Steve Oroho

Senator Steve Oroho, a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, said that given the news that New York state faces a growing fiscal crisis, it is alarming that Governor Jon Corzine stubbornly refuses to regularly update revenue collection numbers for New Jersey, as other governors have done in the past.

Will rising joblessness increase the $3.6 billion deficit in the New Jersey fund that pays unemployment benefits? It's time the governor update the public on the state's worsening economic fortunes.

Senator Steve Oroho, R-Sussex and Hunterdon, said calls for a federal tax increase that would bleed a whopping $100 billion from investments in private sector job growth would be disastrous for the economy of New Jersey. Senator Oroho said Governor Corzine has both the experience and the connections to help prevent passage of this job-killing tax on every single securities transaction, including those made by struggling, undercapitalized pension funds.

Governor Corzine shouldn't take four months to develop a response to a housing ruling that will lead to expensive lawsuits and strong pressures to raise property taxes. 

Senator Steven Oroho, Republican member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, said he is deeply troubled by published comments questioning whether Corzine administration employment data released yesterday accurately reflects what went on in the New Jersey economy in July. 

Senator Steve Oroho, a Republican member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, said he doesn't understand how the Corzine administration can call the Republican complaint to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission "frivolous" when respected professionals in the investment community know that the complaint raises valid concerns.

State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton), one of seven senators voting 'no' on open space initiative

TRENTON - Moments ago, members of the state Senate filed back into the chamber here at the Statehouse and are underway again with Senate President Richard Codey (D-Roseland) presiding.

They will soon consider the nearly $29 billion state budget.

In a sign of the first significant public dissent of the day, state Sen. Steve Oroho (R-Franklin) just stood and expressed his opposition to the open space bond question, which already passed in the Assembly earlier in the evening. 

The first of Governor Corzine's budget proposals shortchanging the Middle Class has been abandoned. Now it's time for taxpayers to take charge and force the governor to listen about the rest.

Bill Extends Deadline on Recycling Coordinator Certification

Legislation sponsored by Senators Marcia Karrow (R-Warren/Hunterdon) and Steve Oroho (R-Sussex/Morris/Hunterdon) that would give municipalities a two-year extension on the deadline for training a certified recycling coordinator unanimously passed the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee today.

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With an independent poll released this morning showing more New Jerseyans in favor of gay marriage than against it, three of the state’s most conservative legislators repeated their call for the issue to be put to a popular vote.

“Some people try to use these polls as a replacement for the democratic process in which every citizen has an opportunity to participate,” said Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose (R-Franklin) in a press release.  “A few hundred people answering a telephone solicitation is not a vote.”

Today's Monmouth University/Gannett poll found that 48% of respondents favored gay marriage, while 43% opposed it.  

McHose sponsored legislation in the assembly that would create a ballot question to amend the state constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.  Her district-mate, state Sen. Steve Oroho, is the prime sponsor of the senate version.  

Fourty-three percent of the poll’s respondents said they favored a ban like the one McHose proposes.  Fifty percent said they opposed it.