Adler says money from grants program went towards district improvements, not "pet projects"

Just before Medford Mayor Chris Myers announced that he planned to hold a press conference detailing State Sen. Adler’s receipt of money from a legislative slush fund, Adler acknowledged that he took some money from the Property Tax Assistance and Community Developments Grants program, but denied that the funds were used for pet projects or that he exerted any undue influence to get them.

“John Adler not only had no influence over the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development Fund, he did not know that two legislators had discretion over it. As he has since his election in 1991, Sen. Adler has fought for improvements in his district. These were not "pet projects" – again, the words of Chris Myers - but programs of importance to John Adler's constituents,” said Adler spokesman Mark Warren.

It is unclear for which specific projects those funds were used, and how much money Adler received.

Myers started asking Adler whether he participated in the program since last week, when testimony at former State Sen. Wayne Bryant’s corruption trial reignited interest in the now-defunct program.

Myers plans a press conference tomorrow at the State House with Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson in which he plans to “present evidence that Senator Adler did, in fact, control monies through this fund that were disbursed to his pet projects in Cherry Hill and the 6th Legislative District without proper oversight,” according to campaign manager Chris Russell.

Adler hit back at Myers for casting stones, tying him to a Burlington County Republican machine that’s no stranger to controversy.

“Instead of hurling baseless accusations, Mayor Myers should end his silence on a very real scandal in his own backyard that has already resulted in the conviction of one high-level Republican official: the criminal conspiracy involving kickbacks to vendors at the Burlington County Bridge Commission,” said Warren. “The conspiracy cost Burlington County taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and is still being investigated by federal prosecutors. Yet Mayor Myers has said nothing about it. Nor has he urged that prosecutors get to the bottom of the matter to determine whether others in his party were involved in the wrongdoing.”