Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean, a new member of the Senate Education Committee, made the following statement after reading that $34.1 million in expected federal stimulus aid for higher education can’t be spent as Governor Corzine promised on a financial aid program for college students, leaving another gap in the proposed state budget for 2010.
“The public deserves an honest budget. Legislators can’t produce one if Governor Corzine can’t or won’t provide a true picture of the state’s fiscal situation, especially how much revenue is coming in to finance state programs.
“The almost daily reports of new missteps in revenue forecasts and allocation of federal aid make it clear that budget that Governor Corzine presented to us in March no longer reflects reality, if it ever did,” Senator Kean said.
“I again call on Governor Corzine to start being open with the public, and provide daily, Internet-accessible updates on tax collections, federal aid and borrowing that will affect the 2010 budget,” Senator Kean said. “It makes no sense to mislead the public by approving spending that depends on revenue that the Corzine administration is already planning to divert to fill holes in the budget.
“Governor Corzine wants to spend a whopping $48.3 billion next year in state revenue, federal aid and borrowed money. That’s the largest spending package in the history of the state. Surely with less than two months before a budget must be passed, the governor can provide us with the information absolutely vital to ensuring legislators allocate this vast sum of taxpayer money in the most responsible way for all residents of our state.”
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