ELECTION 2007: Legislative hopefuls support open space vote

Say preservation of land is important for future of the region.

By: Paul Koepp
   All six major party candidates in the 14th District said this week that they support a ballot initiative that would allow the state to borrow money for the Garden State Preservation Trust.
   However, they also said the bond issue would be a stopgap measure, and permanent funding sources should be developed to keep open space programs operating in the long term.
   If voters approve the $200 million bond referendum, it would provide funding from July 2009 through June 2010 for four open space programs: $109 million for Green Acres, $73 million for farmland preservation, $6 million for historic preservation, and $12 million for a new Blue Acres program to protect waterways.
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Candidates qualify for financing

   Clean elections may be here to stay, as 15 of the 20 candidates participating in the state’s experiment in public financing for campaigns — including all local Republican and Democratic legislative candidates — have passed the initial test of receiving at least 400 $10 donations.

   A minimum of nine of the candidates had to reach the mark to make the program a "success," ensuring it will be continued in future elections. All six of the major party candidates in the 14th District — which includes South Brunswick, Monroe, Jamesburg, and Cranbury — qualified with plenty of time to spare before the Sept. 30 deadline.

   Three of the state’s 40 legislative districts are taking part in the program, including the Republican-controlled 24th District (Sussex, Hunterdon and Morris counties) and the 37th District (Bergen County), controlled by Democrats. In the 14th, which straddles Middlesex and Mercer counties and is the only district in the program considered competitive, candidates can receive $46,000 in public funds for collecting 400 contributions and up to $526,375 for collecting 800.

   In reports filed July 5, all three Republican candidates in the 14th District reported contributions in excess of their top goal of 800. Senate candidate Assemblyman Bill Baroni, of Hamilton, had 807 contributions, and Assembly candidates Adam Bushman, of Jamesburg, and Hamilton Councilman Tom Goodwin had 821 and 832 respectively.

   In a July 11 filing, Democratic Senate candidate Seema Singh, of South Brunswick, reported 925 contributions. Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, of Plainsboro, who is seeking re-election, reported 877 on July 18, and her running mate, Wayne DeAngelo, of Hamilton, reported 798 on Aug. 15.

   The two Libertarian Party candidates in the 14th District, Jason Scheurer and Ray Cragle, fell short of qualifying as of an Aug. 14 filing with 144 and four contributions respectively.

   The only other candidates who have not reached the 400-contribution mark were the three Republicans in the 37th District — Senate candidate Clara Nibot and Assembly candidates Frank Cifarelli and Wojciech Siemaszkiewicz. The candidates still have until Sept. 30 to qualify, but they had to do so by Aug. 17 to have the slogan "clean elections candidate" next to their names on the ballot.

   The Democrats who qualified in the 37th District are state Sen. Loretta Weinberg and Assembly candidates Gordon Johnson and Valerie Vainieri Huttle.

   In the 24th District, Republicans Steven Oroho, who is running for re-election to the Senate, and Assembly candidates Alison Littell McHose and Gary Chiusano and Democrats Edwin Selby, running for Senate, and Assembly candidates Patrick Walsh and Toni Zimmer have qualified.

   Seema Singh, a Democratic Senate candidate from South Brunswick, said she supports the ballot question "unequivocally" and that "open-space preservation is a necessity, not an option."
   "We are in a fierce battle to preserve wetlands, open space and crucial habitat before they are gone forever," she said.
   Ms. Singh added that, if elected, she would work to "establish a permanent dedicated fund to preserve open space in the future and to keep clean our drinking water, rivers, streams and beaches for future generations."
   Her opponent, Assemblyman Bill Baroni, of Hamilton, said "the quality of life includes the preservation of open space."
   "You don’t want everything you look at to be a warehouse, a housing development or another building," he said. "We need to have a balance of smart, carefully planned growth and open space. Once open space goes away, you never get it back."
   Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, who co-sponsored a bill that would have provided up to $175 million per year over 10 years for open space programs, said that although she would like to see permanent funding in place, the short-term bond issue was better than nothing.
   "Finding a funding source is a major problem," the Plainsboro Democrat said. "We have a tremendous amount of state debt."
   Ms. Greenstein said that, while some people have proposed funding open space programs from the recent 1-cent state sales tax hike, that money has already been committed to property tax relief.
   While the Legislature may not be able to pay for the preservation programs out of its regular budget, she said, the state should continue its work with local open space funds because "many towns in the 14th District have benefited tremendously" from them.
   Her Assembly running mate, Wayne DeAngelo, of Hamilton, said that, while the ballot initiative would be a short-term fix, "there isn’t one bullet answer to finding a long-term solution to funding open space preservation."
   He said the state should require developers to pay a "fair share" into local open space funds, and that the state should also focus on redevelopment programs "so untouched lands are not built out," and on educating local officials on zoning methods to protect undeveloped lands.
   Mr. DeAngelo pointed to the redevelopment of the contaminated American Standard toilet factory in Hamilton as an example of the public and private sectors working together to preserve open space.
   "With tax abatements, we can deter companies from going into another area where they would have to knock down trees," he said.
   Republican Assembly candidate Adam Bushman, of Jamesburg, said he supports open space funding because in rapidly developing areas, "elected officials get caught in a ratable chase to maintain the tax rate."
   "If that was the solution, we wouldn’t be paying anything in property taxes," he said, adding that more development means more infrastructure costs.
   "A tree doesn’t use sewer service, water service or police services, and it doesn’t go to school or drive a car.
   "New Jersey is known as the Garden State," Mr. Bushman said. "I don’t want my state to be known as the warehouse state or the strip mall state."
   His running mate, Hamilton Councilman Tom Goodwin, said he would support the open space funding referendum as long as the money comes from the revenue from the sales tax increase.
   He said that open space should only be purchased at a "reasonable price."
   "You’ve got to be concerned about the (state) debt," Mr. Goodwin said. "I’m a conservative. If you’re spending money, you have to tell me why and how you’re going to pay for it."