NJ Gov Corzine Wants to Break Law on Arts & Environment Funding

State Senator Kevin O'Toole calls the move bone-headed, as Corzine attempts to slash budgets for arts and shore protection programs below the legislated minimum. Beneficial groups are shocked by the decision.

New Jersey has often been cast as the armpit of America - and it has struggled for decades to change its image, diversifying its industries and cleaning up its beaches and bolstering its cultural offerings across its many cities. The state legislature felt that these efforts were so important that they enacted legislation to guarantee minimum government funding for arts and culture and shore protection programs. Governor Corzine plans to break those protective laws. In fact, he plans to outright ignore them. This week Corzine announced plans to cut their budgets below the minimum limits required by law. He also cut the Shore Protection Fund below the limits set by the legislature. In comments made to The Star Ledger, Peggy McGlone reported, "State treasurer David Rousseau made it clear how the administration feels about those laws. They just don't apply anymore." "We will be setting aside those laws," said Rousseau said in The Star Ledger story. "We didn't want to be bound by laws that were created that say shore protection has to be this amount. Same thing with arts. Why should they be held at a higher standard just because some Legislature in the past put a law in that says it can't go below this amount of money?" The boldness of the remarks fly in the face of the state's system of checks and balances - as the executive branch does not have the power to ignore the laws put in place by the state's legislative body. While it is unclear if the state legislature will act to contain Corzine's proposals, arts groups are outraged. "We're stunned and outraged. We expected to take a cut but we never expected the law would be violated," said Mark Packer, president of ArtPride/NJ, an arts advocacy organization, The Star Ledger reported. The arts and culture funding is made available from hotel and motel occupancy fees - the result of a 2003 legislation. These fees yielded nearly $82 million for the state in 2008 and an additional $41 million for local towns. The Shore Protection Fund is supported by realty taxes. Both tax programs have triggers that if the funding falls below the minimum threshold, the taxes and fees disappear. State Republican Senator Kevin O'Toole thinks it is strange that the administration would choose to lose a tax that The Star Ledger reports has generated hundreds of millions of dollars since 2003 in order to save a couple million dollars next year. "It's a bone-headed move. It just doesn't make any sense, just like removing the property tax deduction. A lot of things in the budget don't add up," said O'Toole. "They have to follow the laws of New Jersey."