Senator Steve Oroho (R-24), a member of the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee, today called for subpoena power to compel the State Department of Community Affairs (DCA) to release all records pertaining to the distribution of funds through the distressed cities program.
Over the past five years more than a half billion dollars has been funneled through the program. DCA has routinely denied requests for explanations as to why certain cities were accepted into the program and why others were denied. DCA also refuses to give details on how it determined how much to give each city. Only last week the Associated Press was denied access to such documents.
“The Distressed Cities program has been operating over the past five years without regulation, oversight or even the most basic accounting of the use of the taxpayers’ money, Oroho stated. “This program — this slush fund — has been operating in the dark for far too long and now it is time to shine the clear light of day on it. To that end I have asked the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services (OLS) to draft a resolution granting the Chairwoman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations subpoena power to compel those involved to testify.”
The Distressed Cities program’s budget has ballooned by more than $100 million in only six years. In 2002 the program cost the taxpayers $38 million. Today the program spends $153 million with no accounting of how the money is spent. One city, Patterson, received a $30 million increase two years ago that has never been explained.
“It is time for those in charge of distributing the monies through this program to explain their decision making process to the taxpayers. If they don’t want to volunteer the information, then it is our constitutional obligation to force them to reveal it,” Oroho concluded.
Link to Post:
http://www.senatenj.com/index.php/oroho/oroho-calls-for-subpoena-power-to-investigate-distressed-cities-program/352
Similar Posts:
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April 3, 2008 - State Auditor’s Office Verifies Manipulation and Mismanagement of Distressed Cities Program
May 15, 2008 - GOP Senators Demand Public Explanation of Secretive and Mismanaged ‘Special Municipal Aid’
March 27, 2008 - Oroho Decries Democrats’ Refusal to Allow ‘Distressed Cities’ Investigation
April 7, 2008 - Oroho: Return Accountability To Special Municipal Aid Program
August 13, 2008
