Oroho Says Democracy Suffers When Corzine Hides the Numbers

Senator Steve Oroho, a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, said that given the news that New York state faces a growing fiscal crisis, it is alarming that Governor Jon Corzine stubbornly refuses to regularly update revenue collection numbers for New Jersey, as other governors have done in the past. New York's governor plans to cut $3 billion in spending immediately and $2 billion next year because of collapsing revenues. In contrast, Corzine has refused to talk about the budget or current revenue. Before the Corzine administration took over, revenue figures were released regularly in September and October. Yet the governor has ignored repeated requests to release numbers this fall. Without the numbers, state residents have no idea whether New Jersey has a similar budget crisis, Oroho said.

"If we face a fiscal crisis, the time to address is right now, in a transparent and democratic way," Senator Oroho said. "It is astounding to me that this governor repeatedly gets away with hiding information necessary to the public debate that democracy demands."

New Jersey and New York are part of the same regional economy, Oroho said. New York is having fiscal problems in part because of Wall Street's slump over the last two years, he said. Though the financial industry is recovering, thousands of jobs have been lost, Oroho said.

"We are just as dependent upon on Wall Street, if not more, for income and sales tax revenue as New York state," Oroho said. "It's almost certain we have a revenue problem right now, and the governor can not be forgiven if he's hiding a crisis from the public for any reason."

The Albany Times-Union newspaper of New York reports that Governor Paterson's $3 billion in cuts will not balance the budget in a state facing a $4.1 billion shortfall. "The crisis -- a word that is absolutely appropriate for a state that faces the prospect of not having enough cash to pay its bills -- is not just big. It's a moving, growing target. And as soon as this year's problem is fixed, next year's will be waiting," the Times-Union said.

"At least in New York, the news media are able to report on the state's fiscal problems," Oroho said. "Here in New Jersey, Governor Corzine prefers to keep the public, the press and the legislators in the dark.

"Based on numbers now three and a half months old, this state faced a budget deficit of more than $8 billion because of Governor Corzine's irresponsible deferrals and gimmicks,"

Oroho said. "If the problem has grown larger, the public and the Legislature should be debating today how to deal with the crisis so we make better choices than in the past. It's terrible management practice to delay tough decisions until your options dwindle to a very few."

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