DeCROCE SAYS CORZINE’S REFUSAL TO RE-EXAMINE THE STATE BUDGET NOW DEFIES COMMON SENSE

ENTIRE ASSEMBLY REPUBLICAN CAUCUS ENDORSES CALL FOR SPECIAL ECONOMIC SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE IN LETTER TO CORZINE

Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce said today he is “disappointed and baffled” by Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine’s cavalier dismissal of calls by Republican lawmakers to take a fresh look at the state budget in the wake of economic turmoil even he concedes has left New Jersey “vulnerable.”

He announced that the entire Assembly Republican caucus has signed a letter sent to Corzine today urging him to reconsider his decision.“New Jersey has been in the grip of an affordability crisis for quite sometime,” states the letter to Corzine. “But now, in the wake of the economic turmoil triggered by the troubles on Wall Street, many taxpayers in New Jersey now face a survivability crisis. People are scared. They worry about possible foreclosure on their homes, how they will make their next mortgage payment, will they have a job tomorrow, and whether the money they have invested for retirement will be there when they need it.

“We, the undersigned members of the Assembly Republican Caucus, implore you to reconsider your refusal to revisit the budget for the current fiscal year and find more cuts to compensate for the loss of tax revenue that will be the inevitable result of the calamity on Wall Street and the continued loss of jobs.”

The letter warns that the failure to cut waste and state spending now would be catastrophic for many taxpayers, who would “suffer further financial pain that would otherwise result from higher taxes, fees or tolls.”

Earlier this week, Assembly and Senate Republicans, including Assembly Republican Budget Officer Joseph Malone, R-Burlington, urged the governor to reopen the state’s current budget and look for potential areas to cut. Corzine’s responded that he has seen no data to justify reopening the budget but that his administration would take “responsible action as the facts unfold.”

“I find it hard to believe the governor doesn’t recognize what impact the crisis on Wall Street, the declining value of investments and the continued loss of jobs in New Jersey, especially in the financial sector, will have on our future revenue picture,” said DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic.

“His ‘I see no need for speed’ approach to crisis management is only going to hurt taxpayers now and into the future. On a bipartisan basis, our neighbors to the north have already taken strong steps to deal with projected declines in tax revenue. Corzine should be following the lead of the Republican governor of California, the politically independent mayor of New York City and the Democratic governor of New York State and make immediate spending cuts.”

On Tuesday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg  instructed city agencies to cut spending by about $500 million in the current fiscal year, which began July 1 as it did in New Jersey.

In August, New York Gov. David A. Paterson reached a bipartisan agreement with his state’s Legislature to enact an over $1 billion, two-year savings plan that does not include any tax or fee increases and reduces spending in the current year so that growth is held to the rate of inflation. He said these actions will save more than $400 million in 2008-09 and over $600 million in 2009-10, guard against further declines in revenue during the current fiscal year, and reduce next year’s projected state budget deficit.

To achieve the agreement, Paterson called for a special emergency economic session of the Legislature.

“Too often in the past, our state's failure to respond quickly to fiscal crises has only made our budget problems worse and the solutions we’ve had to implement more painful,” said Paterson. “Today, we are taking a different approach. Rather than simply hoping that our struggling economy improves, all sides worked together in the spirit of cooperation and took action to reduce spending.”

DeCroce said New York was not alone in failing to respond swiftly to fiscal crises in the past.

“How many times has New Jersey, under Corzine, Codey and McGreevey, turned a deaf ear to Republican calls for action only to lapse into a panic mode that ended up hurting taxpayers?” DeCroce asked.

On Tuesday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new state budget, but only after eliminating $510 million in spending.

“I urge Governor Corzine to reconsider and work with both sides of the political aisle now before taxpayers are socked again,” DeCroce said. “There will only be grave financial consequences if the administration ignores the deteriorating state economy.”

DeCroce said it is not enough for Corzine to claim as a justification for inaction that he has already “cut the budget” because that feat was achieved by “sleight of hand.”

Corzine claims he cut the budget by $600 million. But he actually moved $300 million in expenses "off budget." The governor then took some debt service off this year's books and pushed some unemployment fund expenses into the FY 2008 budget before the FY 2009 budget was approved in June so he could claim he signed a smaller budget.

“We need more than just bookkeeping maneuvers to lower the budget,” DeCroce said.

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