County gains voice in
Buono
By ERICA HARBATKIN,
thnt.com Online, January 13, 2008
When state Sen. Barbara Buono was
named chair of the Senate's Budget and Appropriations Committee, Middlesex
County residents gained a representative voice in one of the most powerful
positions in the state.
The Middlesex County Democrat was chosen over Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Bergen, who
also lost out on the coveted majority leader position late last year.
The Budget and Appropriations Committee controls the purse strings of the state
budget and is therefore considered one of the power committees in government.
With the appointment, Buono gains significant power over the state budget, but
she's also taking over during dire fiscal straits. New Jersey's $32
billion debt makes it the fourth most indebted state in the nation.
"We need to shake things up and the governor has done that by starting with a
plan to begin to dig ourselves out of this crushing debt and to completely
reverse our spending habits," Buono said, referring to the debt restructuring
proposal Gov. Jon S. Corzine introduced in his State of the State address
earlier this week.
The proposal, which would increase highway tolls by 50 percent every four years
through 2022, was met with steep concerns from local commuters who aren't
looking forward to a nearly five-fold increase in their tolls. The
governor's proposal also includes freezing state spending next year, a difficult
task when the new school funding formula calls for a $532.8 million increase in
state aid for schools.
"We have a budget to balance and spending to curb," said Sen. Joe Vitale,
D-Middlesex, who is a member of the Budget and Appropriations Committee.
"But we also require additional spending in a lot of areas — education, health
care, child protection services. We'll have to identify the answers for
funding important mandates and requirements, so that will be the challenge in
addition to what the governor has laid out."
Vitale, who is deputy majority leader along with Sarlo, said he's excited about
Buono's appointment.
"She's always shown leadership and this is just a great opportunity for all of
us in the state to benefit from her experience and her knowledge," Vitale said.
"She's an excellent choice."
Buono is in the process of planning individual meetings with each member of the
Budget and Appropriations Committee in an effort to gain more perspective on the
state's fiscal crisis potential solutions.
"I've always been a consensus-builder and I see my role as trying to forge
consensus among the members on the committee and to work together and come up
with a workable, realistic spending plan," she said.
"It really is not a Democratic or Republican issue, and we need to collaborate
in a bipartisan way to change the rules of the game," Buono said, referring to
the massive state debt. "It really will be a culture change. We're
not going to be spending money we don't have."
Buono has been a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee since
2002, when she first joined the Senate. Before that, she served in the
state Assembly from 1994 through 2001. She also served on the Assembly's
Budget Committee.
The state budget crisis began to reach fever pitch during her time in the
Assembly, she said, when the then-treasurer did not come before the Budget
Committee as usual.
"The administration grossly inflated revenue projections and it really set the
stage for today," Buono said. "The state budget has morphed from a ticking
time bomb to a full-blown explosion."
Buono's appointment to committee chair comes on the heels of a 2007 election
during which more women were elected to the state Legislature than ever before.
As a woman, Buono said she can bring a needed new perspective to Senate
leadership.
"I'd like to see more of a departure from the way things have been done in the
past," Buono said. "Rather than secret little meetings, I'm calling every
member on the budget committee, and I intend to sit down with them, because it's
not important just what I think — it's important what everybody thinks.
"I think women definitely have a different approach to solving problems — it's a
lot more talking it out and collaborating — and we have an opportunity to do
that now."
Buono, 54, replaces Bernard Kenny, who didn't seek reelection in 2007.
Kenny had replaced Wayne Bryant, who was indicted on federal corruption charges.
Erica Harbatkin: (732) 565-7256;
eharbatkin@thnt.com
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