Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose

McHOSE: CHEAP LAND DEALS IN NEWARK ARE IRONIC

CITY WHERE MILLIONS WERE SPENT ON LAND TO BUILD SCHOOLS WAS GIVING LAND AT A DISCOUNT TO THE POLITICALLY CONNECTED

Assemblywomen Alison Littell McHose today said she is disgusted by reports that in the final days of the administration of former Mayor Sharpe James the city engaged in a flurry of real estate deals to sell municipal property at as little as a one-seventh of its market value to politically-connected developers.December 4, 2006
Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose/973-726-0954

McHOSE: CHEAP LAND DEALS IN NEWARK ARE IRONIC

CITY WHERE MILLIONS WERE SPENT ON LAND TO BUILD SCHOOLS WAS GIVING LAND AT A DISCOUNT TO THE POLITICALLY CONNECTED

Assemblywomen Alison Littell McHose today said she is disgusted by reports that in the final days of the administration of former Mayor Sharpe James the city engaged in a flurry of real estate deals to sell municipal property at as little as a one-seventh of its market value to politically-connected developers.

"The irony here is that one of the things that broke the back of the School Construction Corporation was the inflated land acquisition costs that made schools more costly to build," said McHose, R-Sussex, Morris and Hunterdon. "This included a $36 million land purchase which pushed the total cost of a planned high school in Newark over $100 million."

McHose was responding to a story in today's Star-Ledger updating reports that from the day Mayor James announced he would not seek re-election on March 27, until he left office on June 30, the city closed on nearly two dozen land real estate deals that involved dozens of lots and at least 20 acres of vacant land.

Most of the property sold in James' waning days went for $4 a square foot, or about one-seventh the going rate of vacant city land last year, according to the story. Federal investigators are now looking into city land sales to developers with ties to the former mayor, according to sources in the Star-Ledger story.

"Where were these very generous land offers when the SCC was looking to build new schools for Newark's children?" McHose asked. "Apparently lining the pockets of the politically connected was more important than carefully stewarding taxpayer funds and helping to maximize the use of those dollars to benefit school children."

McHose is a member of the School Construction Review Commission -- a task force charged with studying the management and funding of the program. She noted that inflated land acquisition costs, like those in Newark, drained the program of funding that could have been used to build additional schools throughout the state.

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