WHITMAN CALLS OUT LANCE ON DEBT CHARADE

               WHITMAN CALLS OUT LANCE ON DEBT CHARADE

EVEN HIS OWN HUNTERDON COUNTY RUNNING MATES TRIED TO CLOSE THE "LANCE DEBT LOOPHOLE"
 
      (Peapack, NJ) - Leonard Lance continued his fiscal conservative charade in a news release issued last week attacking Governor Corzine for pushing to borrow $2.5 billion without voter approval. The funny thing is, Lance's own debt legislation, SCR-39, includes the loophole, which permits the borrowing he is now attacking. Two months ago, Assembly members Marcia Karrow and Mike Doherty, Leonard Lance's running mates in the Assembly, introduced a resolution in the Assembly to close Lance's debt loophole with ACR-168.[1]
 
      "Leonard Lance says one thing and does another. He claims to be a fiscal conservative, but when he disappears to Trenton he's just another failed politician. The worst part is, now Lance is trying to fool voters into attacking Corzine over something his own legislation failed to fix," said Kate Whitman, the only real fiscal conservative running for the 7th Congressional District. "Perhaps that's why his own Republican colleagues removed him as their leader last year and why Politicsnj.com referred to Lance as “…among the weakest Senate Minority Leaders in decades…” just last September."
 
         A news release issued March 13, 2008 by Assembly members McHose, Karrow and Doherty in reference to the Lance legislation, said "although legislation is now advancing through the Legislature aimed at requiring voter approval for state debt, that bill may not be applicable to debt issued for school construction purposes, because the language doesn't clearly address the impact on court imposed education mandates." Doherty added their legislation "will make clear that there should be no loopholes."
 
       This is the second time in recent weeks Lance has not been honest with voters about his weak fiscal record but instead is still falsely claiming to be a fiscal conservative. On Monday, Lance pushed through the Senate Budget Committee new unfunded state spending totaling nearly $70 million for a program a state audit found is paying out benefits to people who do not even qualify. The Asbury Park Press said the program would expand the state bureaucracy and add new opportunities for patronage jobs, and called on Senators to reject the measure.
 
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                      Paid for by Kate Whitman for Congress.