Bucco and Oroho: Governor Corzine Still Playing 'Hide the Numbers' Game

Senate Republican Budget Officer Anthony Bucco and Senator Steve Oroho, a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, criticized Governor Corzine for refusing to regularly update revenue numbers despite repeated requests for openness and transparency. The governor has daily access to revenue collection figures. Senators Bucco and Oroho expressed outrage that Governor Corzine doesn't share those numbers so that business owners, legislators and the voting public can track what's happening during this economic crisis, as business people and residents can do in other states.

"Governor Corzine clings to the notion that only members of his administration need to know what's happening with the state's revenue collections," Senator Bucco said. "It's hard to imagine a stance that is more condescending and undemocratic."

Senator Oroho noted that New York Governor David Patterson acted responsibly earlier this week when he ordered $500 million in immediate spending cuts. The cuts came the day after Patterson released figures showing that the state's income tax collections were coming in 36 percent below last year's. New York's dependence on the earnings of Wall Street professionals was blamed for the falling collections. The state's projected deficit surged by hundreds of millions of dollars, newspapers reported.

"New Jersey is just as dependent on Wall Street as New York state for revenue, our unemployment rate is much higher than New York's and our projected deficit is four times as large," Senator Oroho pointed out. "It would be far better to cut spending now if revenue isn't coming in as projected than to let our deficit grow to an even more crippling size.

"The governor should release figures right now so the public knows whether this state's $8 billion to $10 billion budget deficit is growing. Honest, open government shouldn't be optional," Oroho said.

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