Lance Votes to Increase Government Spending

Whitman to Lance:   “Stop the Government Waste”

Lance Voted Monday to Spend $ 68 million in Non-Existent State Funds to Pay for a Program With No Public Accountability – All While Campaigning for Congress as a Self-Proclaimed Fiscal Conservative

     (Peapack, NJ)…Today, real Fiscal Conservative Republican Kate Whitman called upon State Senator Leonard Lance to stop the wasteful government spending.   Referring to an Asbury Park Editorial, Kate said, “On Monday when Lance was in Trenton and voters weren’t looking, Lance knowingly voted in committee to spend $ 68 million in non-existent state funds to expand a government welfare program which fails to collect millions owed to them, while paying out benefits to participants without knowing if they are even qualified.”
 
     Whitman cited the Asbury Park Press Editorial of today (May 21st, 2008) entitled “Bad Rx for economy.”  It reads, “The price tag for expansion of the state’s health program for low-income residents, which was pushed through the Senate budget and Appropriations Committee Monday, would cost taxpayers an additional $ 68 million within three years.”

     The Editorial also reads, “…the NJ FamilyCare health program, which has been plagued by lax oversight.  State audits released several weeks ago found that the program paid out $ 43.1 million to participants in two years without knowing if they qualified.  The state didn’t even try to collect $ 4.6 million 16,300 people owed the program.”

    The Courier Post reported on April 3, 2008 that “Wealthy residents, people with six-figure incomes manage to qualify for NJ FamilyCare, a program designed to cover uninsured middle-class and poor children, along with some working poor parents.” 

    “As the Republican Budget Officer on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, Lance knows the funds for this program do not exist, and the Governor has already stated they don’t exist.  Yet Lance voted for $68 million in new spending, while knowing this program is fraught with fraud and abuse.  It is wrong and flat out irresponsible for Lance to cast this vote which will result in another tax hike and more wasteful spending New Jersey’s working families will be forced to pay for,” Whitman stated.

   The Asbury Park Press also wrote, “This is not the time to spend more on an expanded bureaucracy and new opportunities for patronage jobs.”

 Whitman continued, “Leonard Lance is the typical career politician who will say or do anything to get elected to Congress.  His legislative record documents that in addition to this vote, he has voted for hundreds of millions of dollars in Christmas tree wasteful spending which has helped put New Jersey in the fiscal crisis now faces.”

 Kate concluded, “Leonard Lance must stop his wasteful government spending, be honest with voters, and stop saying one thing on the campaign trail while doing something else while he is in Trenton.”

                                             ###

Paid for by Kate Whitman for Congress.