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Corzine officials take questions in Red Bank
At a town hall event, the governor's proxies address concerns
Thursday, May 03, 2007
BY DEBORAH HOWLETT
Star-Ledger Staff
How many Cabinet members does it take to fill in for Gov. Jon Corzine?
At least six, judging by last night's town hall meeting in Red Bank, where state Treasurer Brad ley Abelow and Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin led a team of Corzine administration officials in fielding an hour of questions from a standing-room-only crowd of 150 area residents.
Abelow said he'd had a chance to speak with the governor on Monday night, and Corzine wanted to know if "we're still out there talking to people." Abelow assured him they were and that he would be standing in for the governor in Red Bank. "He told me I better start studying," Abelow said.
The gathering at the Borough Hall marked the resumption of a series of town meetings on the budget that Corzine had begun be fore he was critically injured in a car crash on the Garden State Parkway April 12. Corzine conducted a two-hour session at Eastampton Middle School the night before the accident. After 18 days in the hospital, he is now recuperating at Drumthwacket, the governor's official residence in Princeton.
"He wanted this to go on," deputy chief of staff Jeannine LaRue said as she introduced the administration officials present, including Education Commissioner Lucille Davy, Children and Families Commissioner Kevin Ryan, Public Ad vocate Ron Chen and outgoing Commerce Commissioner Virginia Bauer. Ryan and Bauer live in Monmouth County.
Corzine "is walking with a little help. He's talking. And he's giving out orders, you can be sure of that," LaRue said to a round of ap plause.
While Senate President Richard Codey has been filling in as acting governor, top cabinet members and staff have been tapped to serve as Corzine's proxies at events like the Question-and-Answer formatted town hall meetings. As many as four more meetings are on the schedule before lawmakers forward Corzine a $33 billion state budget in June.
While not all of the cabinet officers have the same political wattage as the governor, who drew 450 people to the Eastampton event, they do offer New Jerseyans the most direct pipeline to the governor's thinking.
"The governor views these events as we do -- an opportunity to listen, as much as it is a chance to sell," Abelow said after the meeting. "That's their greatest value. He wants to make sure we're engaged in listening."
The questions were the same ones the governor usually gets. And the answers were nearly identical to the ones that he gives. But it was clearly a different kind of event.
Abelow fielded questions about the property tax rebates coming for most New Jersey homeowners and the difficulty schools and municipalities face with the new 4 percent cap on the annual growth of tax levies.
Davy handled a number of questions regarding school funding, particularly regarding the disparity between poor and middle-class school districts under the Abbott court decision. She guaranteed a teacher from a nearby Abbott school district that class sizes would not exceed 40 students. She later said she could not make the same guarantee to a parent from Freehold, one of several wearing yellow T-shirts imprinted with "Save Our Schools."
Bauer, also a member of the Fort Monmouth commission, handled questions about the ongoing process for finding new uses for the military base, promising substantial public input before a plan is adopted in December.
Bass Levin noted after the meeting that it represented a step toward normal policy discussion following the governor's accident.
"There is an underlying emotional piece because Jon Corzine should be here," she said. "But, for me at least, it feels like finally I'm doing something to help."
Deborah Howlett may be reached at (609) 989-0273 or dhowlett@star ledger.com.
N.J. treasurer defends $33B state budget at Red Bank forum
Cabinet members take questions on schools, fort, more
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/3/07
BY LARRY HIGGS
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
RED BANK — Education dominated the night, with room for a few questions about eminent domain and reusing Fort Monmouth, as state Treasurer Bradley Abelow brought a traveling road show of Corzine administration cabinet members to borough hall Wednesday to talk about the state budget.
For a little more than an hour, Abelow explained the proposed $33 billion spending plan, defended it and sometimes passed questions on to other commissioners and department heads.
Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy seemed to be most in demand. Several parents from Freehold, wearing yellow "Save our schools" T-shirts, asked her why the district didn't receive enough funding to keep from cutting seven teachers and five support staff.
The answer Davy had to most of their questions was that a new funding formula is being drafted, which should put school districts on a more even footing. But that wasn't what Freehold parent Stacy Laberdee of Lenoir Avenue wanted to hear.
"We've been treading water, and now we can't tread water any longer," Laberdee said afterward. "I don't feel like they gave us any assurance."
She and others said the district receives $900 per student below the minimum amount of per-pupil spending to provide a through and efficient education and needed a $1.1 million infusion of state aid.
"The goal is to have a single unified formula where funding is based on the needs of the students serviced in the district," Davy said, adding that additional money will be provided for special-education students, those not proficient in English and those from low-income families.
Davy said she doubted the new education funding formula would be ready before mid-November.
"If it were easy, we'd be done by now," she said. "The governor made it clear that he wants us to work on a formula that is clear, equitable and constitutional."
The crowd of over 120 people flowed out of the courtroom and into the hall. It included residents, local officials and state legislators, in addition to representatives of advocacy groups.
For a woman who asked Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen when an update to last year's report about eminent domain would be issued, there was some good news.
"It will be ready to be published in about a week or two," Chen said. "It's appropriate to update what we've learned a year later, that there is a human face to how eminent domain affects people."
Three questions about more money for specific programs led Abelow to point out that the state doesn't have the money to fund everything.
"In the last three questions, people want more money for things we'd like to invest in," Abelow said. "The challenge is we don't have the money. Kindergarten to (grade) 12 education is $10 billion, a third of the budget."
Tom Mahedy of Wall was one of two people to ask about state studies of how to reuse Fort Monmouth. Mahedy wanted to know if a $23,000 state study promoting reusues of the base by military contractors could include promoting contractors doing research and development of reusable energy sources.
That study is to be done with a third of the funds coming from the state and two-thirds from the private sector, said Virginia Bauer, Secretary of the New Jersey Commerce, Economic Growth and Tourism Commission. It will be done only if private industry provides the matching funds to the state money, she said.
But afterward Mahedy said that wasn't the answer he was looking for.
"She skirted the issue," he said. "Instead of research and development that promotes war, I'm looking for research and development for clean renewable energy."
