July 21, 2010

O’SCANLON: DEMOCRAT LEADERSHIP STILL PUTTING POLITICS BEFORE PROPERTY TAXPAYERS

Assembly Republican Budget Committee member Declan O’Scanlon, R- Monmouth and Mercer, said the committee should consider all important financial impacts on New Jersey taxpayers, especially property tax relief, not only revenue forecasts provided by the Office of Legislative Services (OLS).

Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Lou Greenwald, D-Camden, announced Tuesday the committee would conduct a hearing on Aug. 5 to discuss the recent OLS memo that estimates a similar shortfall for Fiscal Year 2012.

“Last July, when OLS projected a potential budget gap of nearly $10 billion, Democrats saw no need to convene the committee, despite Republican calls to immediately address the issue,” said O’Scanlon. “It is curious that the same problem was ignored last year when a Democrat governor was in charge but now merits a hearing when we have a Republican governor. The bottom line is that we need to roll up our sleeves and attack all of our budget challenges, at both the state and local levels, in particular the toolkit legislation, which is critical in our effort to provide property tax relief.

“The budget committee needs to meet regularly throughout the course of the year in order to address both the state’s financial situation and property tax problem,” stated O’Scanlon. “The Senate Democrats have already begun debate on the toolkit bills. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be the same sense of urgency to earnestly undertake the reform process in the General Assembly.

“Chairman Greenwald should be convincing the leaders in his caucus to develop and release the toolkit schedule immediately,” continued O’Scanlon. “While next year’s budget needs to be monitored, the public and local officials are depending on the Legislature to deliver the reform legislation that is necessary to assist them in conforming with our new Cap 2.0 law. The committee is certainly capable of multi-tasking, and I hope Democrat leadership agrees that providing property tax relief, through the toolkit, is something we should not delay in addressing.”