Beck: Coniglio Sentencing Shows Corzine Should Stop Stalling on Vital Ethics Bills

September 1, 2009

Contact: Andy Pratt / (609) 292-5199
Senator Jennifer Beck (R-12)

Senator Jennifer Beck, though confident that the trial of Joseph Coniglio was fair and just, expressed sadness as the former senator was sentenced to two and a half years in prison today. If Senate Bill 2315 had been the law, Senator Coniglio might have reconsidered taking the job with Hackensack University Medical Center that led to his conviction, Senator Beck said.

The bill would make it clear that no legislator can use his position to direct money to his employer, for any reason. Current law requires prosecutors to show during a lengthy trial that a legislator received a bribe or extorted money in return for securing grants for their employers.

“Governor Corzine, who hasn’t put much effort into winning passage of the ethics package he proposed less than a year ago, now says that no new laws are needed,” Senator Beck said. “I disagree. Passage of Senate Bill 2315 is needed to make it absolutely clear to all lawmakers that directing taxpayers’ money to their employers for any reason, is against the law.”

Senator Coniglio was convicted of selling his influence to the medical center in exchange for a consulting job. “Senate Bill 2315 would create a ‘bright line’ that every lawmaker would know can’t be crossed,” Beck said. “No lawmaker should direct money to his employer, period.”

Senators Beck and Kevin O’Toole are prime sponsors of S-2315, and identical legislation has been proposed in the Assembly by Declan O’Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande.

Beck urged Corzine to reconsider his lukewarm, half-hearted advocacy of ethics reform, and to get behind bills such as S-2315 that are vitally needed to restore trust in New Jersey’s state government.