Senators Steven Oroho and Marcia Karrow, Republican members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, expressed dismay that Governor Jon Corzine’s Local Finance Board decided to award $5 million to Jersey City this morning under the “Special Municipal Aid” program. Jersey City, a town with at least 23 employees who earn more than $141,000 annually, will not be required to institute furloughs or layoffs to save money as hundreds of other middle class communities must this year and next. Less than a week ago, the board awarded $80 million to three towns, also without any requirement of furloughs or layoffs. Senators Oroho and Karrow decried the Corzine administration’s refusal to require fair and necessary sacrifices from urban areas controlled by a politically powerful few.
“It’s impossible to argue that Jersey City is any needier than hundreds of other communities facing the same economic challenges,” Senator Oroho said. “It’s simply unacceptable not to require furloughs from these highly compensated city workers when many New Jersey residents who have lost their jobs or seen their incomes plummet will pay higher taxes and motor vehicle fees.”
“The state has budgeted $177 million for this type of aid,” Karrow said. “That’s enough money to eliminate cuts in charity care, higher education and aid to cities while still repealing an increase in motor vehicle fees that’s adding to the burdens borne by the struggling middle class of New Jersey.”
Special municipal aid is supposed to help towns through temporary fiscal emergencies. Yet Jersey City has received aid in many of the last seven years. Many the favored cities also receive tens of millions of dollar in other types of state aid at a time when most communities will see crippling cuts in municipal assistance provided by the state.
“The seven-year history of this program is that no city is held accountable for horrifically bad spending practices,” Senator Karrow said. “This year, even more than in the past, New Jersey can’t afford to write big checks to towns that have no plan for getting their finances under control today or any time in the future.”
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March 15, 2012
