RUMANA & RUSSO CONFUSED OVER AUDITS Would Rather Propose Studies Than Offer Cuts

Mike Mecca -201-852-1067                       

Mike Ramaglia 201-697-7699 

PASSAIC COUNTY - Assemblymen Scott Rumana and David Russo have become obsessed with audits lately – and confused as to their function, say members of GOP Strong, a conservative group calling for Republicans to be more aggressive in demanding an end to wasteful state spending.  

“The real bottom line,” says GOP  Strong Co-Chair Michael Ramaglia, “is that neither assemblyman is showing leadership by calling for audits or investigation of audits. Audits aren’t leadership – and that’s what the Republican Party lacks right now – bold leadership.  

“Calling for audits is just a way of avoiding taking tough positions and making hard decisions, and neither Rumana nor Russo want to take a tough stand against spending. They want someone else to do it for them,” said Ramaglia.  

"Calls for auditing state government have been around for years and have gotten us no where,” said GOP Strong co chair Michael Mecca. “Whenever a politician wants to avoid making a decision, he either calls for an audit or for a committee to study the problem.”

“The reality is that we know there is waste in state government and waste in many school districts, including the Abbott Districts like Paterson. “It’s time for conservative Republicans to stand up and demand that specific cuts be made.”  Mecca noted that the Paterson school district received $436 million in school aid this year – mostly paid by suburban homeowners.

 “Did it suddenly come as a shock to Assemblyman Rumana that millions of dollars are being wasted in Paterson, not to mention Newark and Camden?”  

“The $4.8 million wasted in security overpayments in Paterson is a drop in the ocean of wasteful spending in Paterson and elsewhere.   Where have he and Rumana and Russo been?” asked Mecca.  

AUDITS SHOW WASTE 

A May 11, 2008 report on audits of the  state’s 33 Abbott Districts showed that 25 cents of every dollar spent in the urban districts was unnecessary or lacking documentation. The audit turned up questionable spending, including thousands spent on Christmas parties, trips to Atlantic City, laptop computers for school board members and cell phones.  Neither Rumana nor Russo commented on the wasted tax dollars at that time or proposed cutting Abbott funding.

“It’s time to stop talking about audits and actually propose some cuts and fight to get them through the  legislature,” said Mecca. 

A GOP Strong review of school spending found absurd amounts spent on school administration salaries in Passaic City and the  Passaic County Vo-Tech High School. It also found that Paterson spends more than $6 million annually on administrative salaries including more than $217,000 for a superintendent, another $178,000 on an assistant superintendent and more than $1.2 million in salaries on eight assistant superintendents. 

“I don’t’ think Assemblymen Russo and Rumana need the taxpayers to fund another audit. I think they need to go to the state education department’s Web site with a pen and calculator and add up for themselves the waste of money in Paterson and other Abbott Districts,” said GOP Strong co-chair Robert Fass, a business from Wayne. 

“In business we don’t routinely call for audits, we cut spending when times are tight. I suggest Rumana and Russo do the same,” said Fass. 

STATE CUTS 

Ramaglia noted that the most revealing thing about Gov. Corzine’s proposed budget cuts isn’t the areas he wants to cut, but the fact that  many of these programs exist at all and are funded by taxpayers. “Do we really need a Cigarette Ignition Propensity Program, or a program that issues state grants of up to $200,000 to teach towns to share available resources efficiently?” asked Ramaglia.   

“Where are Rumana and Russo when it comes to recommending elimination of government programs. Anyone can say we need an audit.  But it takes courage to stand up and say ‘stop wasting taxpayer money on ridiculous programs that serve no purpose but to expand the bloated state bureaucracy,’”  said Ramaglia.