George LeBlanc

PolitickerNJ.com will release our 2009 Power List of New Jersey's 100 most politically influential personalities on Tuesday, August 4. The list, first released in March 2000, is an Insiders List that includes policy makers, party leaders, fundraisers, lobbyists, labor unions, businesses, and associations and have assembled the ultimate list of New Jerseyans with clout, with an impact on politics and government in the Garden State -- everyone but elected officials and Judges.  Stay tuned!

In 2008, Atlantic City radio personality Harry Hurley was the Reader's Choice for #100.  In a two-day online poll that attracted nearly 2,900 voters, Hurley defeated Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson by a 35%-15% margin. Public Policy guru Jon Shure finished third with 12%, just narrowly leading Union County Manager George Devanney (12%). None of the other six candidates -- Cape May County GOP Chairman David Von Savage, attorney and Democratic fundraiser Victor Herlinsky, conservative political strategist Rick Shaftan, Burlington County GOP Chairman Mike Warner, and Jersey City political activists Bobby Jackson and Joe Cardwell -- finished in the double digits.

Hurley also won a 2007 Reader's Choice poll.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Senate President Richard Codey says he will not invoke executive privilege in the investigation of the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development Grants program approved during his fourteen months as Governor, and said he will support the release of all documents.

"Although legally we have the right to invoke executive privilege, to the contrary we want this information to be released.  People have a right to know how their money is being spent.  I think the public will see, as they scrutinize these lists, that this money helped support many good causes,” Codey said. “The release of these documents will help clarify many questions surrounding the grant program.

With less than a month before voters go to the polls in the hyper-competitive 3rd and 7th congressional districts, Republicans unleashed what is likely to be their theme for the remainder of the campaign: tying Democratic State Sen. John Adler and Assemblywoman Linda Stender to a controversial program that they characterize as a slush fund.

Medford Mayor Chris Myers, who's running against Adler in the 3rd District, stood with Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson and provided documentation that Adler and Stender both helped municipalities in their districts apply for the Property Tax Assistance and Community Developments grants program - known to insiders as the "MAC account" - that were not publicized beforehand, and were allegedly handed out in a non-transparent way.

Myers alleged that Adler - contrary to his denial that he had any influence over the way the funds were used - was belied by letters written by the Haddonfield borough administrator, the Haddon Township police chief and the Cherry Hill mayor, who all wrote that they were made aware of available grant money from the program through Adler's office.

"Welcome to John Adler's Trenton. It's a culture of corruption," said Myers. "I was just appalled - I'm not a creature of Trenton. I'm a small town mayor."

On Friday, Republican Medford Mayor Chris Myers asked his Democratic 3rd District Congressional opponent, State Sen. John Adler, whether he ever received funds from a controversial legislative slush fund.

Frustrated at what he saw as a non-answer, Myers reiterated the question today.

“I called on John Adler to come clean on his potential involvement in this scam last week, and the silence was deafening,” said Myers in a press release today. “Adler owes the taxpayers of New Jersey – and in particular the 3rd Congressional District – an answer as to whether or not he was involved in this massive abuse of taxpayer dollars. A list of individual legislators – Democrat and Republican – who were involved in this scam, and the pet projects they funded should be released for public review immediately. The way politicians in Trenton abuse their power and our tax dollars is despicable and the ones involved should all be held to account immediately.”

State Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union): Politicker photoSUMMIT - As far back as 2004, Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union) recalls himself and others - state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon), then Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove) among them - complaining about the lack of transparency in the way legislators obtained money for projects in their respective districts.

Now on the heels of George LeBlanc’s testimony in the corruption trial of former Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden) in which the Senate budget officer highlighted how legislators in 2004 and 2005 siphoned money from a dedicated $40 million property tax relief fund, Kean wants answers.

"The next step is to get our hands around what occurred," the senator told PolitickerNJ.com. "Who was spending and what was being spent? The most important thing now is to expose to the light of day what was happening - expose the process.

"We're talking about a system in which information was being held not just from the public but from other members of the Legislature, a system that resulted in massive overspending with no oversight, which made New Jersey more unaffordable, in which members of the (Codey) administration were complicit."

Two-and-a-half years before a state budget aide brought back to light a slush fund that gave key legislative leaders sole discretion over millions of dollars in state money, Assembly Republicans were suspicious of the program and sought to learn more about it.

They didn’t get very far, however, according to documents the Assembly Republicans provided to PolitickerNJ.

The Property Tax Assistance and Community Development grants program became the subject of controversy again yesterday when Democratic Senate budget staffer George LeBlanc, testifying at former State Sen. Wayne Bryant’s corruption trial, said that Bryant got $4 million from the fund to distribute at his own discretion. $200,000 went to his employer, UMDNJ. LeBlanc also testified that former Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny also was allocated $4 million.

Medford Mayor Chris Myers: Politicker file photoSeizing on a corruption trial newsflash, Medford Mayor Chris Myers tried to put flesh and bones on his repeated campaign trail depiction of 3rd Congressional District opponent state Sen. John Adler (D-Camden) as a Trenton hack.

In the trial of former Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden), Senate Democratic Budget Officer George LeBlanc told jurors yesterday that in 2004 and 2005, legislators reached into a $40 million dedicated Property Tax Assistance and Community Development fund to fish out money for pet projects in their respective districts.

Today, Myers demanded that Adler "immediately and fully disclose whether he illegally controlled any taxpayer dollars from that fund, and if so, where he directed those dollars to be spent."

"This revelation of a huge secret trust fund, together with the obviously close relationship between Bryant and Adler raises serious red flags about Adler’s knowledge of, and participation in, this growing scandal of taxpayer abuse and self enrichment," Myers said.

In what could be one of the top political scandals of the year, the Senate Democratic budget staff testified in federal court today that at least two former legislators, Wayne Bryant and Bernard Kenny, each had $4 million in discretionary spending.  The Star-Ledger, reporting from Bryant's corruption trial, says that "masked by an obscure state budget account dedicated to property tax relief, key state lawmakers were given millions of taxpayer dollars to hand out to their constituents as they pleased, testimony in the corruption trial of former Senate Budget Committee Chairman Wayne Bryant revealed today.  The $40 million Property Tax Assistance and Community Development grants program lawmakers added to the state budgets in 2004 and 2005, was parceled out directly to individual lawmakers for them to spend on pet projects, George LeBlanc, Democratic budget officer, testified."

"To my knowledge, individual legislators were the deciders," LeBlanc told jurors, according to the Star-Ledger. "They were the ones who designated which entities would receive amounts of money from the accounts."

A witness at former State Sen. Wayne Bryant’s corruption trial gave what could amount to blockbuster testimony today, detailing a little-known practice that the legislature engaged in during 2004 and 2005.   

George LeBlanc, a Democratic budget aide, testified that a program ostensibly dedicated to property tax relief was used to hand out millions of dollars to key legislators to spend on pet projects hand out to their constituents, reports the Star-Ledger. 

According to the testimony, Bryant was allotted $4 million from the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development grants program.  The only other legislator named in the report is former State Sen. Bernard Kenny, who also was given $4 million. 

“The testimony contrasts with claims by lawmakers that individual grant recipients had to apply to the state Treasurer for funding from the $40 million pool, and that grants were awarded competitively,” reported Dunstan McNichol.