EDISON – New Jersey residents voted to borrow $200 million for open space and farmland preservation programs this Election Day.
While the initiative’s success was widely hailed by conservation groups across the state, the cash injection was viewed as a stopgap measure to keep the Garden State Preservation Trust (GSPT) financially solvent for one more year. The program, which mostly aids property purchases in the interests of maintaining open space and historic preservation, was set to expire at the start of 2008. In late spring, legislation was proposed that would have renewed the program by annually appropriating $98 million in sales tax revenue. The first 10 years would have been devoted to financing programs, and the following 20 years to paying off incurred debts.
This effort, however, was blocked by Gov. Jon Corzine, who, while saying he was supportive of open space initiatives, was loath to add to the state’s already large debt load. Quick maneuvering by legislators squeezed a $30 million concession from the governor, though supporters saw this sum as unsatisfactory. Further discussions yielded the one-time $200 million appropriation that voters approved on Tuesday.
“This is a great victory for open space and the people of New Jersey,” said Jeff Tittel, director for the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Today, public interest triumphed over well-funded out-of-state special interests. With more open space protecting our precious water and parks for our children, this is not just a victory for today but for future generations.”
The purpose of the $200 million bond is to buy time for conservation groups, legislators and the governor to figure out a stable source of open space funding that will not add to the state’s debt. Corzine had hinted in the past that he would like to see the GSPT’s funding linked to revenues generated from asset monetization, which would hand over some aspects of public assets to private hands. Some Republican leaders likened this notion, considered generally unpopular, to political blackmail. Still, legislators have agreed to at least hear out his plan once the details are unveiled.
In the meantime, conservation groups, many of which had banded together as the Keep It Green coalition, are urging the government to begin planning out the details of how the GSPT can remain solvent into the future.
“With the skirmish for stopgap funding won, the greater battle for longer-term funding returns. We look forward to working with the Legislature and governor to fulfill his commitment to winning that battle in lame duck [legislative session],” said David Pringle, of the New Jersey Environmental Federation.
Not everyone was happy with the results of the vote. Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, executive director of the New Jersey branch of the fiscally conservative group Americans for Prosperity, said that political machines helped approve the referendum.
“Well, I think it just demonstrated that in the urban areas of Hudson and Camden counties where they won this, it was won by political machines. That ballot initiative lost in Hunterdon, Warren, Sussex and Cumberland counties, which are farming communities, where you’d think it would win, but it lost. But the pro side did a little more work, and I didn’t have enough resources to do as much as I wanted on that ballot question,” Lonegan said.