Tony Bucco

Republican budget officers urge Corzine to expedite release of January revenue figures so that the public can play a significant role in how the budget crisis is solved.

Republican members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee issued the following statement on S-2507, a bill that will cut state aid for school districts based on how much they save by not making full payments into the state pension fund for their non-teaching employees. The bill will be considered by the committee today:

"Republican members of the Budget and Appropriations Committee today reaffirm their unwavering opposition to Governor Corzine's scheme to deplete the pension funds," said Anthony Bucco, Republican Budget Officer. "I have asked the chairwoman to delay the committee's vote on this bill so that the pension provisions can be eliminated from this bill. If they aren't removed, we will vote against the bill."

"We owe it to taxpayers and retirees to seriously discuss alternatives to shortchanging the pensions. As written, this bill will ultimately cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and threaten the secure retirement promised to government employees," said Kevin O'Toole, Republican Senate Whip.

"It's long past time for Governor Corzine to stop kicking this state's fiscal problems down the road, and come up with common-sense solutions to New Jersey's budget problems," Senator Phil Haines said.

"This pension gimmick is the ultimate example of the irresponsible budget 'one shots' that the governor repeatedly promised not to support," said Senator Joseph Pennacchio.

"Governor Corzine has offered a false choice between shortchanging school kids or short-changing public employees when he should first cut the bloated budget for patronage hires to balance this budget."

"Years of gimmicks have created a disaster whereby only about 50 percent of the roughly $120 billion in state pension liability is covered today by the value of pension assets," Senator Steve Oroho said. "If the gimmicks don't stop, this system will go broke."

Morris County Freeholder Doug Cabana and County Clerk Joan Bramhall, who's also supporting Tony Bucco in the 25th District race.

MOUNTAIN LAKES – Kicking off his 25th District Assembly campaign at the centrally situated and styling Zeris Inn on the side of Highway 46, Morris County Freeholder Doug Cabana summoned the forces of government to stand with him at the front of the big, packed room. 

It was a potent demonstration of political heft as Republican freeholders Jack Schrier, John Murphy, William Chegwidden, Gene Feyl, former freeholders William Druetzler and John Inglesino and others crowded in behind Cabana, facing a room that contained no fewer than 10 Morris County mayors not to mention deputy mayors and their dates and/or wives and council people and their significant others and attendant staff, political operatives, a sheriff’s surrogate, other former freeholders and elected officials and County Clerk Joan Bramhall. 

All arrayed against bloated government. 

“I stand with you tonight with the leadership of our county,” said Cabana, a municipal prosecutor and elected official going back 20 years to when he first served on the committee of Boonton Township, a northern Morris County mountain town.

Gary Algeier, a former two-term Randolph Township Mayor and 12-year veteran of Council, today formally announced his candidacy for State Assembly in the 25th Legislative District.

“Service in the State Legislature will continue a long tradition of community service,” said Algeier campaign manager Allen Napoliello. “Under Gary’s leadership, Randolph created Randolph’s award winning Freedom Park, preserved over 1000 acres of Open Space and Farmland, and has been a leader in shared services. Mr. Algeier is well known for his leadership in opposing the unreasonable quotas imposed by the Council on Affordable Housing."

Veteran Randolph Township Councilman Gary Algeier today will officially enter the Republican primary for the Assembly in the 25th Legislative District, according to sources.

 Mulling the possibility of a run for some time now, Algeier informally announced his intentions to members of the Randolph Republican Club on Wednesday night. A Morristown attorney, the long-serving councilman is in a four-way contest for two assembly seats with Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.), attorney Tony Bucco (son of veteran state Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) and Morris County Freeholder Doug Cabana.

Morris County political insiders say the race for the vacated assembly seat in District 25 will come down to Tony Bucco and Morris County Freeholder Doug Cabana, both of Boonton Township. 

Bucco, son of state Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris), officially entered the race late last year, and his brother-in-law, Cabana, is set to kick-off his own campaign on Jan. 13th. 

But Randolph Councilman Gary Algeier, who three years ago pursued an unsucessful run for freeholder, says don’t count him out of the assembly contest. 

“A lot of people have asked me but I haven’t made a decision yet,” he told PolitickerNJ.com. “At the moment, I’m keeping my options open. With Rick Merkt stepping down, it opens a lot of possibilities.”

Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean and Republican members of the Senate Budget Committee Tony Bucco, Kevin O'Toole, Steve Oroho, and Phil Haines have filed a lawsuit against Governor Jon Corzine today at 9:15am. The Governor is violating the State's open public records law by refusing to provide documents that show what budgeted funds Corzine has frozen to address an at least $1.2 billion revenue drop and to pay for more than $100 million in spending bills he signed over the past month. State law appropriately grants the Governor the power to impound budgeted funds, and Corzine has claimed to be using the power, but refuses to say to what extent or to name the funds that will be impacted.

District 25 Assembly candidate Tony Bucco, Jr., right, and his father, state Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris).

BOONTON – In an Elks Club room jammed with elected officials wearing goodwill game faces for their high country candidate, municipal attorney Tony Bucco, Jr. of Boonton Township this evening formally kicked off his run for an Assembly seat in the 25th Legislative District.

Calling his foray into politics an “obvious next step,” the 46-year old son of state Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) highlighted his work and public service record, including 28 years on the Boonton Volunteer Fire Department, where he has risen to the rank of captain.

“I want to continue to serve my neighbors,” said Bucco, surrounded by his wife and family at a podium heaped with canned and boxed goods he collected from friends and supporters to distribute to local food pantries during the holiday season.

“New Jersey has been living beyond its means for too long and we’re now $31 billion in debt,” Bucco told the crowd. “We have the worst business tax climate in the country. Gov. Corzine and the Democratic administration have failed all of us by simply being reactive to the fiscal crisis.”

He vowed to fight for Morris County values and conservative Republican principles, to cut taxes, eliminate waste, protect private property rights, support alternative energy and green technology and protect the unborn and 2nd Amendment rights.

He criticized a state schools funding formula that does not serve children, in his view, while saddling seniors and families with egregious property taxes.

Tony Bucco, Jr.

BOONTON - As muncipal attorney Tony Bucco, Jr., prepares to launch his District 25 Assembly bid from the Elks Lodge here in Boonton Town in northern Morris County this evening, the campaign allies of his chief rival fired off a release announcing their own candidate’s official start date next month.

Morris County Freeholder Douglas “Doug” Cabana will formally announce his candidacy on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, at the Zeris Inn in Mountain Lakes, according to Cabana campaign manager George Dredden.  

The pre-announcement announcement burnishes Cabana’s experience in the face of a competitor who has not held elected office.

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris Twp.)

MORRIS TWP. – While his Democratic Party family forbearers probably found the nickname “Little Adlai” endearing, Michael Patrick Carroll hardly panned out as the ideological offspring of every  liberal’s favorite bumper sticker  - Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson - who was twice demolished by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Pro-life, pro-gun, pro-voucher,  and a proponent of scrapping Mount Laurel and Abbott who likens some of the Abbott Schools to “educational Taj Mahals,” veteran Assemblyman Carroll (R-Morris Twp.) remains one of the most outspoken conservative members of the New Jersey Legislature.

“I don’t generally do as well in my hometown of Morris Township as I do in western Morris County – places like Roxbury and Randolph,” Carroll said. “We’re like everywhere else in New Jersey – the farther east you go, the bluer it gets.”