THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END?

The world is coming to an end? That’s news to me. I never said that, I’ve never implied that. Until Thursday, March 20, I didn’t know anybody thought that. In his testimony before the State Senate Budget Committee, David Rosen, budget and finance officer for the Office of Legislative Services was asked by State Senator Steve Oroho what he thought would be a worst-case scenario as far as revenues for the State. Rosen answered, “I’m not sure I’m prepared to do that right know. Let me think about that because I really didn’t think about it in those terms and I don’t want to glibly throw something off and have 101.5 say, you know, OLS thinks the world is ending.”

New Jersey 101.5 FM is one of 12 stations for which I file daily reports. Every budget story I’ve ever done has reflected both sides of the story. The day of Rosen’s testimony our network ran a package of my stories based on what Rosen and acting State Treasurer David Rousseau said the previous day to members of the Assembly Budget Committee. Every quote culled from the pair was verbatim and unedited.

Rosen’s comment about my flagship station was the topic of conversation on press row, at least it was when I was around. Senate Budget Committee chair Barbara Buono and State Senator Tony Bucco, also a budget panel member, both joked with me about it and assured me that Rosen was talking about the talk show hosts, not the news coverage.

I get it. This has been happening for 6 years. The hosts are with the entertainment/programming department and it is their job to stir the pot, drum up controversy and get listeners fired up and they have a lot of listeners. When I first took the job of State House correspondent for Millennium Radio New Jersey, members of the McGreevey press team would complain about what the hosts were saying and I would see what I could do about it. I figured out quickly that there was nothing I could do about it. My solution was to stop listening to my own station.

I’ve been at the State House long enough to get know most everybody and most everybody knows there is a difference in my company between the entertainment and news departments. Most everybody also knows I don’t listen to the station. For those who don’t realize this, I’ll say it again……I have no control over what the hosts say. Whatever it is they are saying, I can promise you that I didn’t hear it. I haven’t been to the studios of NJ 101.5 since U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and State Senator Tom Kean Jr. debated one another. I rarely talk to the hosts and see them even less frequently. I happen to like and respect all of them and I believe they are all very talented which is why they can claim so many fans, but anybody who has a problem with what the hosts are saying are free to call the studios and go on the air with them.

GOOD LUCK DEB HOWLETT

Who said the Corzine Administration doesn’t know how to keep a secret? Every reporter on press row in the State House was stunned to learn Deb Howlett has signed on as Governor Jon Corzine’s director of communications. I’m told Deb didn’t let her Star Ledger colleagues know until about 20 minutes before the press release went out announcing it. Shock not-so-quickly turned to some saying Deb sold out. Having been offered more than a handful of government jobs including several with past Administrations (not this one!), I understand allure of money. Deb and anybody else for the matter, has every right to better things for themselves and their families. I’ve always admired and respected Deb and her work and I don’t expect that to change.

The above having been written, she is walking into a very tough job. Corzine’s relationship with the press would have to improve greatly just to rise to the level of awful. The relationship between a Governor and his or her communications director is very similar, in one respect, to that of an alcoholic and his or her AA sponsor. The sponsor can’t help the alcoholic if the alcoholic doesn’t want the help. Deb Howlett could offer the best advice ever, but I’ve been told by several people inside the front office that if Corzine has his mind set on a course of action any advice he gets doesn’t make an iota of difference.

At least Deb and Lilo Stainton (Corzine’s press secretary) come from the world of journalism and they understand us completely. That’s a start for Corzine. In May 2006, I was doing a story on how New Jersey prepares for the possibility of a State shutdown if the budget isn’t signed by midnight June 30th. I asked then-press secretary Anthony Coley and he said, “The State would never shut down.” I didn’t say it was going to shutdown, I simply asked, “What happens if it does?” Showing a staggering lack of insight into what makes reporters tick, Coley asked, “Why are you doing that story now? Why don’t you wait until late June and do that story when every other reporter is doing it?” Yeah, that’s what we do. We wouldn’t want to possibly be the reporter to get the story out there first. We get scoops and then tell all of the other reporters and then coordinate with them when we’ll all run the story. By the way, the State did shut down for a week and you might remember that because it was in all the papers.

Deb and Lilo are vast improvements, but ultimately it’s up to Corzine to decide if he wants to use the tools he now has at his disposal. And no, I'm not saying Deb and Lilo are tools in a cynical way.

DEMOCRATS GIVE UP THE MAJORITY

The first State Senate Budget Committee hearing on Governor Jon Corzine’s Financial Restructuring and Debt Reduction plan was held Wednesday (1/23). The scheme includes an 800% toll hike schedule by 2022 and if approved, would be in place for 75 years. You might think freshman Senators sitting in on the first Budget hearing would be very interested in finding out all they can about the plan or at least giving the impression that they really care. Not so much, at least for one side of the political aisle.

By the time the hearing came to a close, State Senator Barbara Buono, the newly named chairperson of the panel was the lone Democrat left to hear what the public had to say. Democratic Senators, Steve Sweeney (Majority Leader), Joe Vitale, Brian Stack, Theresa Ruiz, Dana Redd, Sandra Cunningham and Shirley Turner were all gone. To her credit, Turner was at least still in the building and Ruiz evidently had to leave to attend an event for Hillary Clinton. Stack, Ruiz, Redd and Cunningham were all attending their first Senate Budget Committee hearing as members of the Upper House.

Some might argue that a five hour hearing is a bit too long. The GOP members of the panel all stayed until the bitter end.

Another side note from the hearing: Corzine’s chief of staff, Brad Abelow was getting grilled by Democrats and Republicans about why a bill backing up the plan doesn’t exist yet. Abelow repeatedly told them it is being vetted and will be introduced as soon as possible. When Turner kept prodding Abelow about why a hearing was scheduled without legislation to consider, Abelow finally said, “I didn’t call for this hearing, you did.” To which Turner responded, “I didn’t call for this hearing either.”

Buono scheduled the hearing, got as much out of it as possible, more than held her own in her first meeting as chairperson, said she learned a lot and that is really what she was hoping for.

VOTE FOR SALE? YOU DECIDE

Monday, January 7th was Nick Asselta’s last day in the State Senate. He was unseated in November by then-Assemblyman and now-State Senator Jeff Van Drew. There was a voting session in the Upper House on Asselta’s last day in office. The Senators debated Governor Jon Corzine’s school funding formula proposal for two hours. Bernie Kenny who was named State Senate President for his last day in office opened the board and called for a vote. For three hours the bill was one vote shy of passage. The six Senate members of the Black Legislative Caucus (all Democrats) voted no meaning some Republicans had to be swayed. Asselta didn’t seem to need to be persuaded. Although many analysts feel the formula is bad for most of the school districts in Asselta’s south Jersey District, he immediately voted in favor of the bill and never wavered. Republican Senator Martha Bark has been identified as the GOP member who cast the deciding vote, but that might not have happened if Asselta hadn’t already gotten the tally to 20 with his Republican vote.

Why did Asselta support the school funding formula? Maybe he thinks it is a great plan. Maybe he saw the writing on the wall and knew it would pass eventually with or without him. Maybe he thought he owed the Governor a favor because Jon Corzine had agreed to get Asselta a new job as a commissioner with the State Board of Public Utilities. A job with great pay and benefits. A Corzine Administration spokesperson confirms an official nomination for Asselta was filed today (1/08). Even on the day of his State of the State Address Corzine found the time to nominate an outgoing Republican State Senator to one of the BPU’s top spots.

A DREAMY COMMITTEE HEARING

Nobody likes lengthy committee hearings. Not legislators, not reporters, not even the ever-popular stakeholders. The marathon hearing of the joint Assembly Budget and Education Committees on Governor Jon Corzine’s proposed school funding formula is a perfect example. The extra-tedious testimony led many panel members to drift in and out of the room and spurred one lawmaker to wonder if one of her colleagues had drifted off to sleep.

GOP Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose, a Budget Committee member, was in the midst of asking many, very detailed questions when Education Committee chairman Craig Stanley, a Democrat, interrupted her to say his uncle (Assemblyman Bill Payne, vice chair of the Budget Committee) told him Budget panel members tend to go on and on. Prior to her turn for questioning McHose did suggest a “7th inning stretch.” Clearly not happy about being interrupted, McHose, “Maybe you were asleep when I recommended that we take a break, Craig.” The packed room gasped a little and Stanley assured McHose he was not sawing logs.

In fairness, nobody in their right mind would fault Stanley or any other committee member if they had in fact dozed off.

IT WAS MY UNDERSTANDING THERE WOULD BE NO MATH

I suppose I should be extremely thankful that Governor Jon Corzine’s Administration is serious about transparency. Were it not for this openness, I would have a very difficult time getting the information necessary to file reports that actually help citizens understand what’s happening in Trenton and how the goings-on might impact them.

For months, the Governor has been telling the State House press corps and anyone else who will listen, that his financial restructuring plan (the scheme formerly known as monetization) would help right the State’s fiscal ship. In the spring, Corzine said to me on two separate occasions that the plan would be unveiled in about two weeks. We still have not been told any of the details. The administration went to court and successfully argued that it should not have to make public an $800,000 monetization study even though taxpayers shelled out the cash for it. The judge agreed the study is not a final report, it is a draft final.

Last month, Assembly Transportation Committee chairman John Wisniewski suggested that doubling the State's 14.5 cent gas tax would generate enough money to meet New Jersey's transportation project needs without having to raise tolls. Wisniewski has never officially proposed a gas tax increase, but in response to the Assemblyman's statement, DOT commissioner Kris Kolluri said the state motor fuels tax would have to be increased by 44 cents to 58.5 cents to accommodate all of New Jersey's current and future transportation needs.

"Commissioner Kolluri's assertion that it would take a 44-cent increase in the gas tax to address the state's current and future transportation needs is revealing," said Wisniewski at the time. He added, "If administration officials know the minimum amount the motor fuels tax would need to be increased, then they also must know the minimum amount tolls must increase to meet the same goals." Neither Corzine nor Kolluri would admit to knowing that, "minimum amount."

Forced to use Kolluri’s statement, other comments from Corzine at various events and figures from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s 2006 annual report, Millennium Radio News was able to do a financial analysis of a gas tax hike v. toll increases. Check our website at http://www.nj1015.com/ and you can read the painstakingly tedious mathematical breakdown.

Even in this era of the Open Public Records Act, reporters and the public simply cannot get information that the government doesn’t want us to have. The most basic tenet in journalism is that a journalist should be free of any motivation other than the public’s right to know. I strongly believe the public has a right to know everything the Governor knows about his plan. That’s not happening.

I’ll finish with a math question…..
Q: If a train leaves Trenton and heads north at 40mph at the same time a train leaves Newark and heads south on the same track at 45mph, how long will it take before they crash head-on?
A: Who cares? I’m beginning to think I might want to be standing on the track when it happens.

EVERY VOTE REALLY DOES COUNT

Monday morning (12/10) the State senate Budget Committee considered the "Electronic Waste Management Act." It may sound like a fairly innocuous bill but, the bill's description on the State's website reveals a hidden tax. It says the legislation would, "provide for the collection and recycling of used televisions by imposing an advanced recovery fee on the sale of new television sets and authorizing that district recycling plans provide a plan for the collection, recycling and disposal of discarded televisions…….[The legislation] imposes an advance recovery fee of $10 upon the sale of each new television sold at retail. The advance recovery fee would be added to the total cost to the purchaser at retail after all applicable sales taxes on the television have been computed and must be separately stated on the invoice or bill of sale."

John Holub, president of the New Jersey Retail Merchants Association says, "They can call it whatever they want, even an 'advanced recovery fee,' but it is a tax on any new TV that you buy. Call it a fee, call it a surcharge, there's no ifs ands or buts, it's a TV tax." He explains that if the bill becomes law, anybody who buys a new television in New Jersey will have something in common, "They'll pay a 7% (state) sales tax and they'll also pay, it's probably looking like a $10 tax for that TV."

Republicans on the panel say the story that ran on NJ 101.5 FM alerted them to the TV tax and made them think twice about supporting it. The committee was deadlocked at seven votes for advancing the measure and seven votes against. It appeared the bill would be held until the Chairman said the panel would wait until State Senator Sharpe James arrived to cast the deciding vote. When James showed up, he voted ‘Yes,’ and the measure was approved.

Holub says a bill is held or it’s not held, but rarely is a measure temporarily shelved until a committee member can be rushed in to be the tie-breaker. This legislative maneuver epitomizes the lame duck session. James did not run for re-election. He has recently been indicted by U-S Attorney Chris Christie on federal corruption charges. Not only is he permitted to stay on the Budget Committee, he is now the deciding vote on a bill that would tax new TV purchases if it becomes law.