GREEN PARTY – 11th District
Lynn Surgalla
Hometown: Monmouth Beach
Age: 51
Occupation: Scientist
Biography: A former president and founder of Integrity Research Corp., where she directed research in electromagnetic medicine and nonconventional energy production. Member of the Health Instruments Devices Institute, a New York State Center for Advance Technology. Lectured and published on such topics as bioelectromagnetics, energy medicine, alternative energy technologies and electromagnetic pollution, hygiene, vegetarianism and esoteric healing techniques.
Q. What do you propose doing to bring about property tax relief?
A. Reduce dependency on property taxes through progressive tax reform. Those who can pay more should do so. Oppose public money being spent on corporate welfare instead of public welfare. No taxpayers’ bailout of failing industries. Recently, the Asbury Park Press reported that over $800 million of our state tax money was given to Lockheed-Martin Corp. in exchange for a promise of 65 jobs for New Jersey. This is not only an outrage, it is a criminal misappropriation of our funds. Almost a billion of our tax money pocketed by corporate con-artists — dollars that could have been spent on schools and health care and infrastructure. Who was responsible for this giveaway?
Q. What can be done to make housing more affordable?
A. The existing COAH rules are not currently being enforced. In essence, our current laws are being broken, and this must stop. These rules state that towns must follow a quota to build affordable housing for low-and moderate-income families. This is not happening in Monmouth County. Developers who break our state regulations should be severely fined and have their licenses revoked.
Q. What ethics reforms for the Legislature, if any, do you support?
A. Election Reform is urgently necessary. We must remove all private and corporate money from elections. Currently, whoever has the most money can buy the political office. The corporate-sponsored candidates spend up to a half-million dollars each to procure New Jersey State Assembly and Senate seats. As exemplified by the aforementioned Lockheed-Martin debacle, they are obviously beholden to whoever gave them their "campaign contributions" (glorified bribes).