Beck, O'Scanlon, Casagrande Champion 2-Year Budget That Corzine Promised, But Didn't Deliver

Senator Jennifer Beck, Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, the Republican legislators from District 12, announced they will introduce legislation calling for a constitutional amendment that would require the budget be balanced for two years, not just one. Governor Corzine championed two-year budgeting (see his quotes below) when running for governor four years ago, but failed to deliver on his campaign promises. This year, Corzine is proposing a cynical, election-year budget that relies on gimmicks that will leave the next governor facing the worst fiscal crisis in state history in 2011. A two-year budget would make it much more difficult for a governor such as Corzine to use irresponsible fiscal practices just to win re-election.

"The fiscal crisis that Governor Corzine is creating is real and unprecedented in its scope," Beck said. "A two-year budget would make it far harder for the governor to paper over problems for political gain."

"We must take back our state from those who seem determined to push it into bankruptcy," O'Scanlon said. "Governor Corzine told the voters he would champion two-year budgets. Unfortunately, he won't keep that promise unless we force him to do so."

"Our children and our grandchildren don't deserve to spend their adult lives paying for this governor's terrible decisions," Casagrande said. "A two-year budget isn't just a change in procedure. It's a priceless gift to the future generations who the governor now ignores."

Among the ticking time bombs set to explode and destroy more of the hopes and dreams of Middle Class New Jersey:

The state will lose $2.2 billion in federal aid that Governor Corzine depleted this year to create the illusion that he cut the 2010 budget.

The next governor will face a $450 million hike in debt service payments because Governor Corzine is skipping payments on billions of dollars in debt in 2010.

Whoever is governor next year will have to find at least $350 million in fiscal 2011 to come up with a 7 percent pay increase and other costly concessions that Corzine gave to government employees to try to buy their support in this election year.

The next governor will feel tremendous pressure to keep levying the $1 billion in tax increases that Corzine now calls "temporary."

Corzine is leaving the next governor with zero dollars in the Transportation Trust Fund to finance hundreds of millions of dollars of vitally needed projects.

The state must pay back $1.6 billion borrowed to pay unemployment benefits, and find a way to replenish the fund without crippling state businesses and workers with new taxes.

The next governor must find a way to replenish a pension fund that is steadily marching toward insolvency because of billions of dollars of underfunding over the last eight years of Democrat control.

The next governor will face tremendous pressure to pay property tax rebates to even fewer state citizens to pay for the debt and unfunded mandates left by Governor Corzine.

Beck, Casagrande and O'Scanlon reminded Governor Corzine of what he promised voters while campaigning in 2005 and 2006:

[Corzine Will] Submit Two-Year Budgets to the Public and the Legislature, in Addition to the Current Constitutional Requirement for a One-Year Budget."

"Jon Corzine's Blueprint for New Jersey's Economic Growth," a campaign position paper from 2005.

"[Corzine] would keep New Jersey focused on the long term by forcing the Legislature to pass a two-year budget."

(The Press of Atlantic City, March 23, 2005)

"We can start that discipline by submitting a two-year budget every year to the State Legislature. And included in that budget will be five-year projections for spending and revenues. Most government programs don't start and end in a single year, and we shouldn't budget as if they did."

Corzine, speech. March 22, 2005 "Invest, Grow, And Prosper," http://www.corzineforgovernor.com/speech/view/?id=84)

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