DeCROCE TO CORZINE: JUST ASK YOUR CHIEF OF STAFF ABOUT THE SLUSH FUND REPORT

Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce says he finds Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s cavalier response to his request to produce the review of a $128 million slush fund that he directed his state treasurer to undertake in 2006 “incredulous and insulting to the taxpayers.”

DeCroce’s reaction was in response by Corzine contained in a published report by Gannett New Jersey that he didn’t know if such a document existed. “Reviews don't have to be committed to paper,” the governor was quoted as saying.

A letter dated March 31, 2006 from Assistant Attorney General Nancy Kaplen on behalf of then-Attorney General Zulima Farber stated that “Governor Corzine has directed Treasurer (Bradley) Abelow to review how the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development Block Grants program has been implemented and that, while this review is under way, no further action will be taken regarding distribution of grants under this Program.”

“If Corzine doesn’t know if a report exists or can’t recall what the review determined, then why doesn’t he just turn around and ask Abelow, who is still his chief of staff,” said DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic. “I bet he knows.”

In 2004 and 2006, a total of $128 million was earmarked in the state budget for “property tax assistance grants,” which according to recent testimony in the federal corruption trial of former state Sen. Wayne Bryant, D-Camden, was not the merit-based, non-partisan grant program Democrats claimed. The budget officer for the Senate Democrats and the current state treasurer testified that the fund was actually controlled by legislators, most notably Senate President and former Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey, D-Essex. The money was doled out to political allies and for pet projects approved by the legislative leadership. Various departments of state government simply served as conduits.

“For a governor who claims to be championing ethics reform, Corzine should stop trying to protect Democrats in the Legislature,” DeCroce asserted. “The Bryant trial has already raised serious questions about the ethics, if not the legality, of how this and other slush funds were handled.

“Over a two-year period, more than $300 million of the taxpayers’ money was squirreled away in a variety of slush funds. It’s time for the governor to side with the taxpayers instead of his political cronies or trying to advance his own political career.”

DeCroce noted an editorial in today’s edition of The Press of Atlantic City says Republican leaders seeking records about the bogus grant program as well as records involving the outcome of Corzine's review ought to be disclosed immediately.

“They - and the public that financed this slush fund - deserve to see them,” the editorial concluded.

“I couldn’t agree more,” DeCroce said.

# # # # #