“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. ”
– Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
Republican legislative leaders Tom Kean and Alex DeCroce say that Democrats should review the following published facts before they make any more Alice in Wonderland statements about how there is no difference between what the Democrats did with their slush funds and what Republicans did with the budget when they were in charge:
Testimony from Former Treasurer John McCormac before Assembly Budget Hearings on May 24, 2005:
Assemblyman O’Toole: The Property Tax Assistance and Community Development grants… I am trying to understand the mechanics of the grant program. How is it set up? Was this what used to be in years past the line item legislative priorities that have now been grouped together in one grant project…(Emphasis added)?
Treasurer (John) McCormac: “Certainly it is exactly as you described. It’s an 88 million dollar pot that in prior years, it would have been delineated specifically in the budget. (Emphasis added) For whatever reason, late last June the money was not specifically earmarked and it was put into a pool to be decided upon by the leadership of both houses. Treasury merely acts as the processor of the paper work. We receive a list from the Assembly and we receive a list from the Senate as to what grants will be included.”
From a Gloucester County Times editorial on Oct. 9 titled “Keeping Secrets and Slush Funds” that cites testimony from David Rousseau, former Senate budget director, a deputy treasurer under former Governor Jim McGreevey and now treasurer under Governor Corzine. The testimony was at the ongoing corruption trial of former Democratic state Senator Wayne Bryant:
“State Treasurer David Rousseau testified that the Treasury Department had little control or oversight over this slush fund, controlled by key Democrat-majority lawmakers like Bryant, who headed the Senate’s appropriations committee. . . .
Rousseau testified that, when Republicans controlled the Legislature prior to 2002, legislators’ specific funding requests had to be listed in the budget as line items. Under the Democrats’ control, this funding became a grant-based program distributed among state agencies. (Emphasis added.) In 2004, Rousseau said, the system morphed again to pool all the money in the treasurer’s office, where it was distributed to recipients on the list submitted by legislators $88 million in 2004, and $40 million in 2005.”
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May 30, 2008
