ADDIEGO AND RUDDER: ANY NEW CORPORATION CREATED BY CORZINE’S TOLL PLAN MUST

BE SUBJECT TO OPRA

Assemblywoman Dawn Marie Addiego and Assemblyman Scott Rudder continued to voice their opposition to Governor Corzine’s massive toll hike and borrowing plan today and said they plan to introduce legislation requiring that any entity created by the state, such as the Public Benefits Corporation (PBC) being proposed to manage this toll scheme, must be subject to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA).

“For almost a full year Governor Corzine kept the public in the dark about the details of his toll hike plan and now he wants to ensure they will be kept in the dark about the plan if it wins approval from the Legislature,” said Rudder, R-Burlington. “If the taxpayers of New Jersey are going to be on the hook for over $100 billion in debt service payments created by this corporation, they have every right to demand access to the corporation’s records.”

According to a Gannett New Jersey story this weekend, Corzine plans to bar the public from examining the inner workings of the toll-road corporation. The proposed PBC would not be subject to the state's Open Public Records Act under Corzine’s proposed legislation.

As the story points out, if approved, the corporation would operate more than 334 miles of state roads and could hike tolls by as much as 800 percent in the next 14 years – a fact that Rudder and Addiego say makes it essential for the body to be subject to public scrutiny. Their bill will would apply to any new entity that may be created by the state in the future.

“The entire process engaged in by Corzine while creating this toll hike plan has shown disdain and hostility towards the taxpayers’ right to know how their money is being spent,” Addiego said. “The public is entitled to have access to this information and we intend to introduce legislation to make sure that this agency can be held accountable.”

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