March 27, 2008
Contact: Andy Pratt / 609-292-5199Senator Anthony R. Bucco (R-25), Senator Kevin J. O'Toole (R-40), Senator Leonard Lance (R-23), Senator Philip E. Haines (R-8), Senator Steve Oroho (R-24)
The five Republican members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee have sent a letter requesting that all staff of the Department of Community Affairs who have knowledge of the shadowy process used to make past grants under the $150 million, so-called Special Municipal Aid program be brought to testify at committee hearings on April 7.
Spending under the program, also known as Distressed Cities aid, has ballooned from $38 million just six years ago to $153 million in the current budget. Yet it still serves just a handful of towns, said the letter to former Democrat Senator Joseph Doria, now commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs. Other municipalities with fiscal problems don’t try for the funds because there are no written regulations for applying, nor has the DCA explained the procedures it follows in making grants. Even more outrageous, the DCA says it has no documents detailing how decisions to award grants were made.
“Governor Corzine proposed funding this mismanaged program that benefits a handful of mismanaged cities at a level that is more than $100 million higher than just six years ago — even while he proposes to eliminate aid to hundreds of better-managed small towns whose aid has been basically flat over the same period,” the letter says.
Doria, who is already scheduled to testify to the budget committee on April 7, was not DCA commissioner when hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money were awarded under a veil of secrecy. Republican committee members Leonard Lance, Anthony Bucco, Philip Haines, Kevin O’Toole and Steven Oroho want to question staff members with direct knowledge of how this money was dispensed and just what, if anything, taxpayers got for their money.
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Similar Posts:
- Oroho: Senate Resolution Will Give Senate Budget Committee Subpoena Power to Compel Missing Distressed Cities Documents
April 3, 2008 - State Auditor’s Office Verifies Manipulation and Mismanagement of Distressed Cities Program
May 15, 2008 - Haines, Addiego and Rudder Legislation Places Restrictions on Distressed Cities Aid
May 19, 2008 - Oroho: Return Accountability To Special Municipal Aid Program
August 13, 2008 - Testimony Shows Corzine Municipal Aid Cuts Shortchange Small Towns
March 12, 2008
