Oroho: Corzine Won't Tell Taxpayers Where Vast Sums Go

Senate Budget Committee member Steve Oroho, R-Sussex and Hunterdon, said it's disgraceful that the Corzine administration approved a grant of $12 million today under the so-called Special Municipal Aid program without producing the performance audits required by law.

"The Corzine administration can't justify sloppy oversight and secret spending of taxpayer money when we are in economic crisis," Oroho said. "Struggling taxpayers should be outraged that the governor isn't providing absolute assurance that every dime of their money is being spent wisely."

The Local Finance Board, a body which includes senior Corzine advisers, approved a $12 million grant for Newark today. This grant was approved despite past hiring irregularities that reportedly violated conditions put on last year's Special Municipal Aid grant of $45 million to Newark, and despite Newark's decision to skip pension payments that other cities are making. Newark received $45 million in aid last year.

Special Municipal Aid has been one of New Jersey's most secretive and unaccountable state programs. The size of the program has ballooned over the last eight years. Hundreds of millions of dollars has been doled out without any public documentation explaining why the grants were made or justifying the sizes of the grants. Moreover, the grants are supposed to be temporary, emergency aid under state law, but cities come back year after year asking for money while never getting their finances in order.

"The Special Municipal Aid program is the poster child for dysfunctional Trenton," Oroho said. "The spending of hundreds of millions of dollars is approved at sleepy meetings that the public rarely hears about. The Corzine administration is never held accountable for not producing audits that it promised and that taxpayers paid for with hard-earned dollars."

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