Cryan goes on offense in wake of budget address

Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, state chairman of the Democratic Party, today derided the reaction of Republican leaders to Gov. Jon Corzine's budget as "all over the map."

"Too many of the Republicans are resorting to the political rhetoric of the past about budget cuts but they want  to exempt their own pet projects," said Cryan in a press release. "They aren't just contradicting each other, they are contradicting themselves. Their budget  numbers don't add up and their ideas don't add  up."

The governor described his budget as a "turning point"  away from the irresponsible practices of the past. "But the Republicans' want to do a u-turn back to the same politics of the past," Cryan said.
 
The state chairman ripped former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan as anti-government to the point of absurdity, and scratched his head over Assemblyman Gary Chiusano's stated desire to dismantle the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow, Cryan added, wants to preserve the Department of Agriculture because it's elimination wouldn't achieve "real savings," while state Sen. Leonard Lance says property tax relief can't be funded and Assembly Minority Leader Alex Decroce and others disagree.

At the same time, Cryan said, Sen. Bill Baroni has vowed to prevent worker reductions, even as Sen. Jennifer Beck termed all of state  government a "bloated pig," but, in Cryan's words, is "treating subsidies for the horse racing  industry like a sacred cow."

"Rhetoric about unspecified cuts is only rhetoric, it does nothing to  balance the budget books," Cryan said.

"These same Republicans not only ignore the state's long-term debt crisis, some of them deny it exists at all," he added. "Debt payments for the upcoming  year total $2.7 billion, a cost that will only grow in future years if left  to itself."