement regarding the passage of his school funding formula by the Legislature late last night by the barest of majorities,” said DeCroce. “Before heaping more praise on a ‘new law’ that isn’t really law yet – and doesn’t deserve to be signed into law, Corzine should explain to the public why he allowed a bill that his staff  knew was fatally flawed to be pushed through the final session of the lame duck Legislature anyway.

“Why didn’t he put all the known facts on the table, including acknowledgements by his own Department of Education that the figures used in the bill were incorrect?”

“Why did he continue to pretend his bill represented a long-term solution to the state’s school aid problems when he knew from his own advisors and the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services that the school funding formula approved last night provides no means fo0r providing aid beyond this year and would almost certainly be ruled unconstitutional if challenged?”

DeCroce said there are as many unanswered questions and serious concerns about the governor’s toll hike plan as there are about his school funding formula.

“It’s now obvious that all Corzine intended to do all along was raise tolls to such a cost prohibitive level that there won’t be a need to expand the Turnpike anymore because truckers and motorists will avoid it like the plague. With gasoline prices at $3 a gallon or more, and climbing every week, this is the worst possible time to hit drivers with higher commuting costs.

“All Corzine is proposing to do is shift some state debt from one credit card to another – and then go on a new borrowing binge that will increase the state’s over-all debt load significantly,” DeCroce asserted.

“This scheme is the mother lode of fiscal gimmicks. It will destroy what little economic attraction this state has left. It opens the door to higher taxes and will penalize the people of the state for years to come.”

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