CARDINALE CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE HEARINGS ON ENCAP FIASCO

             Senator Gerald Cardinale, (R-Bergen), today expressed dismay that the Legislative leadership is delaying hearings on the financial and environmentally troubled Encap project until after the election. Cardinale wants to know why New Jersey officials provided a politically connected developer with $300 million in public money to build a golf course and condominiums on sealed landfills despite warnings that the developer lacked the financial, managerial and technical resources to complete the project.              “It is disturbing that my colleagues in the Legislature are unwilling to convene any hearings on the Encap debacle until after the November 6 general election,” Cardinale stated.  “The Attorney General of New Jersey should release all of her findings on this matter. The taxpayers must have all of the facts on this ill-advised project before the election so that they can make an informed choice at the polls in two weeks.”             Cardinale’s request for hearings comes on the heels of published reports by the The Record  that taxpayers may be stuck with a $51 million debt because New Jersey loaned Cherokee Investment Partners $212 million without sufficient collateral or financial guarantees and that the former Commissioner of the DEP expressed serious reservations about the project nearly two years ago.                        “I wonder what else they want to put off until after the election, perhaps massive tax increases. It is time the Trenton democrats came clean and started being honest with the people of New Jersey,” Cardinale concluded.