Myers' allies propose bill to limit Kelly benefits

TRENTON - Three Republican state legislators stepped into the heated primary contest in the 3rd Congressional District between fellow Republicans Chris Myers and Jack Kelly.

The 8th Legislative District's contingent stood with Myers to announce that, at his request, they were drafting a bill that would ban employees of two or more taxpayer funded jobs from accepting cash payments in lieu of health coverage if one of the jobs already provides health insurance - a practice Myers referred to as "health care double dipping."

The proposal comes just days after a campaign attack Myers made on Kelly on the same topic.

The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Phil Haines, Assemblyman Scott Rudder and Assemblywoman Dawn Marie Addiego, is a direct response to Myers's charges that Kelly was handed a "patronage job" in the South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA), from which he collected $71,000 worth of payments in exchange for opting out of the job's health care plan in favor of the one he already had as an Ocean County Freeholder.

Kelly held two jobs at the Atlantic City International Airport between 1999 and his retirement in 2004, with a salary that topped out at about $74,000. He was first hired as an Airport Analyst in 1999, and was eventually promoted to Airport Business Manager before retiring in 2004.

The healthcare payments have continued over the course of his retirement.

Myers, who's also the mayor of Medford, cast doubt that the jobs were anything more than plum positions brought about by Kelly's political connections, saying that they were created for his benefit and that there is no evidence that he did any work there.

According to Myers, the positions were never advertised, and the one Kelly was originally hired for required a bachelor's degree and five years of experience in aviation - neither of which Kelly had. That revelation led the Asbury Park Press to rip into Kelly in a Sunday editorial, referring to Kelly's jobs as "classic pension-boosters."

During his five years on the job, Kelly got five pay raises - including one just two months after starting.

As evidence, the Myers campaign earlier this week sent out a memo from the SJTA's Custodian of Records, which read "With [your] regard to the hiring process for Mr. Kelly, we have no records documenting the need or justification of the position."

"I think this is exactly what's wrong in New Jersey, and for folks taking advantage of taxpayers like this is absolutely unconscionable," said Myers. "And despite all the repeated attempts - no one can produce any clear evidence that he fulfilled any of the specific duties that were on those job descriptions. The only place his name consistently appears is on pay checks."

The 8th District legislators characterized Kelly's acceptance of payments as an abuse of authority and, while legal, highly unethical.

Rudder noted that it was ironic to hold the press conference on "Taxpayer Freedom Day" - the day that the average New Jerseyan has finally earned enough to pay their tax burden for the year. New Jersey has the second highest average tax burden in the country.

"One of the reasons why it's the second worst in the country is the type of waste, fraud and abuse that you see today," said Rudder. "You see public officials taking advantage of the system and exploiting loopholes."

Details of the legislation they proposed were vague, but it would be limited in scope to public employees who hold two taxpayer-funded jobs which provide health insurance. The law would also apply to retirees. Haines said that, while they would look into banning other forms of wave-out payments, it would be irresponsible and "a failure of leadership to try to wait and deal with other areas."

Meanwhile, Kelly's campaign tried to head off criticism about the SJTA positions by highlighting an Op-Ed that former SJTA Executive Director James A. Crawford wrote in his defense.

Crawford said that the position Kelly was hired for was not newly created, but rather that the SJTA was creating new positions instead of relying on its support contractor. Crawford said that Kelly showed up to work and performed his job well.

But in his press conference today, Myers said it's strange that there's no documentation of Kelly doing any work.

"He worked at the airport for that long and was in charge of business plans and (requests for proposals). There's got to be at least one document that he worked on," said Myers. "It would just surprise me that there would be no evidence that you did any work while you were there."

Kelly offered no criticism of the proposed legislation.

"Let the state legislators grapple with that, and whatever law they pass I will comply with," he said.

Kelly did raise questions about Myers's work as an executive at Lockheed Martin, which counts on the federal government for 84% of its business. In a press release earlier today, Kelly demanded to know which members of Congress Myers met with while employed by Lockheed Martin and which of those were subsequently given campaign contributions by him and the company.

Kelly said that part of Myers's job, which pays $350,000 per year pre-bonus, was to act as a lobbyist.

"To focus on myself after working 25 years in public service, retiring and receiving the same pension benefits that anyone else in the pension plan, that's good political theater for him," said Kelly. "But he calls it immoral and unethical. I challenge the ethics of someone who is admittedly lobbying members of congress with special interest money and is paid $100k in bonuses to sell them products."

Myers called Kelly's attack a "pure distraction," saying that he talked to congressmen and others about how missile defense systems work. He invited reporters to look at the $17,500 worth of campaign contributions he's made.

Although Kelly didn't mention it, Democrats have already tried to tie Myers to a machine that's responsible for fiscal waste and mismanagement, pointing to $4,600 in donations that he accepted from former Burlington County GOP Chairman Glenn Paulsen and J. Garfield DeMarco.

DeMarco presided over the Burlington County Bridge Commission during a period when lobbyist Bob Stears - who pleaded guilty to over-billing the county by $1 million - said he was forced to fill the party's coffers with some of that money.

"You have to talk to Glenn about that," said Myers. "I don't know any issues about that so you'll have to talk to them about it."

While Kelly and Myers have beat up on each other over the course of the last month, Democrat John Adler has allowed Democratic surrogates to make attacks for him.

Myers said he's not concerned that the fierce primary fight will damage the Republican nominee against Adler - who Myers said was "responsible for just about every tax raise we've gotten in New Jersey."

"This is a Republican primary - everyone's public record is open. I've looked at mine and Mr. Kelly's, and what we find in his public record is not very good," he said. "It's about vetting who the best candidate is to move forward to take on the Democrat in the fall."