Dems kill GOP bid for ethics reform and cooperation
with federal corruption probe
Posted February 23, 2007

Republican efforts to enact sweeping ethics reforms and guarantee full cooperation with the U.S. Attorney’s investigation of political corruption involving members of the Legislature were stopped dead in their tracks on Thursday by the Democrats who control the Assembly.

Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce said he finds it incomprehensible that ruling Democrats would continue to turn their back on ethics reform and anti-corruption initiatives after receiving subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney’s Office demanding records concerning the disbursement of tax dollars on pork projects and so-called “Christmas tree” items in the state budget.

“I can not recall a time when every legislative leader in the Assembly and Senate was simultaneously served with federal subpoenas,” said DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic. “This is obviously no time for business as usual.

“I had hoped this scandal and the extraordinary events of the past week would have finally convinced the Democrats that ethics reform must be taken seriously and addressed now. I was wrong.”

A resolution was offered by Assemblyman Kevin O’Toole, R-Essex, Passaic and Bergen, expressing the Assembly’s desire to cooperate fully with federal investigators and adopt a series of tough reforms.

“If the events of the past two weeks, with federal agents serving subpoenas on legislative offices, haven’t been enough to scare this body into action on ethics reform, I don’t know what will,” said O’Toole. “The people of New Jersey are tired of the corruption and the scandal and it is about time that we as legislators clean up this house.”

The resolution called for consideration of several reform bills that are part of the Assembly Republican Blueprint for a Corrupt-Free New Jersey that would:

• Impose a sweeping ban on dual office-holding;
• Stop pension boosting and tacking by public officials;
• Suspend indicted public officials without pay;
• Require jail time for convicted public officials;
• Require full pension forfeiture for convicted public officials;
• Empower the public by reforming the ethics complaint process, and turn control of the Legislature’s ethics committee over to private citizens;
• Revise the Legislative Code of Ethics, including provisions to prevent the future abuse of grant funds.

In light of the ongoing federal investigation into legislative pork, O’Toole and Assembly Republican Budget Officer Joseph Malone made a direct plea to Governor Jon Corzine and state Treasurer Bradley Abelow to freeze any money remaining in a number of grant funds and any unspent pork dollars placed in last year’s budget at the last minute by Democrats.

“While this dark cloud is hanging over these grant programs, it would certainly seem imprudent to continue spending these funds,” said Malone, R-Burlington, Ocean, Monmouth and Mercer. “We have been trying to get the administration to cut back on spending since last year and there probably is no better place to start than pork funds currently being examined in a pending federal investigation.”

“These dollars were nothing more than wasteful pork when put into the budget, and worse yet, it now appears that they may be at the center of a criminal controversy,” added O’Toole.

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