CORZINE'S GLOBAL WARMING GOALS CONFLICT WITH HIS AFFORDABLE HOUSING MANDATES

CORZINE WANTS AFFORDABLE HOUSING PUSHED INTO SUBURBAN COMMUNITIES WHILE HIS ENERGY PLAN SAYS DEVELOPMENT WILL OCCUR NEAR EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE

While Gov. Jon S. Corzine is stubbornly pushing an affordable-housing plan that will increase local property taxes and fill open spaces with clustered housing in the state’s suburbs, his Draft Global Warming Response Act Recommendation Report takes the opposite tact directing nearly all development toward existing infrastructure and on redeveloped lots.

“It’s too bad the administration didn’t read its own draft report before insisting that local communities build homes they can’t afford to serve or that do not fit within logical development plans,” said Assemblyman Scott T. Rumana, R-Passaic, Bergen and Essex. “Eliminating sprawl and shortening commutes as called for in the global warming plan are worthy goals, but they will be impossible to achieve when another plan from the administration shifts development from urban centers to the suburbs.”
           

Officials held a Land Use and Transportation Planning stakeholder meeting on Wednesday as part of a series of sessions to review the state’s plan to reduce global warming 25 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

Assemblyman David C. Russo, R-Passaic, Bergen and Essex, criticized the administration’s plan to use taxes and fees as the way to get people to cut the state’s use of motor fuels. The draft plan calls for so-called “feebates,” which would use weighted fees to encourage people to drive more fuel-efficient vehicles.

“These feebates are nothing more than a tax on all drivers under the guise of reducing our fuel consumption,” Russo said. “While drivers of less-efficient vehicles pay more, all drivers will pay more to drive under this plan. We should offer incentives to conserve fuel, not use global warming as an excuse for another new tax.”