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.
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6 comments:
Do we deserve this? Have New Jerseyans so completely abandon the expectation of good government that when something as overt and obvious as this occurs, nobody seems to care? It would appear to be so.
I would like to start the call for a recall vote of our Governor. The state constitution grants us this recall power and I think that now would be a very good time to exercise that right. Unless of course we'd rather be saddled with a 75 year plan that will simply ruin us.
Even if we recalled him now Bart, we would still be saddled with the debt and stuck with the school funding. The state already signed on with the Healthy School programs. We are only hearing about these granting initiatives after the contracting was done. We need to do something; I'm just pointing out that the mess we are in is bigger than a recall.
Kevin...
YOU have the power to begin changing this state! PLEASE do not let go of this. I realize that the press in NJ is so overwhelmed by the perasive and bold corruption going on that it's hard to dig into or follow up on any story before another one comes up. Please continue to follow up on at least a few cases... hammer away, keep asking questions, don't get distracted, even if it takes months or longer. You and your fellow reporters are our only hope!
This goes to show how deep the corruption is with all of our government officials. Everyone of them is for sale. No wonder that everything in NJ is going down the "rathole".
Time for US TAXPAYERS to take back NJ from these guys!!! There is 8+ million of us. I am sure there is enough talent to figure out a way to clean up the mess these guys made. It can can not be accomplished simply by borrowing & an 800% toll hike. Time to operate like the private sector 401K & benefits contributions, NO DOUBLE DIPPING, 5 year spend freeze, Hiring freeze, cut waste, fraud & put the RICO act in place for any public servant that violates the trust of the public. These sisseys wouldn`t have the nerve to be corrupt with a mandatory 20 yrs under the RICO act.
this is the kind of stuff that happens in NJ. Take away the car and job. The gov can start here with the cuts
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