Holzapfel, Wolfe & McGuckin

May 19, 2009   

Contact: Kate Cocozza / (732) 840-9028
Assemblyman Dave Wolfe

Budget Committee Scheduled to Vote Today on Legislation Allowing Schools to Borrow for “Deferred” Aid Payment

Shortly before a last-minute vote to allow Governor Corzine’s ploy to plug a $1.2 billion budget gap in part by delaying aid payments to school districts, Assemblyman David W. Wolfe questioned what guarantee districts would have to recoup the skipped payment.

“In 2003, the McGreevey administration told schools their last payment of the school year would be pushed from June to July. They still wait for that skipped payment,” said Wolfe, R-Ocean, a member of the Assembly’s Budget and Education committees. “Six years later they hear the same promise about a deferred payment – just from a different governor.”

The Assembly Budget Committee is schedule to vote this morning on a measure, A-3891, that would bump up the timeframe in which school districts can borrow money. The measure would enable them to borrow money to withstand the skipped or deferred payment that Corzine is proposing.

“How is forcing local school districts and property taxpayers to encumber more debt going to help anyone during these bleak economic times?” Wolfe said. “I encourage my colleagues on the Budget Committee to vote against this measure in hopes it will force the governor back to the drawing board to devise a substantial plan to address the fiscal doldrums where he and his Democratic colleagues have placed New Jersey.”

Budget Committee Scheduled to Vote Today on Legislation Allowing Schools to Borrow for “Deferred” Aid Payment Shortly before a last-minute vote to allow Governor Corzine’s ploy to plug a $1.2 billion budget gap in part by delaying aid payments to school districts, Assemblyman David W. [...]