Misinformation spinning about TTF meeting

The following headline appeared in yesterday's New Jersey Herald:

"Oroho will meet with local officials to explain benefits of gas tax proposal."

That headline is a total misrepresentation.  It is untrue.

So is the first paragraph:  " With four Sussex County municipalities now on record against raising New Jersey's gasoline tax, Republican state Sen. Steve Oroho is planning to host a July 27 closed-door meeting with local and county officials to discuss why he believes a higher gas tax coupled with tax cuts elsewhere offers the best approach to rescuing the state's transportation trust fund."

This is also false.  Another misrepresentation.

The invitation to the July 27th meeting is crystal clear about what the meeting is for.  The invitation states that it is to "discuss the spending side of TTF and ways to control costs and become more efficient in the use of taxpayer' money."

So why the misinformation?

The reporter who wrote this story also wrote a devastating attack in the Herald on Byram councilman David Gray when he was challenging George Graham earlier this year.  Many credit that attack for turning the tide in Freeholder's contest. 

The reporter is close to the likes of Tom Walsh and John Jack Burke, who launched their own misleading attack on Senator Steve Oroho, in the form of a resolution and subsequent commentary that slyly inferred that the Senator supported a proposal put forward by Governor Chris Christie and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto.  This inference was, of course, completely false and untrue.

Meanwhile their colleague, Andover Township Mayor Dolores Blackburn, used the article to express her support for the "gas tax ONLY" proposal of far-left Senator Ray Lesniak, a Union County Democrat.  That's right, the Andover Township Council supports a 25 cents a gallon increase on the gasoline tax, phased in over three years.

Of course, Democrat Senator Lesniak's bill would ONLY raise the gas tax.  Unlike Senator Oroho's compromise legislation, or the Governor's  compromise legislation, the Democrat legislation supported by Andover Township would not eliminate the tax on retirement income, it would not cut the sales tax, it would not end the estate tax, it would not provide for an earned income tax credit, or an income tax deduction for charitable contributions, or an income tax deduction for the gasoline tax, or the elimination of property taxes for disabled veterans.

The Andover Township council supports legislation that ONLY raises the gas tax by 25 cents over three years -- WITHOUT any accompanying tax cuts!

The article correctly noted that in November 2014, the Sussex County Board of Freeholders unanimously supported a resolution to send a letter of support to an organization advocating for an increase in the gasoline tax as a way to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).  The Sussex County Freeholders even sent a copy of their letter to Senator Steve Oroho to lobby him to support the effort to fund the TTF.  Oddly enough, some of the same people who supported that resolution and asked Senator Oroho to support it too, are now attacking Oroho for essentially doing what they asked him to do. It goes to show that you just can't win in "Sex County" --  they will concoct a reason to screw you no matter what you do.

In a strange non sequitur, the article attempts to challenge this resolution by bringing up an unrelated resolution:

"Unmentioned in Oroho's statement was a subsequent resolution unanimously approved by the freeholders last year that called for an independent investigation into the money New Jersey spends on transportation projects before any new taxes are approved."

Unmentioned by the reporter who wrote this story is the fact that Senator Oroho's legislation includes such a review committee and has a much greater chance of being passed than does any similar investigatory legislation.  By leaving out such important details we can only conclude that the reporter meant to attack Steve Oroho by claiming that he was not doing what he is clearly doing -- and doing better than anyone else.

To counter the New Jersey State League of Municipalities support of a user's tax on gasoline to fund road and bridge maintenance and repair, the reporter rolled out the chair of the Sussex County League of Municipalities, Hopatcong councilman Richard Bunce.  This organization had been moribund until George Graham and others resuscitated it a few years ago.

Bunce, a long-time Oroho hater who supported Guy Gregg in the 2007 Senate race, was allowed to side-step commenting on the State organization's position so that he could engage in a full-frontal attack on Senator Oroho.  Of course, we know why.  The county affiliate is chartered by the State League of Municipalities and it was this group that was so understanding when the Sussex organization ran into some financial irregularities not long ago.  In any case, Bunce showed a mixture of contempt and ignorance when he smugly dismissed going to the July 27th meeting and then gave, as his reason for not going, the best reason for going:

 "I appreciate that Steve is on a big information blitz, and I'm not boycotting it.  But there's no reason for me to go and listen to what I already know and disagree with."

"Our senators and Assembly would do well to first cut costs and get spending under control before even a hint of new taxes is spoken of."

Didn't you read the invitation, Richard Bunce?  Finding ways to "cut costs and get spending under control" is what the July 27th meeting is all about.  And the reason it is so important now is that, without a plan to fund the TTF, the money to counties and local governments like yours is drying up, which means that very soon, property taxes are going up.

Of course, if you don't have any ideas on how to address any of this...

Did Andover Township violate ethics rules?

Today's New Jersey Herald carries a story that raises some legal and ethical questions surrounding the governing body of Andover Township.  In today's story, those members of the Andover Township Committee do a good job persuading the Herald that the resolution they passed at their June 27th meeting was aimed at a proposal by Senator Steve Oroho called S-2411. 

Senator Oroho's S-2411 phased out the Estate Tax, eliminated the tax on retirement income for over 90 percent of retirees, provided an earned income tax credit for the working poor, and provided for a charitable deduction on the state income tax.  It also raised the tax on gasoline by 23 cents -- bringing it close (37.5 cents) to its inflation adjusted level of 39 cents a gallon. 

A brief explanation:  Since 1988, New Jersey has charged drivers just 14 1/2 cents a gallon of gasoline to maintain and improve its roads and bridges. States like Pennsylvania need to charge drivers over 50 cents a gallon to maintain their roads and bridges.  Instead of adjusting its gas tax for inflation, New Jersey borrowed to repair its roads and bridges.  Because of this borrowing, the first 10 cents of any gas tax increase will be needed just to pay interest on that debt.

In today's story, members of Andover Township's governing committee try to convince the Herald that their resolution was directed at S-2411.  Explicit mention is made of Senator Oroho in the newspaper article.

In fact, S-2411 never made it to the floor for a vote.  Instead, around the time the Andover Committee convened on Monday evening, June 27th, Governor Chris Christie was meeting with Speaker Vincent Prieto to discuss the specifics of a new proposal.  According to newspaper reports and wire services, "just before midnight" the two emerged from the Governor's office with a new piece of legislation called A-12. 

Governor Christie's A-12 still raised the gas tax by 23 cents a gallon.  The Republican Governor said there was no way around it if we wanted to keep roads and bridges safe and maintained.  The Estate Tax phase out was gone, as were the other tax cuts negotiated by Senator Oroho -- with the exception of the elimination of the tax on retirement income.  Oroho had negotiated an elimination of the tax for over 90 percent of New Jersey retirees.  The Governor's plan lowered that to 80 percent.  The big change was the cut in the state sales tax to 6 percent.  A half-cent in January and another half-cent by the end of 2017.  The Governor's numbers show that whereas the gas tax increase will cost the average household $200 a year, the sales tax cut will save that household $400 a year.

A-12 wasn't introduced until after midnight on Tuesday, June 28th, when it was voted on and passed by a bi-partisan majority.  And that's the curious thing about the Andover Township resolution, it addresses something that hadn't happened yet.

The resolution doesn't appear on the agenda of the Township Committee meeting for Monday, June 27th, and yet the people we spoke to claim that it was prepared by the Township Attorney.  The resolution makes explicit reference to the "Governor's proposal to increase the gas tax by $0.23 per gallon."  But the Governor didn't have a "proposal to increase the gas tax by $0.23 per gallon" until shortly before midnight on June 27th -- well after the Andover Township Committee had adjourned and gone home.

So how did the governing committee of Andover Township pass a resolution to oppose something that had not yet happened? 

The resolution that passed the Andover Township Committee is signed but undated.  That is what they sent out to the legislators and the governing bodies of the other Sussex County municipalities.  Why isn't the resolution dated?

Is it possible that the resolution was discussed at the township meeting, but prepared and passed after the meeting?  The resolution certainly reads like something someone would have written on Tuesday, June 28th, or after.

Of course, holding a backroom meeting, without notice to the public, could be viewed as a violation of the state's Open Public Meetings Act -- also known as the Sunshine Law.  Look, it is bad enough that they didn't give the public notice that they were going to discuss such a resolution, but to actually pass it outside a public meeting would be much worse.

If this is the case, it is no wonder they were at pains to make the Herald story about Senator Steve Oroho, despite the fact that the resolution doesn't mention his name or his legislation.  That would be an effective ruse to cover up the fact that the resolution is about Governor Christie and his proposal, A-12, which the Township Committee couldn't have known about because it hadn't happened yet.