State trust fund needs to be replenished, they say
By Paul Koepp, Staff Writer
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.
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 that 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.”

