Buono targets
government waste
By RICK MALWITZ, thnt
Online, February 25, 2008
Gov. Jon Corzine and the state
Legislature face a daunting challenge at a time when the economy is weak and
residents' confidence in state government is eroding, said state Sen. Barbara
Buono, chairman of the powerful Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.
"People don't trust us to spend their money," Buono said at a meeting with
editors of the Home News Tribune and the Courier News. "We have to begin
to rebuild the public's trust."
Corzine will introduce a budget Tuesday for the fiscal year that begins July 1,
and Buono's committee will vet that budget in detail.
Buono will be one of the keenest observers as the governor grapples with $32
billion in state debt, a deficit of $3 billion, and taxpayers who find it
increasingly difficult to make ends meet.
Buono, a Metuchen resident who has represented the 18th Legislative District in
Middlesex County since 1994, made it clear Friday in her meeting with editors
that she will be a vigorous watchdog over the operation of departments within
the executive branch.
Buono, a Democrat, recalled that when she joined the Legislature the Republicans
were in power, and when she questioned spending in departments, she was brushed
off. She assumed it was because she was a member of the minority party.
Now that the Democrats are the majority party, "It's the same. I still get
stonewalled," she said.
In her role as head of the budget committee, she has asked 110 departments and
agencies to provide her with information about the contracts they have with
vendors, part of her effort to implement recommendations made in 1995 by State
Auditor Richard L. Fair.
When Fair completed a similar audit last year, his recommendations mirrored
those he had made 12 years ago.
"We never followed up (on the 1995 recommendations). We have the same
problems today," Buono said.
As one example of a practice that fritters away public money, she explained that
corrections officers have shifts that overlap by 15 minutes so that the officer
going off duty can brief officers coming on. That's an institutionalized
15 minutes of overtime for the officer finishing his shift, she said.
Buono said that practice had been reviewed and eliminated under a previous
administration, but that it somehow returned since Corzine took office.
She said she was unaware when the practice was halted, or why it recently
resumed, and information about the changes has not been forthcoming.
While corrections officers' overtime is a relatively small amount, she said, it
is an example of unnecessary spending that in the aggregate come to significant
amounts.
Buono surmised, "There are hundreds of millions wasted throughout state
government."
Buono also said that she disapproved of the practice of providing pension
benefits to part-time public employees.
While a change in the law wouldn't result in any immediate savings, because it
could be applied only to employees hired thereafter, Buono pointed out:
"If we had done this 11 years ago, we would be saving money now."
Buono said her awareness of the state's fragile economy is reinforced by the
increased volume of calls and e-mails to her office, asking that she do
something about extending unemployment benefits.
"There is real anxiety out there," she said, while discussing her rejection of
the governor's proposal to pay down part of the state's debt by raising tolls on
the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway by 800 percent through the year
2022.
"Those tolls will be taking bites out of paychecks. I don't think we
should ask that of people now," she said.
And Buono said that the economic prospects for state government have been
complicated even further by failures in the auction bond market — another
fallout from the sub-prime lending crisis.
When there are too few bidders on bonds whose interest rates are set via
auctions, the rates soar.
These bonds account for about $3.8 billion of the state's $38 billion debt, and
are typically used to finance state and municipal projects.
Nancy Feldman, the director of the Office of Public Finance, told Bloomberg News
unsuccessful auctions cost the state $2 million last week.
In a letter addressed Thursday to acting State Treasurer David Rousseau, Buono
referred to the bond market as falling in "a tailspin."
"Unquestionably, the collapse of the auction-rate bond market could have serious
long-term consequences for our state," she wrote.
In the letter Buono asked Rousseau to provide a summary and inventory of all
outstanding auction-rate debt currently held by all state departments, agencies
and authorities.
"I would also like to know what strategic plan you and Governor Corzine have for
addressing the additional financial burdens that have been placed upon the state
and local governments," she added.
She noted that California responded to the crisis by converting $1.25 billion in
auction-rate bonds into traditional debt.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced last week that it would
convert $200 million next month, after interest rates on bonds rose to 20
percent.
"We expect to be out of the auction-rate market business in six to eight weeks,"
said Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman.
Buono's appointment as chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations
Committee, has come at a time when the state government faces some of its most
challenging issues, and Buono, whose role in the Legislature is her only job, is
up for the challenge.
"I have the time, I have the determination and the tenacity to do what I need to
do," she said, following her appointment.
Buono's meeting with editors Friday is part of an ongoing series of community
conversations the Home News Tribune and Courier News are hosting with state
legislators and community members. To take part in this ongoing
conversation, comment online at
www.thnt.com or www.c-n.com,
and look for details in upcoming weeks for a community forum planned for April.
If you would like to participate in the April forum, e-mail
pgrzella@gannett.com .
Contributing: The Associated Press.
Rick Malwitz: (732) 565-7291
Rmalwitz@thnt.com
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