AUDITS FLAG MORE WASTEFUL SPENDING BY ABBOTT DISTRICTS

Some of the state's poorest school districts required by court order to receive extra state funding spent thousands of dollars on consultants, travel and sports-related festivities, according to audits of 27 Abbott districts released last week. In Bridgeton, Cumberland County, school officials spent more than $10,000 to send staff to conferences, including some in Atlanta, Ohio, Orlando and San Diego. They paid a consultant, Salmon Ventures, $12,000 over three months for grant writing and to lobby state agencies. And the Bridgeton district paid $1,383 to send students to a Double Dutch jumprope competition in South Carolina, according to the audit conducted by KPMG LLP in New York. In Phillipsburg School District, Warren County, officials used $15,085 to buy banners for their 100th anniversary football game and their 100th game with their archrival in Easton, Pa. The district also paid a consultant $50,000 to get input from the community on a new high school, an audit by Livingston-based Wiss & Company LLP showed. In other areas, Asbury Park paid $4,280 for golf shirts and jackets for athletic coaches. Gloucester City paid $6,116 for rain jackets for the football team.

- Gloucester County Times, May 4, 2008

$73,000

STATE PAID $250 MILLION IN OVERTIME FOR 2007

Overtime costs for state workers rose $16 million last year, even though the number of employees dropped, according to new payroll data. New Jersey government spent $250 million on overtime pay last year, more than the $190 million Gov. Corzine wants to cut from aid to municipalities. Overtime was up 7 percent from 2006, an Asbury Park Press analysis of the payroll shows. That comes even as the state work force declined by 1 percent as part of Corzine's planned staff reductions. Overtime accounted for 5 percent of the $5 billion payroll, which includes the court system. For a small group of full-time employees, overtime was especially lucrative last year: 152 workers more than doubled their base salaries. For example, the data show Generosa F. Hightower, a training technician at the Hunterdon Developmental Center, Clinton, was paid $91,566 in overtime, on top of a $42,212 salary. Two other training technicians at that center - Grace A. Streeter and John Onukogu — also more than doubled their salaries.

- Asbury Park Press, May 4, 2008

$250,000,000

COMPANY WITH JUST FIVE EMPLOYEES GETS $589,000 STATE GRANT

New Jersey voters may have rejected a referendum to fund stem-cell research last November, but officials are using state tax breaks to lure a stem-cell research company to New Jersey. StemCyte Inc., of California, a national leader in cord-blood storage, announced Wednesday that it would open an office in Ewing. The company will receive incentives of $589,000 for creating 12 jobs, under a grant approved by the state Economic Development Authority. Funding comes from a $152-million Business Employment Incentive Program. The move has been criticized by those who think the state doesn’t have money to spare. “Writing checks to companies that come and go, while you’re cutting higher-education funding and failing to pay for transportation, doesn’t sound like the way to build a strong economy,” said Jon Shure, executive director of New Jersey Policy Perspective. Last November, voters rejected borrowing $450 million for stem cell research grants. Gov. Corzine had backed the measure, but it was voted down amid worries about rising taxes and state debt.

- The Record of Hackensack, May 2, 2008

$589,000

PORT AUTHORITY POLICE OVERTIME UP 14% LAST YEAR

Despite paying a consultant more than $400,000 to devise reforms, police overtime rose again at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey last year. Overtime costs increased 14 percent to $48.9 million, compared with a 12 percent spike in 2006. That represented the second-highest dollar amount in the agency's history. Some officers averaged more than 70 hours per week for the entire year, including one who earned $153,461 in overtime on top of his $82,909 base pay. On average, the officers worked about 500 hours of overtime each during the year. The authority hired KPMG to study its staffing practices two years ago and paid the firm $435,000.

- The Record of Hackensack, April 28, 2008

$48,900,000

STATE COULD LOSE MILLIONS FOR ROADS

New Jersey taxpayers could have to pay back millions to the federal government for transportation projects that have languished more than 10 years — at a time when the state is searching for every extra dime. Over the last two years, the Federal Highway Administration has stepped up its enforcement of regulations that allow it to go after cash given to projects that never leave the drawing board. In the eyes of the Federal Highway Administration, New Jersey is showing "no commitment to fund these [projects] in the next 10 years.” The state Department of Transportation can apply for an extension to keep the funding, but there is no guarantee it will be granted.

- The Record of Hackensack, April 28, 200

'MILLIONS'

PORT AUTHORITY DIVERTS DREDGING DOLLARS

In a last-minute addition to its agenda, the Port Authority approved a deal yesterday that will allow a politically connected New York seaport company to use money set aside for harbor dredging to pay off $2.6 million in back rent. American Stevedoring Inc. also will be allowed to use another $4.1 million in dredging funds to subsidize its business, which unloads cargo containers in Brooklyn and barges them across New York Harbor to Port Newark. Among leaders in the seaport community, dredging -- or digging to make shipping channels deeper or wider -- is considered vital to a harbor's health. "How can you justify taking dredging money to offset the non-payment of rent?" said Edward Kelly, executive director of the Maritime Association of New York Harbor, a port industry group. - The Star-Ledger, April 25, 2008

$2,600,000

IT’S NICE TO HAVE FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

The Corzine administration has awarded a $2 million crime prevention contract to a New York University program that the governor helped establish and is run by close friends of his. The state Department of Children and Families approved the expenditure in November and is close to signing the contract, according to agency officials. It calls for the NYU Child Study Center to develop strategies for working with young children and their families to keep kids from committing crimes and joining street gangs. State records show that NYU was the only out-of-state organization among 18 that applied for the contract, although the work is to be done in Essex County. Among the in-state applicants were the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the Plainfield school district and La Casa de Don Pedro in Newark. Gov. Jon Corzine, a founding board member of the NYU center, remains on the board and has donated $2 million to endow a professorship in child and adolescent psychiatry. One of the governor's closest friends, Dan Neidich, is on the board and his wife, Brooke Garber Neidich, is the chairwoman. Corzine and Dan Neidich worked together at Goldman Sachs and they frequently travel together. All of the applicants were required to submit a listing of their board members along with their proposals, an evaluation form released by the department yesterday showed. The two-year contract was awarded after a "request for proposal" process through which various groups present their plans for accomplishing a task, and state officials have latitude to award the contract to the organization they deem best. That differs from a public bidding process, in which the government usually is required to award a project to the lowest-priced "responsible" bidder. Since its founding, Corzine has been a public supporter of the NYU Child Study Center. Each year, the multimillionaire governor lists donations to the center on the tax returns filed by his philanthropic foundation. He often is a featured guest at the center's major events. In December, he gave a speech at its annual benefit dinner and presented Mrs. Neidich with the center's Child Advocacy Award. Corzine and the Neidiches frequently are seen together at summer parties in the Hamptons. And while the governor was hospitalized last year after a near-fatal traffic accident, the Neidiches were the only people authorized to visit with him other than Corzine's family, his girlfriend and a few top aides.

- The Star-Ledger, April 25, 2008

$2,000,000

CANCELING BOND DEALS TO COST STATE MILLIONS

Taxpayers are scheduled to pay a New York investment bank $12 million this week to back out of an ill-fated deal that was supposed to lock in low interest rates on state bonds for 20 years. The fee to Merrill Lynch comes on top of the tens of millions of dollars already paid out by state agencies, hospitals and colleges since the once-placid market for bonds called auction-rate securities collapsed amid investor skittishness in February. Until troubles arose in mid-February, auction rate bonds offered borrowers like New Jersey the opportunity to receive relatively low short-term borrowing rates on long-term loans by offering the loans for resale at auctions held every day, week or month. The market seized up in February when investment banks, short on cash due to rising mortgage defaults and concern over the solvency of bond insurers, stopped buying the bonds at auction. Under terms of the deals, failed auctions triggered steep hikes in interest rates, pushing rates on some loans to 20 percent. Since the market collapsed two months ago, interest payments on New Jersey's auction-rate holdings have jumped by $1.8 million a week. In addition, the state expects to pay underwriters, lawyers and other professionals up to $17 million to issue new bonds to replace the auction-rate loans, including more than $3 million to replace bonds issued just last October. Millions more, including the $12 million Merrill Lynch is scheduled to collect this week, are going to pay investment bankers to cancel or amend the terms of complex interest rate swaps that were set up in connection with the auction-rate deals. That payment to Merrill Lynch is for canceling a 20-year interest rate swap deal 14 years ahead of schedule. The swap involved $87 million borrowed for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority in 2002. It would cost the state $513 million to cancel all 33 swaps in the state's portfolio ahead of schedule, according to the state's latest accounting through March 31.

- The Star-Ledger, April 23, 2008

$12,000,000

LET’S BUILD MORE PARKS... SO WE CAN CLOSE THEM, TOO!

As the state considers closing nine state parks to save $4.5 million, its Department of Environmental Protection is moving ahead with plans to build two new parks that would cost four times as much. The new parks, slated for Trenton and Paterson, would cost $10 million each, according to DEP officials, although it's not clear how much of that amount would be spent in the coming year, when other parks are proposed to shut down. The executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, Jeff Tittel, questioned how the state could afford to run new parks when it is trying to save millions by stopping operations at others. The proposed closings would come as a result of a nearly $9 million cut in the DEP's $34 million account for maintaining parks, according to Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson. "How can you build new parks when you can't take care of what you have?" Tittel asked.

- Asbury Park Press, April 17, 2008

$20,000,000

NOT A BAD SALARY FOR RUNNING A STATE-OPERATED SCHOOL DISTRICT WITH LAGGING TEST SCORES

Jersey City Superintendent of Schools (and former state assemblyman) Charles T. Epps Jr. is expected to get a three-year deal this week that will pay him $252,000 a year starting July 1, $260,000 next year, and provide him with $275,000 in the third year. This is a roughly 4 percent pay increase. He has been earning $242,000 a year, including a $1,000-a-month housing allowance, for heading the state's second largest school system, a district that has been under state control since 1989. If people think this is a lot of money, they should take a look at a state investigative commission published report, "Taxpayers Beware: What You Don't Know Can Cost You." It explains that salaries paid to school administrators rose by 31 percent between 1997 and 2004. It represents more than twice the growth rate of average teacher salaries, which went up 14 percent during the same period. The state report warns that taxpayers are often uninformed as to the full cost of these superintendent pay packages...The usual comment by school board officials is that a salary increase is commensurate with what others are getting. In this state, we would be hiding our heads in the sand by denying that a certain amount of politics enters into the process. Jersey City is a special case. While standardized tests seem to show some classroom improvement at the elementary school level, high school performance lags. It is expected by this newspaper that any contract should have performance benchmarks. Taxpayers and the children in this district should be getting their money's worth.

- The Jersey Journal, April 16, 2008

$252,000

CORRECTIONS DEPT. PAYS $3,700 FOR SIX LIGHTERS FOR SEX OFFENDER PRISON

If you were stunned when we reported last week that Union City School District bus drivers are still getting paid six hours of overtime each month simply to charge their cell phones, you might be equally surprised to learn just how much the State Department of Corrections (DOC) paid for just six cigarette lighters at the Avenel Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center. The facility houses and treats convicted sex offenders. Documents obtained by Millennium Radio News reveal DOC paid a total of $3,734.10 for the six wall-mounted lighters. That prices translates to $622.35 per lighter and taxpayer money is footing the bill...The DOC paperwork reveals a Universal weightlifting machine was purchased for the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Yardville at a price of $9,699...Documents reveal the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton also received some exercise equipment. $4,250 was paid for a treadmill and another $1,881 was shelled out a stationary bike...The Yardville facility was also the recipient of 90 weightlifting mats at a cost of $60 per mat for a total of $5,400.

- Millennium Radio News, April 16, 2008

$24,964

FIRMS PAID TO UNDO DEALS THEY WERE PAID TO ARRANGE

Last October, New Jersey taxpayers paid the McManimon & Scotland law firm $68,160 to help arrange a $650 million state bond deal. This month, the firm rang up more fees for helping the state back out of that deal after it went bad. McManimon is one of four professional firms that collected a second helping of pay from taxpayers last week as New Jersey began the complex process of extracting $3.4 billion in public funds from the fractured "auction-rate" market for municipal securities. So far, New Jersey paid more than $3 million in professional fees to replace $617 million in auction-rate bonds with other short-term debt. The state has not yet computed how much each firm will get in fees, but officials expect a sizable piece of the new business will go to the same firms who helped steer New Jersey into the auction-rate market in the first place.

- The Star-Ledger, April 13, 2008

$3,000,000

DOUBLE DIPPERS INCREASE BY 20%

The ranks of highly paid double dippers — government employees with two or more public jobs that paid more than $100,000 together — swelled by 20 percent last year, despite calls to end the practice, Gannett New Jersey has found. A review of pension enrollment data found that: (1) A total of 853 highly paid double dippers were in the state's largest public employee retirement fund last year, an increase of 20 percent from 2006 to 2007. (2) Those same multiple-job holders had a collective salary of $107.8 million, also up 20 percent from 2006. They held an average of 2.8 jobs each and had an average pay of $126,000 in 2007. All totaled, there were 6,271 multiple-job holders — including one woman with 12 jobs — pulling down $354 million in salaries. (3) Although the total number of government jobs — municipal, county, state, school, police and fire department — held steady at 464,000 from 2006 to 2007, the total base salaries rose 3.7 percent to $22.8 billion — equal to nearly half of all state and local tax money collected last year.

- Asbury Park Press, April 13, 2008

TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS

WOULDN’T YOU LIKE TO EARN OVERTIME TO RECHARGE YOUR CELL PHONE?

The Union City School District stands to receive a 16% increase in state aid under Governor Jon Corzine's new school funding formula this year for a total of roughly $150 million. That 16% translates into roughly $20 million extra dollars. According to the state Department of Education website, the Union City School District gets 76% of its funding from state sources. Is the district spending the money wisely? An audit from June 29, 2007 makes one wonder and also could serve to confirm what many critics have long suspected about how cash is spent in the state's poorest district. Assembly Budget Committee member Marcia Karrow says today she plans to ask DOE commissioner Lucille Davy about the questionable spending items found in the audit. Karrow says, "The district spent just under $73,000 for cable television spots to advertise the district, $55,000 for a PR company just to prepare a monthly superintendent's newsletter." She says that's just the tip of the iceberg. "There are cocktail parties in the audit report, there are administrative dinners, there are hotel costs, there are Atlantic City trips, there are staff parties." Karrow is particularly concerned with the pay and perks Union City School District bus drivers have enjoyed. Karrow says, "There's no incentive to save taxpayer dollars. As long as they're getting a free ride from Trenton, they're going to continue to waste money because they don't feel it like most people in the state feel it." A review of the KPMG audit for the Union City School District (formerly known as an Abbott district) shows the following:

•One individual was paid for 14 pay periods after termination at the employee's request.

•Two individuals were paid 21 and 24 pay periods after termination.

•The audit report says that, according to the contract, school bus drivers are paid 6 hours of overtime each month in order to charge their cell phones.

•One bus driver in the 2005-06 school year earned $73,125 in overtime, which accounted for 237% of the driver's base pay. In other words, the driver earned over $100,000 in wages that year.

•A bus driver in the 2004-05 school year earned $61,456 in overtime, 217% of base salary.

•One bus driver in the 2005-06 school year earned $51,725 in overtime, 204% of base salary.

•$150,000 for an annual lease of the Ronald Dario Swimming Complex, which was used only part-time in year 2005-06; and $100,000 for 2004-05, again for part-time.

•The district spent $72,843 for cable TV spots.

•$55,000 was sent to a PR company for helping the district to prepare monthly superintendent's newsletters, which were sent out in August 2004.

•Another approximately $50,000 was expended in printing costs for 1,000 posters and 25,000 brochures.

•$32,302 was sent to a DC law firm to help the district secure grants

•$26,000 in monthly payments were made for website development. Monthly?

•The district paid $2,315 to send kids to Medieval Times, which is a chain corporation that provides dinner and a live jousting show.

•$2,600 for a staff party.

•Taxpayers spent $9,268 for hotel expenses incurred for an out-of-state administrative retreat.

•$3,476 was spent to send 28 students to visit colleges; one trip was to Boston.

•The district spent $3-K to pay for "floats for [a] Thanksgiving Day Parade."

•A firm called Furia Rubel, based out of PA, was paid big bucks from the district for PR and website development. Just singling out the period from October 2004 to February 2005, the firm received over $148,000. And the payments don't stop after that.

•A trip to a Poconos resort, paying for a "field trip" for 140 seventh graders and chaperones back in June 2004.

•$400 for a "clown show" at Gilmore school, which the auditor labeled "questionable."

•$13,411 monthly payment for 39 cell phones used by bus drivers.

•A "Cocktail Dinner" for 50 people at the Old Tapas Restaurant -- $1,150. "Food for staff."

•$21,125 for 25,000 brochures called "Keys to the City," which were sent to the entire city.

•$1,716 for an LCD flat panel TV for the HR Director's Office.

•$2,268 to the Sheraton Edison Hotel back in February 2005, which paid the tab for students and two teachers. According to the audit report, no agenda was found and they were unable to determine the purpose or necessity of the trip.

- Millennium Radio News. April 10, 2008

HUNDDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS

COSTLY STATION OFTEN CLOSED

New Jersey's $54 million truck weigh station on Route 78 in Warren County has been plagued by so many problems that drivers and local officials say its westbound scales are closed more often than they are open. The weigh station in Greenwich Township - which opened in the winter of 2006-07, two years behind schedule and $4.5 million over budget - was shut to westbound traffic for three weeks last month because the electronic signs at the entrance were not working. Before that, officials said, the westbound station was closed because of mechanical problems with the scales, lightning strikes that damaged equipment, mice eating through fiber-optic cables, a truck crashing into a gate and staffing decisions by the State Police. Neither the State Police, which operate the facility, nor the state Department of Transportation, which paid for it and oversaw its construction, could say exactly how often the station has been closed. They said they do not track that information. "It's almost never open," said Angel Ruiz, a truck driver from Brooklyn, referring to the scales on the westbound lanes.

- The Star-Ledger, April 8, 2008

$4,500,000

BOTCHED SCHOOL PROJECT HAS HIGH PRICE

A three-story Union City apartment building erected on the site of a proposed elementary school and torn down before it was ever occupied will cost taxpayers more than $1.8 million under a legal settlement approved yesterday. The settlement, which amounts to six times the price state officials had hoped to pay for the property, caps a five-year saga in which the apartment building was built and then demolished to make way for a public school the state no longer has the funds to build. The site of the building, 1501 Palisade Ave., is again a vacant lot, just as it had been for 20 years before the school project was launched. Tearing it down before anyone ever lived there cost taxpayers $50,000, state records show. With yesterday's settlement the state will have run up a bill of $7.5 million for design work, acquiring and clearing property for the proposed Columbus Elementary School, but the school project remains stalled for lack of funding.

- The Star-Ledger, April 5, 2008

$1,800,000

STATE PRISON OFFICIAL DEFRAUDED TAXPAYERS OF $678,OOO

A Middletown man who oversaw construction contracts for the state Department of Corrections defrauded taxpayers of $678,000 by whispering to friends precisely what amounts to bid and then taking his cut when the cronies got the contracts, state officials alleged Thursday. "This is a flagrant case of public corruption. ... His greed in this case is matched only by his deceitfulness," Attorney General Anne Milgram said in announcing a grand jury had indicted Gerald T. Kennedy.

- Asbury Park Press, April 4, 2008

$678,000

AUDIT: LIQUOR LICENSE SOFTWARE A FAILURE

The state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control spent three years and nearly $650,000 to install new computer software to track liquor licenses, but it still doesn't work, according to a state audit report. The software, purchased from Versa Management Systems Inc. in a deal that was expected to cost $1 million, was supposed to be installed by December 2005 so the division could replace an aging record-keeping system that no longer met its needs. Instead, the state found the software, described in the audit as a "commercial, off-the-shelf solution with a limited number of customizations," did not perform as promised and has never been put into use. In addition to shelling out nearly $150,000 in consulting fees, the state has paid the vendor $498,500 despite problems with the system, the report said.

- The Star-Ledger, April 3, 2008

$800,000

LAX OVERSIGHT OF STATE HEALTH CARE PLANS COST TAXPAYERS MILLIONS

A recent state audit found the administration failed to collect about $4.6 million owed to NJ FamilyCare by 16,300 people; paid $2.1 million from July 2005 to December for medical equipment that nursing homes should have covered; and provided $43.1 million in health benefits to participants who may not qualify to receive them. Wealthy residents -- people with six-figure incomes -- managed to qualify for NJ FamilyCare, a program designed to cover uninsured middle-class and poor children, along with some working poor parents. There is the potential to recoup up to $50 million from people who might have taken advantage of lax management of state health-care programs. That's three times as much money as Corzine is expecting from the needy and elderly to help reduce state spending. A dollar here, two dollars there, might not seem like too much to ask from poor and elderly health-care recipients. Yet, Corzine is asking for money from people who are living paycheck to paycheck or on fixed incomes. Every dollar counts for them. The Corzine administration should be careful with taxpayers' money.

- Courier-Post, April 3, 2008

$50,000,000

SOME ARE VERY WELL PAID IN NEW JERSEY’S ‘NEEDY’ SCHOOL DISTRICTS

In some of the state's poorest communities, school superintendents make more money than the governor or the chief justice of the state Supreme Court. In Camden, former school Superintendent Annette Knox boosted her 2004-05 salary of $180,081 by cashing in $11,630 in unused sick time, and she was given a car to drive. But there was a limit to the school board's largess. Knox resigned when the board claimed she took $18,000 in unauthorized performance bonuses. Her replacement — Bessie LeFra Young — is paid $220,000 in one of America's poorest cities. The state pays 84 percent of the district's budget. In Asbury Park, former Superintendent Robert H. Mann was given a $310,000 severance package in addition to his $120,750 salary to settle what the school board said in 2000 was a clash of "leadership styles." In Long Branch, Superintendent Joseph Ferraina was paid $305,099 during 2004-05 for supervising about 5,000 children. That's about $61 per child. Ferraina received an extra $111,950, most of it unused sick time, to add to his reported base salary of $193,149. The deals given Knox, Ferraina and Mann were criticized in a March 2006 State Commission of Investigation report titled, "Taxpayers Beware: What You Don't Know Can Cost You." The report found "a range of questionable and excessive practices that, collectively, cost unsuspecting New Jersey taxpayers millions of dollars."

- Asbury Park Press, March 16, 2008

"MILLIONS OF DOLLARS"

POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED FIRING COSTS TAXPAYERS $250,000

The state quietly agreed to settle a little-known lawsuit that claimed Public Defender Yvonne Segars improperly fired a deputy for political reasons, three weeks before Gov. Jon S. Corzine announced plans to nominate Segars to be a Superior Court judge. The state has agreed to pay $250,000 to former deputy public defender Christine Leone-Zwillinger, who was a supervisor in a unit that represented children who were abused and neglected, until Segars became public defender under Gov. James E. McGreevey in September 2002.

- Asbury Park Press, March 6, 2008

$250,000

SNOW JOB COSTLY FOR TAXPAYERS

About 700 private snowplow drivers were paid $120 an hour for helping clear the roads on Lincoln’s Birthday, plus $13 an hour in holiday pay – a holiday observed almost exclusively these days by members of the state’s public employee unions.

- Asbury Park Press, February 22, 2008

???

FIRM OUSTED FROM STATE BUILDING PROGRAM WAS PAID MILLIONS

A to contracting firm that has collected more than $50 million from New Jersey’s troubled school construction program was fired for its role in overseeing a Neptune school project that was infested by mold before the building was finished.

- The Star-Ledger, February 22, 2008

$50,000,000

SERGEANT AT STATE FACILITY GETS $428,000 IN OVERTIME

A sergeant who supervised payroll records at a state juvenile justice facility has collected $428,000 in overtime over 10 years without getting written approval from her supervisors, according to a confidential hearing officer’s report obtained by Gannett New Jersey.

- Asbury Park Press, February 10, 2008

$428,000

RUTGERS DOLES OUT 1,700 SIX-FIGURE SALARIES TO EMPLOYEES

More than 1,700 Rutgers employees earned six-figure salaries last year, according to a review of Rutgers University payroll information. The combined base salaries for all Rutgers employees throughout the university system for 2007 was $700.9 million. Some have questioned some Rutgers appointments and lucrative salaries like that of Jeannine LaRue (formerly a top staffer for Gov. Corzine), who was hired as vice president of public affairs at a base salary of $250,000. A total of 140 employees had gross compensation in excess of $200,000.

- Courier-News, February 10, 2008

DEPENDS ON IF YOU THINK A COLLEGE PRESIDENT IS WORTH $525,000; A WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACH; $450,000 OR A GENETICS PROFESSOR, $259,575

LEGAL FEES TOP $1 MILLION AS BPU SUIT STALLED AGAIN

The impending retirement of the judge presiding over a whistle-blower’s suit against the Board of Public Utilities has once again delayed the start of a trial for a case that has thus far cost state taxpayers more than $1 million to defend...“This is a stomach-churning spectacle,” said Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, R-Monmouth, who has said the case shows a need to reform how the state treats whistle-blowers and hires private lawyers.

- The Courier-Post, January 28, 2008

$1,000,000

BENEFITS INFLATE TOLL ROADS BUDGET

Spending by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority will increase 3.5 percent next year to cover increased pension and health care expenses and the higher cost of providing State Police patrols on the Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. The budget, approved yesterday, increases total spending to $431.1 million, up from $416.7 million last year.

- The Star-Ledger, January 23, 2008

$5,000,000

IN POTENTIAL SAVINGS, WITH A LITTLE FRUGALITY

TURNPIKE WORKERS BOOST PAY BY 25% OR MORE

Nearly 200 New Jersey Turnpike Authority employees boosted their pay by 25 percent or more by working overtime last year, an Asbury Park Press analysis of payroll data shows. The data show that overtime payments in total jumped 16 percent last year even while the number of employees decreased. A dozen employees, including eight supervisors, added more than 40 percent – and tens of thousands of dollars – to their base pay. Overall salaries, overtime and other pay came to $193.8 million, up 6 percent from 2006.

- Asbury Park Press, January 20, 2008

$40,000,000

NJ JUDGES NOW AMONG HIGHEST PAID IN NATION

New Jersey judges are now amount the highest paid in the nation under a law signed by Governor Corzine. The 11 percent judicial pay raises follow a 5.7 percent pay raise in 2007. They also come as New Jersey faces a $3 billion budget deficit and after Corzine last week proposed increasing highway tolls to pay state debt and fund transportation...Superior Court judges will get $165,000 per year, up from $149,000; appellate judges $175,600 per year, up from $158,500; associate Supreme Court justices $185,500 per year, up from $167,500; and the chief justice, $192,795 per year, up from $173,500.

- The Record of Hackensack, January 16, 2008

TO BE DETERMINED

CAMDEN DEFICIT SOARS UNDER STATE

The city's spending deficit has soared in the five years since the state essentially seized control of Camden's municipal finances. The proposed 2008 budget features a shortfall of nearly $62 million, or 40 percent of the city's $153 million spending plan for the year. In 2002, when then-Gov. James E. McGreevey signed the Camden Municipal Recovery Act into law, the city's municipal budget deficit totaled $9.75 million. In fiscal years 2006 and 2007, Camden received $47 million in special municipal aid -- a category of state funding for financially stressed cities. Since 2004, Camden has received more of this money than any other city, according to a report by CamConnect, a nonprofit that disseminates data about the municipality.

- Courier-Post, December 17, 2007

$62,000,000

STATE BLOWS $1 MILLION ON BPU WHISTLE-BLOWER TRIAL

Legal bills to defend the state Board of Public Utilities and three top officials against a whistle-blower lawsuit could reach $1 million before the case begins trial. The trial was supposed to begin last Tuesday but has been adjourned until Jan. 28. In the lawsuit, BPU fiscal chief Joseph Potena claims his supervisors became critical of his job performance, threatened insubordination charges and usurped his responsibilities after he alerted the state Treasury Department that the board had set up an $80 million to $100 million Clean Energy account in a private bank without Treasury approval...According to the state Office of the Attorney General, four firms representing the BPU, its president Jeanne Fox and Michael Winka, director of the Office of Clean Energy, have submitted bills totaling $927,197. The bills run through Sept. 30 for three of the firms and through Oct. 31 for the fourth and date to December 2005 — through the terms of four attorneys general, Peter C. Harvey, Zulima V. Farber, Stuart J. Rabner and Anne M. Milgram. The firms include Florio & Perrucci — founded by former Gov. James J. Florio — and Genova, Burns & Vernoia, where prominent Democratic lawyer Angelo Genova is representing Fox, whose husband, Steve DeMicco, has managed campaigns for high-powered Democrats such as Gov. Corzine, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and former Gov. James E. McGreevey. "The public has now paid close to $1 million to fund what appears to be a strategy of endless delays and harassment of the whistle-blower," said Assemblywoman Amy H. Handlin, R-Monmouth, who hopes the case prompts reform of how the state treats whistle-blowers and hires private law firms.

- Home News Tribune, November 16, 2007

$1,000,000

WHAT IS IT ABOUT ‘NO’ THAT THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND?

Opponents of publicly-funded embryonic stem cell research called on Gov. Jon S. Corzine to stop borrowing money to build research facilities after voters last week rejected a referendum to fund the science to be conducted there. After a plan to borrow $450 million over 10 years for stem cell research was defeated at the polls, Corzine and legislative leaders said they were going ahead with plans of a separate, previously-approved measure to borrow $270 million to build five stem-cell research facilities throughout the state...Activists are planning on calling the offices of Corzine and the state's legislative leaders today to urge them to stop construction, as well as mutual fund and portfolio managers to tell them not to invest in state bonds. Corzine spokeswoman Lilo Stainton said Corzine and other state leaders remain committed to the research that offers promise for health care and opportunity to grow the state's economy. "It's not a situation where people are going to turn their backs on this and walk away," Stainton said. "There's still a commitment to the cause."

- Gannett News Service, November 13, 2007

$270,000,000

AN UNNECESSARY FRILL

A $100 million expansion of the Rutgers University football stadium wasn't on the ballot last week. But Gov. Corzine and the state's Democratic legislative leaders need to take note of how voters revolted against additional state spending before embracing a request by Rutgers officials for the state to pony up $30 million for the project. Adding as many as 13,000 seats and 20 luxury boxes to the stadium in Piscataway is an extravagance the state can't afford... Plans for the expansion have been hush-hush, with university officials mum on how much they would like the state to kick in. But $30 million is the figure that has been floated. Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, said Corzine would commit the money in the spring... Rutgers believes football will become a cash cow. But it ran up a $3 million deficit last year — one of the most successful seasons in the school's history. At the same time, the university cited cost concerns in cutting its crew, swimming and fencing teams. And the school has yet to prove that success on the gridiron makes the university stronger academically. Until it gets its priorities straight, Rutgers shouldn't be asking taxpayers to help pay the tab for an addition to the state's football factory.

- Asbury Park Press, November 13, 2007

$30,000,000

THE PRICE JUST KEEPS RISING AND RISING

Officials of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority yesterday accepted a $35.5 million bid to construct a new elementary school for 727 students on the north side of Trenton. It's the second time the state has set out to build the Martin Luther King elementary school. Two years ago, when the school was scheduled to cost only $25 million, contractors for Turner Construction got as far as pouring a foundation and erecting cinder block walls before the project was suspended for an investigation of soil contamination. Last year, after the investigation determined Turner had allowed polluted soil to be used as fill on the site, the partially built school was torn down and the dirty fill was removed. That false start has cost $17 million to date-- including about $13.5 million Turner received for its work on the aborted project. At a projected cost of $35.5 million, the new contract will cost almost $10 million more than the deal signed with Turner in 2004.

- The Star-Ledger,
September 27, 2007

$10,000,000

EnCAP MAY STICK US WITH $51 MILLION DEBT

The looming collapse of the EnCap golf project, once hailed by state officials as way to transform the Meadowlands at no public expense, would stick New Jersey taxpayers with $51 million in debt. A state official confirmed Thursday that a controversial state loan that fronted the EnCap developers $212 million lacks sufficient collateral to fully protect taxpayers if the project fails.

- The Record of Hackensack,
September 21, 2007

$51,000,000

NEW FOOTBALL STADIUM WILL COST TAXPAYERS $30 MILLION

The new stadium for the Giants and Jets was supposed to be built without a penny from taxpayers' pockets. But yesterday, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority voted to refinance its debt, a move that could cost the public up to $30 million. The authority must issue new taxable bonds because the land where the stadium is being built is no longer publicly owned and operated, so it no longer qualifies for tax-free bonds, according to the state authority.

- The Star-Ledger,
September 20, 2007

$30,000,000

$2 MILLION IN TAX DOLLARS USED TO BUY SCHOOL UNIFORMS

Many public schools are supplying their students with an ever-growing list of essentials that go far beyond textbooks to include scientific calculators, personal laptops and free breakfast. Now they are dressing them, too. The Elizabeth school district has spent more than $2 million since January 2006 to buy navy blazers, khaki pants, polo shirts, gym shorts and even socks as part of a new policy to put all its students in uniforms. The district, which serves mostly poor and minority families, has outfitted more than 9,000 students — nearly half its enrollment — so far as it phases in the uniforms a few schools at a time over five years to spread out the cost. “They’re just getting another school supply; that’s how we see it,” said the Elizabeth superintendent, Pablo Muñoz. But some critics have questioned whether the district should be getting into the clothing business while schools are facing budget cuts and state lawmakers are under pressure to reduce property taxes. Jerry Cantrell, president of the New Jersey Taxpayers Association and a former school board president in Randolph, said that while he did not oppose school uniforms, he considered it “overkill” to provide them free to every student. (Elizabeth is an Abbott school district and gets about $260 million in state aid every year. Clothing is a discretionary expense that is not covered by the court’s Abbott mandate.)

- New York Times,
September 4, 2007

$2,000,000

$9 MILLION FOR
CRITTER TUNNELS?

The state Department of Environmental Protection wants to spend $9 million on tunnels to help snakes and other critters cross the Garden State Parkway safely. The very first post in our online forums said it all: "This is a joke, right?" Nope. The DEP is requiring 36-inch concrete tunnels with the proposed widening of the stretch from Toms River to Stafford to prevent endangered species from being struck by cars while scurrying or slithering across the roadway. But no one can say for sure whether the critters would use them. Unless the DEP has a Pied Piper coaxing all the critters, rodents and snakes toward the tunnels, there's no guarantee the passageways will save any of them. The DEP should take the $9 million and put it to better use buying land, not shoving useless pipes through it.

- Asbury Park Press,
August 4, 2007

$9,000,000

STADIUM ROOF WOULD COST STATE TAXPAYERS $421 MILLION

State taxpayers would have to shell out $421 million to construct a retractable roof on the new Meadowlands football stadium -- about twice as much as previous estimates -- according to a report by consultants for the New York Giants and Jets. And for that price, fans would receive "weather protection but not climate control," meaning the roof would keep them dry, but the stadium would not have heat or air conditioning. The roof also wouldn't be built until after the stadium's inaugural 2010 season, so it would not be fully integrated into the facility's design. Both the Giants and Jets refuse to help pay for a roof that the teams say would provide them little economic benefit.
The report -- which cost taxpayers $169,598.53 -- could be the death knell for a roof proposal once touted as a way to attract Super Bowls and other major national events to North Jersey.

- The Record of Hackensack,
July 24, 2007

$170,000

PORK STILL ON MENU

They did it again. The Democrats who control the Legislature promised that this year, unlike years past, the budget process would be open and transparent. They lied. Democratic leaders and Gov. Corzine last week hammered out an agreement on a $33.5 billion budget — including more than $100 million in so-called "Christmas tree" add-ons for pet projects — behind closed doors. When will they realize "Christmas in July" is an advertising gimmick, not a model for governing? A hearing on the Christmas tree "grants" was held Friday and another will be held Monday. Why bother? "We're going to be voting on resolutions in a package that's already decided on? I mean, that's pretty stupid," said Assemblyman Joseph Malone III, R-Burlington. "That's not transparency. That's lunacy." No kidding. The Democrats boast they reduced the amount of grants from previous years. But $100 million isn't chump change for a state teetering on the edge. And the grants will have been determined — once again — with no meaningful Republican input. Bottom line: It's business as usual in Trenton.

- Asbury Park Press,
June 17, 2007

$100,000,000

FIRING DEAN UNDER INDICTMENT COST TAXPAYERS OVER $450,000

The taxpayer-funded attorney representing the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey has been paid more than $450,000 to get a sleazy dean fired. And the meter is still running. When the final bill comes due, the sleazy dean should be forced to pick up the tab. The tenure proceedings against R. Michael Gallagher, the former dean of UMDNJ's Osteopathic School in Stratford, are a stomach-churning example of how taxpayers are forced to pay twice to root out the bad apples — first for the corrupt acts themselves, then for the legal costs of getting them removed from their jobs. A bill sponsored last month by Assemblywoman Amy H. Handlin, R-Monmouth, would change that. It deserves prompt bipartisan support. Under the bill, if a person is fired for a crime and challenges it but is ultimately convicted, he or she would be responsible for any legal bills incurred. Handlin should clip a photo of Gallagher to a copy of her bill and slide it under the door of Assemblyman Mims Hackett Jr., D-Essex, who chairs the State Government Committee.

- Asbury Park Press,
June 6, 2007

$450,000

CHAIRMAN’S LAME EXCUSE PREVENTS $1 MILLION SAVINGS FOR TAXPAYERS

Don't blame me, says Assemblyman Jerry Green, a Union County Democrat. He's not blocking a bill that would save taxpayers a cool $1 million annually by cutting a few unneeded patronage jobs at county tax boards. Oh no, Green wants us to believe the stall is the fault of the bill's Republican sponsors. Green says they haven't pushed him hard enough to get the measure on the schedule for consideration by his Assembly Housing and Local Government Committee. Ridiculous. Last we checked, legislative committee chairmen can bring up any bill they want. And Green and Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) and every other lawmaker should want this bill. It reverses the Legislature's wasteful creation of new tax board jobs three years ago, at the very time the volume of tax appeals and other work of the boards was dropping to 15-year lows. As Green himself says, this is a good-government bill. But if he and his colleagues don't stop pussyfooting and start chopping these pension-padding positions for political hacks, their idea of good government will be clear.

- The Star-Ledger,
June 2, 2007

$1,000,000

A SHOPPING SPREE WITH ABBOTT SCHOOL CASH

The director of a pre-K program in Passaic, an Abbott school district, cannot account for nearly $500,000 in state funds she received in 2005-06, according to an audit by the state Department of Education. Some of the money went to shopping sprees at stores like Victoria's Secret, a personal loan to an employee and to make a home mortgage payment, according to the report. The audit of the Children's Heimeshe Workshop's 2005-06 finances, done by the department's Office of Compliance and Investigation, found that Director Libby Leibowitz could not provide proof that thousands of dollars of state money she spent went to benefit the school. The report also said checks worth $44,668 were written out to petty cash, but that Leibowitz could not say where the money went. Leibowitz also used state money to make a $3,661 personal mortgage payment and recorded charges to Kohl's, Jin's Nail, Mary Unisex Beauty and Hosiery Planet that auditors could not prove were to help the school. Auditors also found that Leibowitz could not provide receipts for all of $360,000 in various debit card charges and nearly $50,000 in additional discretionary spending. The report also found Leibowitz didn't conduct proper employee criminal background checks, required by law, nor appropriately spend all the money she was given for classroom technology. Investigators noted a lack of computers in the classrooms, even though the program was given money to provide two in every room. The school district budgeted $788,573 in state aid to the school during the 2005-06 year, the education department said. This school year, the budget for Heimeshe was $847,826.

- The Herald News,
June 2, 2007

$500,000

ABBOTT DISTRICT MUST REPAY $72,000 IN STATE AID ... FOR TAXI TRIPS

Bad news keeps coming to the Trenton school district, which now has been told it must repay thousands of dollars to the state for improperly using taxi drivers to transport special education students. Although the use of cabs during the past three years has alleviated the district's transit problems, a re cent state audit revealed the district violated public contract laws and owes the Department of Education an estimated $72,000 it received in state aid. In addition, auditors discovered the district hired taxi drivers who had not submitted a criminal background check to the DOE. School officials also failed to put a contract in writing and pay the taxi company they hired in a timely manner, investigators found. This is the third time in a period of five weeks that the agency has flagged Trenton public schools for noncompliance with state statutes.

- The Times of Trenton,
June 1, 2007

$72,000

NO NEED FOR PUFFERY

NJ Transit, which is raising its fares almost 10 percent today, is paying almost $400,000 for six people to help produce publications that include a puff-piece newsletter. What a waste. Before it cries poverty again, the agency should review its publications program with an eye toward cutting its staff and their bloated salaries.

- Asbury Park Press,
June 1, 2007

$400,000

BLOW WHISTLE ON LEGAL BILLS

The legal bills for defending the state Board of Public Utilities and three of its top officials against a whistle-blower lawsuit have grown to nearly $600,000 — with the trial phase not even in sight. What a disgraceful waste of taxpayers' money. Assemblywoman Amy H. Handlin, R-Monmouth, who plans to introduce a bill this month to require state contracts that pay by the hour to have maximum limits and deadlines for completion, sums the fiasco up well: The money "has been thrown away in an effort to muzzle a whistle-blower." The whistle-blower's allegation that the board set up an illegal $80 million to $100 million private bank account is the subject of a criminal investigation. That should be more than enough reason for the state to settle this suit rather than defend the people charged with punishing the employee who brought the problem to investigators' attention.

- Asbury Park Press,
May 8, 2007

$600,000

YOU CAN DO BETTER SPENDING A MILLION BUCKS

Some state legislators reportedly want to add a million dollars to the state budget specifically earmarked to save a handful of varsity sports at Rutgers University. First, let's give lawmakers a few points for good intentions, even if there's some political grandstanding going on in their efforts. But really, if the state has a spare million bucks hanging around, aren't there countless better ways to spend it?

- The Courier-News
April 29, 2007

$1,000,000

CHARITY CARE HAS WASTED MILLIONS

New Jersey's cash-strapped Charity Care system for subsidizing hospital care for the indigent has been beset by fraud and Legislative manipulation that have led the $583 million-a-year program to waste tens of millions of dollars, according to a  State Commission of Investigation (SCI) report.
The SCI claimed that hospitals are giving away tens of millions of dollars in state-subsidized treatments each year to patients who fraudulently lie about their incomes to qualify for the free care or who are actually covered by private insurance. Separately, the SCI review found that so-called "Christmas Tree" grants and other budget manipulations by the state Legislature had "skewed" state payments under the program away from hospitals like the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey that provide the bulk of charity care services in favor of hospitals whose free case loads are shrinking. The "manipulation," according to the report, has rendered irrelevant the $2.5 million-a-year the state spends calculating proper Charity Care distributions.
The SCI recommended immediate action to address "the full scope of structural weaknesses, administrative deficiencies and policy problems that routinely subject New Jersey's Charity Care program to real and potential waste, fraud and abuse." Among other things, the commission proposed: (1) an aggressive program to recover payments made to patients covered by health insurance; (2) a dedicated fraud recovery unit, and (3) proper distribution of Charity Care funds without budget manipulation.

- The Star-Ledger,
April 18, 2007

$23,400,000

TAX DOLLARS ARE WASHED
OUT TO SEA

A government-funded environmental preservation committee lacked oversight and accountability and spent New Jersey taxpayers' money on a vendor who had a personal relationship with the panel's executive director, according to a state audit. The January report, obtained by Gannett New Jersey, found the bipartisan, bi-state New York/New Jersey Clean Ocean and Shore Trust Commission, known as COAST, had no formal written policies or procedures for operations and did not keep records of its meetings or time worked by staff. The report discovered that since 2000, although it kept scant records of timesheets, 85 percent to 99 percent of the commission's spending each year went directly to salaries. In 2004, when New Jersey budgeted $144,000 for the commission, $142,156 was allocated for salaries. Of the seven years the audit looks at, $840,000 of the nearly $1 million in state funds given to the commission went to salaries. After the Office of Legislative Services, which funds COAST through the Legislature's annual budget, received invoices for the services, two legislative appointees to COAST, Sen. Joseph M. Kyrillos Jr. and Assemblyman Steven Corodemus, both R-Monmouth, requested an audit. Kyrillos said funds for the commission should be deleted from the 2007-08
state budget.

- Home News Tribune,
April 3, 2007

$1,000,000

WATCH AS $6 MILLION IN ROAD SIGNS FADE AWAY

The state Department of Transportation is spending $6 million to replace 11,000 overhead highway street-name signs that have faded beyond recognition. The new signs will be made of the highest-grade material, according to the DOT, but will wear out after seven years. That's not long enough. The Monmouth County engineer said his office several years ago was concerned about the grade of sheeting used by the county and convinced the freeholders to invest in a more expensive "high-performance" grade. The material was expected to last 10 years and is exceeding that time frame. The Ocean County engineer reported the same experience, with less weathering of road signs because the county uses a different material. The DOT brass should instruct their traffic engineers to pick up the phone and get tips on how to make signs more durable from their counterparts at the Shore.

- Asbury Park Press,
March 30, 2007

$6,000,000

PRICE TAG FOR NEW SCHOOL: $187 MILLION

The price tag for a proposed state-of-the-art high school in New Brunswick has soared to $187 million -- double the original projections and far more expensive than any other project undertaken so far in New Jersey's school construction program. Officials of the state Schools Construction Corp. said yesterday the price has been pushed up by land costs of $1 million per acre, labor and material expenses rising at the rate of $800,000 per month, and increased costs for relocating a business from the site. The total bill for the 2,000-student high school is on track to exceed $450 per square foot. It would exceed the $175 million New Jersey set aside in 2002 for the revitalization of the entire city of Camden. "Is somebody out of their mind?" asked Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R-Burlington), a sponsor of the legislation that set up the state's school construction program in 2000. "What in God's name are you going to build for $187 million? Is it going to be gold- plated?"

- The Star-Ledger,
March 29, 2007

$187,000,000

NEW, UNOPENED SCHOOL WILL BE PARTIALLY DISMANTLED

The Taj Mahal of elementary schools — Neptune's Midtown Community Elementary School, built at a cost of $42 million — has a "major" mold problem, officials say. And the building isn't even finished. The mold problem, blamed on "uncontrolled water intrusion" in rear walls, will delay the planned September opening of the school by another year and will cost another $5 million to $10 million to clean up. How did this happen? Where were the inspectors who should have been overseeing every phase of the project? How did the problem get to be "major" without anyone detecting it until now? The head of the state Schools Construction Corp., Jerry Murphy, said the entire upfront cost of the repair work will be borne by the SCC. That means the cost will be borne by the state's taxpayers until — and if — the state determines who is liable. Don't hold your breath.

- Asbury Park Press,
March 28, 2007

$10,000,000

RUTGERS PAYS $200,000+
TO 98 WHILE ASKING FOR MORE STATE AID

State funding cuts of more than $66 million last year led Rutgers University to lay off 189 staff members, eliminate 374 part-time lecturers and cancel hundreds of course sections. The university's budget woes led senior administrators to relinquish salary increases, with the savings dedicated to financial assistance for students coping with an 8 percent tuition increase. But 98 top administrators, department chairs, coaches and athletic officials were paid more than $200,000 in 2006, a review of Rutgers salary records found.

- Asbury Park Press
March 26, 2007

SAVINGS IF NO ONE RECEIVED MORE THAN $200,000 A YEAR:

$844,676

EXECUTIVE BRANCH SPENDS $230 MILLION ON OVERTIME

Last year, the state's executive branch spent more than $230 million on overtime pay. Throw in the OT costs of New Jersey Transit and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, and the total is more than $340 million, enough to make the Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway toll-free for about six months. Most of the executive branch's overtime — 79 percent — was paid to employees in three large departments: Human Services, Corrections, and Law and Public Safety, according to a Gannett New Jersey review of payroll data. Overtime in the executive branch makes up about 5 percent of the $5 billion salary budget. Sixty-six state employees made more than $60,000 in overtime last year, with some more than doubling their salaries. Six of them took home more than $80,000 in OT. Last year's figure represents a 20 percent increase in overtime costs since fiscal year 2004.

- Asbury Park Press,
March 11, 2007

EVEN IF OVERTIME PAYMENTS WERE CUT IN HALF:

$115,000,000

INSPECTOR GENERAL SAYS GRANTS WERE UNUSED, MISSPENT

The state should demand that a trade association for drug treatment providers return nearly $1.8 million in grants it never used or misspent on perks and lobbying efforts in violation of state rules, a report from the inspector general said yesterday. The scathing 75-page report is the second that Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper has issued in three months about improprieties involving the state Division of Addiction Services. It takes aim at the Addiction Treatment Providers of New Jersey, a trade group, and a nonprofit it created that accepted $8.7 million in government grants between 2002 and 2006.

- The Star-Ledger,
March 1, 2007

COST A PRIMARY CONCERN

What price relevance? That is a key question as New Jersey joins the nationwide rush to hold its 2008 presidential primary early enough to make a difference. Lost in the debate has been the cost, now estimated at $8 million. County officials, understandably, are howling at yet another state mandate unaccompanied by state dollars. Gov. Corzine and the legislative leaders who have been adamant about boosting the state's role in presidential politics should redirect existing funds to pay for it.

- Asbury Park Press,
March 1, 2007

CAN’T YOU JUST
SMELL THE ROSES?

The state Education Commissioner told a state Senate panel Monday that new rules might be needed to limit school district spending on non-educational expenses such as flowers, food for meetings and employee travel. Commissioner Lucille Davy appeared before the Senate's education committee to discuss last month's audits of four Abbott districts, including Camden, where auditors found $4,800 in questionable spending on flowers over two years. Richard Fair, the New Jersey state auditor, told the senators that previous state audits have turned up similar problems. "In most of the cases school districts know the problems, the Department of Education knows, it's just that nothing's been done," he said.

- Asbury Park Press,
February 27, 2007

ON THE WRONG TRACK?

A $150 million train service planned for North Jersey would carry fewer riders than any railroad in the state, prompting criticism that it is little more than a pet project for the hometown of a local congressman. Critics said the 750 to 1,000 daily riders forecast for the Passaic-Bergen line aren't enough to justify the federal and state investment. The line would carry far fewer people than similar lines in Hudson County, Newark and South Jersey, according to NJ Transit figures. NJ Transit officials said the Passaic-Bergen line would promote economic development but would not be a cure-all for congestion on highways such as Routes 80 and 4. The agency approved $25 million for the line in its 2007 capital budget.

- The Record of Hackensack,
February 18, 2007

NEW AUDIT FINDS NEWARK SQUANDERED MILLIONS

An audit of the way Newark City Hall sends out its water bills, inspects its restaurants and pays private tow-truck operators has documented an antiquated and disorganized bureaucracy that has been squandering millions of dollars, encouraging municipal malfeasance and potentially putting the health of its residents at risk. The $1.2 million audit, commissioned by Mayor Cory A. Booker soon after he took office in July, found that the city had failed to collect $80 million in tax revenue and that it loses about 30 percent of its drinking water each day through undiscovered leaks. [Newark is one of the largest recipients of state aid.]

- New York Times,
February 8, 2007

AUDIT SHOWS BPU CONSULTANT EARNED MORE THAN BOSS DID

A former executive director of the state Board of Public Utilities — rehired as a contracted adviser — earned more last year than the agency's president, according to a new state audit. The audit of the BPU's Office of Clean Energy, released last week, found that a private adviser earned about $190,000 in 2006 — about $50,000 more than BPU President Jeanne M. Fox's salary. The consultant, Michael Ambrosio, was criticized in a previous audit by the state Department of the Treasury for working for the Office of Clean Energy while representing several clients seeking BPU grants.

- Asbury Park Press,
February 8, 2007

AUDIT FINDS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN WASTED IN STATE-RUN SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Outside audits of four of New Jersey's largest and most troubled school districts found inadequate financial controls and raised questions about more than $15 million in expenses. Despite years of state oversight in all four districts, the reports found Newark, Jersey City, Paterson and Camden schools all need immediate attention in areas including payroll, accounting and purchasing. Among the findings by the state-hired auditors: (1) In Camden, more than $13 million in expenses was "questionable." (2) Purchases from an open account held by Newark superintendent Marion Bolden included figurines, decorations and a $1,795 jukebox. (3) Jersey City administrators spent thousands of dollars for out-of-state and overseas trips. (4) In Paterson, custodians could double their pay through overtime, and controls were so lax that more than 2,000 purchase orders exceeded their stated dollar amounts by a combined total of more than $6 million.

- The Star-Ledger,
January 31, 2007

IT PAYS TO KNOW
THE RIGHT PEOPLE

As lawmakers struggle with controversial proposed reforms to the state's public retirement system, Joseph R. Mariniello, a politically connected municipal attorney who racked up retirement credits with 11 North Jersey towns and Bergen County, was approved yesterday for a state retirement package that will pay him $123,700 a year. Mariniello, 63, won approval by the Public Employees Retirement System board of trustees to receiving monthly retirement checks of $10,308.48, starting this month. He racked up more than 31 years of pension credit as an attorney for Bergen County and for 11 Bergen and Hudson communities, including West New York and Fort Lee. He was ranked 16th among the state's most highly paid "double-dippers," according to a list that was released last year during debate over ways to rein in soaring public retirement costs. His pension will be almost seven times the average, $18,000 a year, for a career state worker.

- The Star-Ledger,
January 18, 2007

DEP LOST MILLIONS THROUGH POOR ACCOUNTING

Because of faulty paperwork, the Department of Environmental Protection has failed to charge $10 million to polluters responsible for environmental cleanups, a state auditor's report has found. In addition, the DEP has lost an untold sum of money because its automated billing system does not calculate interest charges on overdue accounts, the Dec. 19 audit says.

- The Courier-Post,
January 5, 2007

MEDICAID THEFT COSTS NJ $900 MILLION

New Jersey officials suspect their cash-starved state loses $900 million annually through Medicaid fraud, nearly enough to cut next year’s projected budget deficit in half and make life easier for beleaguered taxpayers.

- The Record of Hackensack,
December 28, 2006

CLASS, PAY ATTENTION!

For New Jersey politicians, the podium of higher learning can serve as a refuge for higher earning. At a time when taxpayer-funded higher education in the Garden State is enduring budget cuts and scandals, politicians and others from public life are peopling the state-run lecture halls, along a wide-ranging pay scale. Some, such as former Gov. James J. Florio, are well compensated. Florio, who left office in 1994, earns $96,632 a year for teaching one course at Rutgers one day a week. Others teach for free, sharing with students their decades of experience.

- Asbury Park Press,
December 3, 2006

LOTTERY JACKPOT
FOR DEBTORS

The New Jersey Lottery paid nearly $1 million last year to people who owed debts to the state, according to a new audit that found the agency wasn't checking a state database before paying prizes. The Division of State Lottery processes prize payments of more than $600 and is required to determine if winners defaulted on student loans and child support. Amounts owed to the state are to be deducted from the prize and forwarded to the proper agency before payments are made. But state auditors, in an audit dated Nov. 16, found the division paid $900,000 last year that should have been withheld for debts.

- The Burlington County Times,
December 1, 2006

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH LAWYERS

Despite a long-standing executive order meant to keep the state's lawyers in the Office of the Attorney General and not within individual departments, the Board of Public Utilities has significantly increased its number of in-house lawyers, or legal specialists, in recent years. The BPU employs a staff of 14 legal specialists, several of whom have political connections, at a combined salary of $1.2 million per year, on top of the $2.4 million the BPU pays to have the Attorney General's Office for legal representation.

- Asbury Park Press,
November 13, 2006

BILLIONS SPENT
WITH LITTLE OVERSIGHT

At the Atlantic City Convention Center Authority, employees can spend up to $125 per person on business dinners and get reimbursed for up to two alcoholic drinks while entertaining customers. At the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, the former acting executive director billed the state for $1,700 in gasoline reimbursements, even as he was provided with a car for commuting, according to a report issued Monday by state Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper. These were some of the unusual perks included in Cooper's survey of the state's independent authorities, quasi-government agencies that spend billions of dollars each year, often with little oversight. The report shows a varied set of benefits across the 45 entities Cooper reviewed, with vast differences in salaries, vacation time and policies for reimbursing workers for transportation, meals and cell phone use. For example, confidential secretaries at some entities earn $33,363, while others make $125,000 a year, according to the report. Cabinet officials make $141,000. At the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, the entire week between Christmas and New Year's Day is considered a paid holiday, and at two other entities top executives can provide additional days off or approve shortened workdays. Cooper recommended changes to bring the benefits in line with what state employees get.

- Asbury Park Press,
October 24, 2006

CAMDEN SPENDS YOUR TAX DOLLARS TO DEFEND AN ABANDONED DEVELOPMENT

America's poorest city is continuing to spend money to defend a Bergen Square redevelopment plan the city has already abandoned. To pay for the legal defense, the Camden Redevelopment Agency is dipping into a $1 million reserve fund, steered to the city in July 2005 by state Sen. Wayne Bryant, D-Camden. Records concerning the fund have already been subpoenaed by federal and state grand juries. Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole, R-Essex , said the fund should be frozen until legal questions about it are resolved. O'Toole calls the $1 million a "slush fund," and he says he is concerned that, with the recent resignation of Camden Chief Operating Officer Randy Primas, money will be used to "feather the nest of politically connected law firms" until Primas' replacement is selected. Councilman Gilbert "Whip" Wilson said it seemed "like a waste of money" to defend a redevelopment plan the city is already redoing. As of June 30, the law firm had been paid $94,732 from the fund to defend redevelopment agency plans in court.

- The Courier-Post,
October 19, 2006

MAYOR’S THREE-MONTH TRAVEL TAB COSTS TAXPAYERS $48,000

During his final three months in office, former Newark Mayor and current state Senator Sharpe James spent at least $48,000 in travel, dining and entertainment expenses, city records show. From March 27, when he announced he would not seek re-election, until he left office June 30, James traveled to Puerto Rico, Brazil, Martha's Vineyard and Detroit, often accompanied by bodyguards and aides. Some of James' travels, including a $6,500 trip to Rio de Janeiro during his final week in office, previously were reported by The Star-Ledger. But additional records obtained through the state's Open Public Records Act reveal the magnitude of the mayor's spending during his lame duck period and also suggest he was a chief executive who had little oversight of where he traveled or how much he spent. For example, James, unlike other city employees, was not required to have travel requests pre-approved, and came and went as he pleased, said former Newark Business Administrator Richard Monteilh. The records also show James' expenses often were reimbursed without an explanatory voucher. The revelation of the new expenses before James left office comes amid mounting evidence that state and federal investigations into his spending are widening. Federal investigators, who already have demanded a wide range of documents from City Hall, recently subpoenaed four of the ex-mayor's police bodyguards to testify before a federal grand jury. (The Newark City budget is heavily subsidized by state tax dollars.)

- The Star-Ledger of Newark,
September 25, 2006

PAYING SOMETHING
FOR NOTHING

New Jersey taxpayers will pay Goldman Sachs and Bank of America about $275,000 over the next eight weeks as the result of glitches in a complicated deal that was supposed to save money on borrowing for the state's school construction program. Because of delays in the school building program, the state does not yet need $500 million it was scheduled to borrow Sept. 1. So the loan has been postponed to Nov. 1, but under an "interest rate swap" deal worked out three years ago, the banking giants will collect money for nothing in the meantime. Until the state actually borrows the school funds, the deal will re quire New Jersey to pay the banks interest of 4.407 percent on the nonexistent loan, while the banks will return payments of about 3.99 percent to the state. The banks will keep the difference, which experts project will total $274,678. State officials "placed a bad bet," said Robert Brooks, professor of finance at the University of Alabama and the author of a book on swaps. "Things like swaps really shouldn't be used when you have timing uncertainty."

- The Star-Ledger of Newark,
September 14, 2006

NO ONE HOME

New Jersey officials are investigating a $1.5 million, no-bid contract awarded to Life Skills Academy, a private company operated by a Trenton couple that apparently used state money to run its national headquarters in Atlanta, according to a published report. The Record of Bergen County reported yesterday that Life Skills Academy, run by Emmanuel ben Avraham and his wife, Elinah Avra ham, spent nearly $1 million in state funds during the past three years at its national headquarters on Peachtree Street in Atlanta. But the newspaper reported a visit by a reporter to the headquarters' address found no sign of the organization. Gov. Jon S. Corzine's office and other state officials are investigat ing the contract, including the $385,000 sent by Life Skills Academy to finance its Atlanta operation this year.

-The Times of Trenton,
August 16, 2006

CORZINE REJECTS REQUEST
 TO CUT $25 MILLION IN ‘PORK’

A Union County Republican whose lawsuit helped temporarily quash $25 million of grants for lawmakers’ pet projects last year is again asking Gov. Jon S. Corzine to block millions of dollars of “pork” he says were improperly wedged into the state budget. David Robinson, a Cranford attorney, said grants added to the $30.8 billion state budget violate a line in the state Constitution barring laws tailored to favor narrow causes. Corzine rejected the argument that the spending violates the law.

- The Courier-Post of Cherry Hill,
July 28, 2006

CAMDEN SCHOOL BOARD SECRETARY GETS MORE THAN $100,000 IN OVERTIME

The executive secretary for former Camden Schools Superintendent Annette D. Knox was paid more than $100,000 in overtime over the last three years, far more than any other district employee.  “The board was unaware such overtime was being approved,” School Board President Philip E. Freeman said. The state has taken over the operations of the city of Camden and still pours massive amounts of money into the school district.

- The Philadelphia Inquirer,
July 28, 2006

NEWARK’S PARTING GIFT
TO OFFICIALS: $658,187

Former Newark Mayor and current state Senator Sharpe James and 21 outgoing members of his administration were issued city checks last month totaling $658,187 for unused vacation and sick time, according to a city document obtained by The Star-Ledger. Half of that total went to the ex-mayor and seven of his former department heads. The state continues to provide Newark with significant amounts of st