Senate Republican Budget Officer Leonard Lance issued the following statement regarding the new COAH law that was rushed through the Legislature at the end of the session:

"It is clear that the new COAH law will encourage urban sprawl leading to more pollution and congestion in the environmentally sensitive Highlands and Pinelands regions. This poorly conceived and drafted legislation did not reconcile two important policy considerations: the need to provide affordable housing and the need to protect our water supply.

"It is clear that the new COAH law must be scrapped. The State needs to start over with a development plan that provides for both affordable housing and ensures the safety of our water supply.

"Any attempt to amend the new law should not favor the politically connected Northern New Jersey power brokers. This is already happening with the proposal to exempt the huge Xanadu entertainment complex in the Meadowlands, while reports published in last week's Hunterdon Democrat indicate local dairy farmers are moving across the river because the State would apply an additional 2.5 percent tax on the construction of new barns.

"The new COAH law is arbitrary, unfair, anti-business and ultimately unworkable. We need to start over."