COMMENTARY: What's so complex about restraining eminent domain?
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/2/06
BY BOB INGLE - GANNETT STATE BUREAU
TRENTON — Much ballyhoo surrounded Gov. Corzine's appointing the first public advocate in more than a decade. Ronald K. Chen's first act, however, leaves a great deal to be desired. He said he needs to review the use of eminent domain for private development because it is a "complex issue." Oh brother!
What's so damned complex about passing a law that says New Jersey government can't take private property primarily for commercial development or to raise more tax revenue?
Did Corzine appoint Chen to look out for the public or for the developers and the pols the developers finance? It's starting to look like McGreevey's Highlands/Fast Track fiasco, where the former governor tried to please developers and environmentalists and failed.
By his peers: While much was made of Corzine's Wall Street pedigree during the campaign, the guys in New York don't seem impressed with the governor. Here's a few excerpts from a Wall Street Journal editorial:
"Jon Corzine ... isn't the first politician not to follow through on a campaign promise. But rarely is such dishonesty later presented as a virtue."
"New Jersey already has the highest property taxes in the country, and the new governor wants to extend its lead."
"... New Jersey voters may be getting what they deserve if they were dumb enough to believe Mr. Corzine."
BPU update: After our Sandy McClure exposed the globe-galloping Board of Public Utilities commissioners for what they are, there was reaction from some of their cronies, none of whom live in Jersey. McClure reported Commissioners Frederick F. Butler and Connie Hughes and BPU President Jeanne Fox traveled a combined 183 days last year.
That brought a letter from M. Granger Morgan of Carnegie Mellon University, chair of the Advisory Council, Electric Power Research Institute, and two of his buddies. They're Ashley C. Brown, executive director of the Harvard Electricity Group and Jonathan Pershing, Facilitator, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Negotiations.
They called McClure's probe of several months a "classic piece of cheap shot journalism."
So, given these self-important big shots wrote to justify all the world travel and knowing they must care about ethics and accuracy, I wrote back asking a few simple questions, like:
— How do you feel about a bank account the BPU maintained outside the state system? The BPU had one for its Clean Energy Fund. That's a no-no.
— If the BPU is this world-respected agency for the work it does in regulating electric, gas, and water companies, as you claim, why do New Jersey residents pay so much for utilities?
Guess what? The trio so quick to justify the world traveling didn't have a response. Perhaps they're busy planning their next world tour. Or maybe they're on one.
Opportunity afoot: Circle April 18 on your calendar and make plans to vote in your school board and budget election. Here's an example of why it matters. The Elizabeth school board recently bought out its superintendent for $600,000, which includes paying for more than 500 vacation and sick days. Eight of nine board members have immediate relatives working for the school board.
Burlington County's Lenape district mailed absentee voter applications with literature begging for more money. In July 2001, the Courier-Post asked Lenape what work politically connected lawyers did for $1.5 million Lenape paid them. Lenape spent more than $100,000 trying to keep it secret from the very people it's begging for more property tax money. Fill out those absentee applications and vote NO. Show 'em what you think about wasteful spending.
Official conduct: Former South Amboy tax collector Joanne Brennan, 62, stole $266,000 from city coffers, according to a Middlesex County jury who convicted her of theft. The same jury acquitted her of official misconduct. Maybe it's just expected New Jersey officials steal.
