Ebeneezer Corzine

We hate to interrupt your Christmas cheer, but Jon Corzine, who stated that he didn't come into office to be a number cruncher or a Scrooge, is proving that he is both.

Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce announced today the the governor has just released his 106-page “School Funding Reform Act of 2008” and sent it to every member of the State Senate and Assembly via overnight delivery for their Christmas reading.

A public hearing is scheduled with the Assembly Budget and Education committees on Wednesday December 27. The Act is to be voted on by the lame duck session on January 7.

Minority Leader DeCroce said:

“The stage is being set, and it’s not for a Christmas pageant. Corzine and his allies in the Legislature fully intend to ramrod a thoroughly complicated and convoluted school funding formula through the Assembly and Senate on January 7th, the final day of the session, and they’re moving faster than the Polar Express down an icy slope,” said DeCroce, R-Morris and Passaic.

“If they wanted to travel the path of least resistance, they couldn’t have planned it any better,” DeCroce said. “Taxpayers and the parents of school-aged children are busy preparing for Christmas and enjoying the holiday season. Many stakeholders in this process – from teachers to school administrators – have already made travel arrangements for the holiday break. They won’t be around to read or comment on Corzine’s school funding formula, and that’s exactly what the administration wants. The fewer questions, the better as far as they’re concerned.”

In the Lobby reports that Tom Dunn, a lobbyist for the state superintendents association said, "They're like a used car salesman. They want to sell it to you at night. They figure they'll pass it between Christmas and New Year's so no one will see the dings and scratches in the formula."

There is no reason to rush this important program through the lame duck session, other than the fact that Corzine wants to force the new legislature to approve his asset monetization scam on the new legislature despite the fact that 60% of New Jersey residents oppose it.

This governor is dangerous and dishonest. The legislators of both parties should put him in his place and not even show up in Corzinegrad, the city formerly known as Trenton, until January 8th.