David Wolfe

Richard Perr and Elia Pelios filed ethics complaints today against seven state legislators.

The two Democratic County Chairmen alleged State Senators Joseph Kyrillos, Bob Singer and Peter Inverso, and Assemblymen Kevin O'Toole, David Wolfe, Christopher Connors and Rick Merkt may have profited by state budget items that supported. Democrats are alleging that a federal probe of how legislators might personally profit off specific state budget items is unfairly targeting just one party by looking only at actions since 2004, when Democrats first had complete control of both houses of the Legislature.

"These complaints are nothing more than a pathetic attempt by the Democrat machine to divert attention away from the fact that a laundry list of Democrats is being investigated by the FBI and US Attorney for using their office to enrich themselves. By their own admission, their complaints lack any merit or substance," said GOP State Chairman Tom Wilson. "Their failure to provide a shred of evidence to support their claims demonstrates that this is nothing more than a couple of political bosses looking to sully the good names of honest legislators to help their campaigns. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, though, since Chairman Perr has a history of filing bogus complaints. The ethics committee will undoubtedly see this as yet another baseless, politically inspired stunt and dismiss it just as they have his past complaints."

Seven Republican legislators will be the targets of ethics complaints to be filed tomorrow by two Democratic party leaders: State Senators Joseph Kyrillos, Bob Singer and Peter Inverso, and Assemblymen Kevin O'Toole, David Wolfe, Christopher Connors and Rick Merkt.

O'Toole, is running for State Senate in a contested GOP primary against former Bergen County Freeholder Todd Caliguire and Wayne attorney Victor Rabbat. Inverso is retiring, but comes from the politically competitive 14th district. Connors, in a safe GOP district, is running for the State Senate seat his father has held since 1981.

Seven Republican legislators will be the targets of ethics complaints to be filed tomorrow by two Democratic party leaders.  Three of them are State Senators Joseph Kyrillos and Bob Singer, and Assemblyman David Wolfe.  Democrats are alleging that a federal probe of how legislators might personally profit off specific state budget items is unfairly targeting just one party by looking only at actions since 2004, when Democrats first had complete control of both houses of the Legislature.

The Record's story this morning on the federal probe of legislators who received some personal benefit from state budget items suggests that only Democrats are being targeted.  According to The Record, there are some similarities between State Senator Joseph Coniglio and Assemblyman Brian Stack, both Democrats who have received subpoenas, and two Republican legislators who have not: State Senator Robert Singer and Assemblyman David Wolfe.

VAN DREW: POLITICAL ROBOCALLS ARE THE ENEMY,
NOT THE STATE'S ANTI-TELEMARKETING LAW

(TRENTON) - Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew said consumers would be the victims of a double dose of aggravation and inconvenience if lawmakers haphazardly made wholly unconstitutional changes in the state's anti-telemarketing law instead of advancing a surgically precise measure to curb unsolicited, interruptive political "robocalls."

WOLFE SAYS SCHOOL FUNDING FIGURES ARE
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

"It's a token increase. Governor Corzine has done nothing more than throw us a bone," said Assemblyman David Wolfe in response to the release today of the administration's state education aid figures for Fiscal Year 2008.

WOLFE: LATEST AUDITS IN ABBOTT DISTRICTS HIGHLIGHT IMPEDIMENTS TO SCHOOL FUNDING EQUITY

WOLFE HAD URGED PROPERTY TAX COMMITTEE TO LOOK INTO WASTEFUL SPENDING IN ABBOTT DISTRICTS

BARONI, MALONE AND WOLFE CONDEMN SCC's CALL FOR MORE SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION FUNDS

NO MORE SCC FUNDS UNTIL SOMEONE IS HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR WASTE

McHOSE TO DEMOCRATS: JOIN REPUBLICANS IN SALVAGING BAN ON DUAL OFFICE-HOLDING

STILL TIME TO SAVE PROPOSAL TO END DUAL OFFICE HOLDING

Just one week after the Senate Democrats removed a provision from property tax reform legislation to curb the practice of dual office-holding, Assemblywomen Alison Littell McHose called on her Assembly colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fight back.

WOLFE SAYS DEMS COULD HAVE DEFUSED
PROPERTY TAX CRISIS BY FUNDING EXISTING STATE AID FORMULA

Rutgers Study Confirms State Aid Freeze Drove Up
Property Taxes by 20% in Some School Districts

Assemblyman David Wolfe said today the conscious decision by Democrats to freeze state aid for schools for five years in a row triggered the massive escalation in property taxes, according to a study by the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers University-Newark.

The study determined that schools were shorted $846 million during the 2005-06 school year alone. Ernest C. Reock Jr., the author of the study and an expert on property taxes, said had the money been provided property taxes could have been lowered about 6 percent in the poorest districts, 20 percent in lower-income districts, 9 percent in middle-income districts and 3.5 percent in the wealthiest districts.

"No one should be surprised by the findings," said Wolfe, R-Ocean and Monmouth, and a former chairman and member of the Assembly Education Committee. "Without the full amount of state aid to which they were entitled, school districts were forced to rely more on property taxes, which are now twice the national average.

"I understand the need to devise a fairer school funding formula because even the existing formula does not meet the legitimate needs of suburban school districts. But no one can deny the fact that Democrats brought this crisis on themselves by refusing to fund the existing funding formula."