By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s proposed ethics reform package reaches beyond the state and legislative levels to county offices and local governments because the challenges of avoiding insider deals, influence peddling and other ethical lapses “come more at the local level than at the state level,” the governor said in a conference call with reporters Monday.
Gov. Corzine described how the ethics reform package seeks to impose stricter and uniform ethics and political contributions standards on New Jersey’s 566 municipalities and local political committees as part of a broader effort to restore voter confidence in the operations of all levels of government in New Jersey.
Gov. Corzine singled out Mercer County, Atlantic County and Monmouth County as having already adopted strong municipal pay-to-play and ethics reforms. With 60 of 566 New Jersey municipalities having taken up stronger guidelines, “what we are asking is for uniformity on that” across the state, he said.
Despite his package extending reforms to the local level, Gov. Corzine said he saw no broad ethical problem endemic to local government in New Jersey.
”I believe that most people who are involved in local activities, just like most people involved in state activities serving the public, do it from the proper perspective but unfortunately the minority that has operated unethically has wound up tarnishing the efficacy and reputations of broader government,” he said.
In his ethics package announced last week, Gov. Corzine extended the pay-to-play ban to cover state contractor contributions to municipal political committees. Pay-to-play is the process by which government contractors seek favorable treatment and terms by contributing to politicians and committees they control.
Contractors, including partners in professional services firms with less than 10 percent ownership interests, are barred from contributing more than $300 to municipal committees, under parts of the reform the governor proposed by executive order. If a contractor contributes more than $300 to a municipal committee “they’d be precluded from taking or winning or being awarded municipal contracts,” Gov. Corzine said.
The package includes proposed legislation to the local pay-to-play law to ban contributions by county-level contractors to municipal candidates and municipal committees in that county and also to ban contributions by municipal-level contractors to county candidates and county committees in that county.
Political contributions by county and local redevelopers and their consultants, and contributions by developers seeking development approvals, would be banned under the proposed legislation.
Gov. Corzine is also proposing the removal of an exception in local pay-to-play law for contracts awarded through a “fair and open process.” All of these changes would need to be enacted by the state Legislature.
The governor’s reform effort also restricts “wheeling” — the practice by political party committees of moving large sums of money around to each other — by almost completely barring the practice across county lines. As a result “money at the local level stays at the local level,” Gov. Corzine said.
Gov. Corzine established an executive branch task force charged with looking at local government compliance to ethics guidelines, whether amendments are needed to the Local government Ethics Law enacted in 1991 and whether oversight should be shifted from the Local Finance Board to a special entity focussed on local government ethics.
With its focus on municipal finance, budgeting and consolidation issues, a local finance board “doesn’t look anything like the state ethics commission,” said Gov. Corzine in questioning its appropriateness to oversee local government ethics issues.
The governor’s office said the New Jersey League of Municipalities and Conference of Mayors, among other local government organizations, will be asked to participate in the work of the task force.
League of Municipalities Executive Director Bill Dressel issued a statement in which he said the organization would be “thoughtfully analyzing the specifics of the governor’s proposal.”
In the conference call Gov. Corzine made direct reference to the financial crisis on Wall Street, where he said “an enormous amount of pay-to-play by lobbyists” had compromised the supervision of the financial services industry.
”I feel that there is a sense that is often the case here in New Jersey,” Gov. Corzine said, of the view among residents that large political donors are able to push back regulation of their businesses.
In an environment of high taxes, falling home prices and a stagnating economy, Gov. Corzine also pointed to a bottom line benefit for New Jersey taxpayers if his ethics package is implemented because it would prevent over-generous contracts being awarded to political contributors.
”We are not saying we have absolutely closed the door” on pay-to-play abuses, Gov. Corzine said. But based on the reaction of state opponents to pay-to-play, Mr. Corzine said he believed “we’ve closed the door very seriously.”
Asked about the timing of his ethics reform package, Gov. Corzine said, “I think there is a growing consensus that we need to take action in this area.” He said his proposals had the support of Citizens’ Campaign, a state reform organization, but “it remains to be seen whether we will have 41 and 21,” referring to majorities in the state Assembly and Senate.

