Thursday, April 30, 2009

Oroho: Governor Corzine, Where Are the Revenue Numbers?

In light of disturbing news reports, Senator Steve Oroho, a Republican on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, is asking Governor Corzine to immediately release the latest figures on revenue collections.

“Yesterday, a financial news service reported that the state took the extraordinary step of delaying a $364 million transportation bond sale without providing any explanation of why. Another news report today quotes an administration official as saying the governor is about to ‘drop another budget bombshell.’

“If the governor has information that indicates the state’s economy is even worse than forecast, then he should share it with Legislature immediately and not let the news dribble out through leaks. It is highly irresponsible to force legislators to make budget decisions without the figures needed to come up with an honest budget document.

“The economy is in such turmoil that revenue figures from just last week are already out of date and inaccurate,” Oroho said. “It’s cynical politics to let legislators and the public debate the spending of revenue that the state may never collect.

“I call on Governor Corzine to show he believes in honest and open government by providing weekly updates of revenue figures to the public and legislators from now until the budget is passed in June. Democracy will be ill served by anything else.”

No comments: