Nutley, NJ - 36th District Assembly Republican candidate Carmen Pio Costa today congratulated the citizens of Passaic for forcing a vote by the City Council to rescind its recent self-serving grab for publicly funded healthbenefits. The council, led by dual-office holder Assemblyman Gary Schaer, had tried to give themselves lifetime health benefits for their part-time jobs 10 years earlier than the city’s 700 other employees.

Widespread opposition from angry voters, the local papers, and Pio Costa, who is challenging Schaer’s Assembly seat this fall, forced Schaer to call a special meeting this morning to rescind the perk-grabbing resolution. Pio Costa personally attended the Passaic council’s meeting to make sure the will of the taxpayers was carried out.

Pio Costa today also called attention to Schaer’s contribution to bankrupting the state through his work on the Assembly Budget Committee, where in just two years he has supported an increase in state spending by $5.6 billion.

“If residents of this district want to know why their taxes are so high, Assemblyman Schaer provides a textbook example of the problem in Trenton,” said Pio Costa, a businessman from Nutley. “While he votes to recklessly increase state spending from his position on the powerful budget committee, he boosts the cost of local government through his votes as a dual office-holder on the Passaic City Council.”

Schaer has served on the budget committee since 2006 and approved both of Governor Corzine’s spending plans that hiked state spending from $27.9 billion in FY2006 to $33.5 billion in FY2008.

The Legislature’s special session on property tax reform last summer identified the ballooning cost of public employee benefits as a major underlying factor driving up property taxes in New Jersey. Passaic homeowners saw a 9% increase in their taxes, yet that did not stop Schaer from voting to boost his benefits before the public caught him with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Property taxes have soared on average by 36 percent in the past five years and state taxes have been increased 94 times,” Pio Costa said. “This is too much for New Jersey taxpayers to take, and as long as individuals like Assemblyman Schaer view government as a piggy bank this problem will continue. It is time we elected candidates who will be good stewards of taxpayer dollars – not those seeking to enhance their own benefits.”

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