MERKT AND BIONDI BILL WOULD SHUT DOWN COAHAssemblymen Richard Merkt and Peter Biondi today introduced legislation to abolish the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).  Their goal is to fire a state bureaucracy that has threatened hundreds of New Jersey municipalities with poorly thought-out, unworkable and costly affordable housing mandates.            “Our bill is an urgently needed first step toward solving the crisis caused by absurd COAH mandates,” declared Merkt, R. – Morris. “COAH has turned into an ugly, bureaucratic monster, terrorizing New Jersey communities. We need to get rid of it now, before it does any more harm to our state.”            In May 2008, COAH decreed that 115,000 more affordable housing units be built throughout the state, assigning arbitrary quotas for every town to meet.   Since then, local officials have been frantically – and futilely -- searching for ways to comply with COAH’s mandate by the December 31, 2008 deadline.             “COAH imposed impossible burdens and outrageous costs on towns, businesses, and taxpayers,” explained Biondi, R-Somerset, who also serves as Assembly Republican Conference Chair. “There is simply no reasonable way for municipalities to satisfy COAH’s demands, leaving us no choice but to shut COAH down to save New Jersey. Merkt noted that COAH’s new housing requirements would only further cripple New Jersey’s already weakened real estate market, devalue existing homes, and impose huge new school construction costs throughout New Jersey.            “Abolishing COAH may not be a panacea for all of New Jersey’s housing issues,” continued Merkt, “but COAH’s decrees on housing policy have threatened to disrupt local government in every corner of our state. We need a new and better direction that doesn’t rely on quotas blindly set by bureaucrats in Trenton.”            Biondi and Merkt invited support for their bill to abolish COAH from mayors and municipal governing bodies throughout the state, challenging Governor Jon Corzine to sign the measure.            “We will be scheduling a rally in Trenton early in the New Year to press for passage of our bill,” announced Biondi, adding, “We are confident our proposal will win strong support from virtually every local official in the state.”            “After years of ineffective public hand-wringing over higher property taxes, Governor Corzine will have an opportunity to prove his concern by signing this bill,” noted Merkt. “Doing so will spare countless towns major property tax hikes by eliminating COAH and its totally bizarre system of costly housing mandates.”                                                 ####