Stay tuned: this one is definitely worth watching
By Wally EdgeIn 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."
LeBlanc's testimony has the potential to emerge as a major political issue, depending upon which legislators had the power to direct state spending without the knowledge of other legislators.
Dunstan McNichol's story is a must read!
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Steve Lonegan
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Today’s Must Reads:
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Syndicate
ashcroft, gonzalez, mukasey, goodling,sampson,rove.....
McNulty........among others.
Lonegan stopped $400 Million a Year for this bribe fund.
If Steve Lonegan hadn't stopped Question One last year, Corzine, Roberts and Codey would have had a $400 Million annual bribe fund.
To Roberts and his sleazy leftist pals, "property tax relief" means paying Wayne Bryant's and Joe Coniglio's property tax bills.
Property Tax Relief
If this is news to any New Jersey resident, they aren't paying attention. Heck, the Governor contends that half the budget goes to property tax relief and, if you live in Newark or Camden, you're probably very grateful. But if you live in any one of about 500 NJ towns which get little to nothing, you're probably curious as to when your share of that one-half is going to appear on your property tax bill. But you're probably a Republican and, therefore, the Dems don't care about you.
The Dems call any spending in urban areas "property tax relief". Why should anyone be the least bit surprised that "property tax relief" are simply Democratic code-words for Christmas Tree/pork/slush funds? That's how they govern. It's why they're Democrats.
Maybe
If by "scandal" you mean 'predictable, assumed, business as usual way of life'.
Codey
Set up the account... did he decide how much to let Wayne have? Did he decide how much to let Coniglio have? Buehler? Buehler? Explain the program Codey.
Who will be the Dem Nominee Next Year?
I know this is somewhat naive, but it is hard to imagine that either Corzine or Codey would be the Dem nominee in 2009.
After this fallout and others sure to come, Codey will have steered the helm of the most corrupt Senate (based on indictments, convictions, etc) in the history of NJ.
After Corzine's absolute HORRIBLE job as governor and doing typical scumbag things like the Lehman Bros (which is only starting to percolate), and other blunders and stumbles, I see a very strong suburban (R's and D's) revolt coming.
So, if the D's want to retain the Gov's mansion, who will lead the ticket?
Governor Pascrell?
If not now, why not now? He may be the Democrats' last hope.
Governor Pascrell?
If not now, why not now? He may be the Democrats' last hope.