Lesniak wants AG's opinion on EnCap as Schaer requests gov signing ceremony

PASSAIC - The backroom wrangling on EnCap ain't over.

"We're studying it," Gov. Jon Corzine said of a reform bill on the subject that passed overwhelmingly in the legislature a week ago.

Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) called a vote last Thursday evening on the reform bill authored by Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), Sen. Bob Gordon (D-Paramus) and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), overriding Sen. Ray Lesniak's (D-Elizabeth) 11th-hour worries as Lesniak and Schaer sat in Corzine's office.

Lesniak fretted that some of the bill's sharper edges might undercut his economic stimulus bill, and he told Schaer he had the votes to kill a piece of legislation Schaer's worked for two and a half years.

Schaer called his bluff, and demanded a machine vote in the Assembly.

Codey, meanwhile, went ahead and opened the machines on the Senate side.

"This is a bill that demands accountability and transparency so that we avoid another Encap," said Weinberg, referring to the State of New Jersey's infamous attempt to resuscitate a Bergen garbage dump into a golf course, which resulted in a more than $300 million killzone for taxpayers.  

The reform bill romped in both houses: 77-0 in the Assembly and 38-1 in the Senate, with even a surrogate for Lesniak voting "aye," as only state Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark) went negative.

"Encap radically affected my district (the 36th) and not only those towns directly impacted - Rutherford, Lyndhurst and North Arlington - but the State of New Jersey," said Schaer, celebrating passage of what Sierra Club Executive Director Jeff Tittell verified as a "great service to the state." 

Seeking the governor's imprimatur in a tough re-election year, Schaer yesterday sent a letter to Corzine requesting a formal bill-signing ceremony for the first week of August - at the site in question.

But still harboring his own doubts about the bill's impact on his economic stimulus package - which also passed last Thursday -Lesniak notified the Attorney General's Office that he wants its opinion - and doesn't want Corzine acting on the bill until all parties involved receive that input. 

"I want to know whether it (EnCap) applies to public-private partnerships," said Lesniak. "If the attorney general says no, the governor can sign it. If it's yes, I think the governor can implement an exceutive order (to change that portion of the bill).

"This is not about an election," Lesniak added. "This is about tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of investment."

The veteran senator said his economic stimulus bill does not represent a threat to the core principles of the EnCap reform bill.

"Under the stimulus bill, the developer has to have 80% of financing in place and that didn't happen with EnCap," Lesniak insisted.

"I don't want the benefits of one bill to neutralize the benefits of the other," confirmed Corzine, as he headed out of the Passaic City Council reorganization meeting Wednesday. "It's a legal question."

The senator said when he went to the governor's office last Thursday evening he didn't tell anyone he was leaving the Senate floor.

"I didn't think they wouldn't call the vote without me there," he said. "I was trying to make it work so we could have both bills done."

Schaer said he's confident the lawmakers and governor's office can resolve the issue.

"I have no problem with him (Lesniak) contacting the AG's Office," said the assemblyman. "I'm not interested in undermining what he's trying to. It is better to deal with the conflict now rather than later.

"My assurance is the governor has an extremely capable staff and they will read the bills very carefully to be sure they respond to the governor's vision," Schaer added.