Corzine plan for mortgages needs study

   Gov. Jon Corzine’s detractors (and there seem to be a great many these days) are having a field day bashing New Jersey’s chief executive on any number of fronts.
   After drowning his ambitious financial restructuring plan in a torrent of outrage last summer, they jumped all over the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s more recent, scaled-down version of the governor’s proposed toll increases to fund transportation projects.
   That version was formally adopted last week, to howls of protest that charging motorists more to use the turnpike and Garden State Parkway, particularly in this period of high gasoline prices and economic turmoil, would drive many of them clear out of New Jersey — into neighboring states with less onerous tolls and taxes.
   Then the governor went on a couple of Sunday morning TV talk shows and dropped a proverbial bombshell — suggesting that his administration might respond to the current mortgage meltdown by buying up homes in danger of foreclosure, then renting them back to residents at affordable rates. Moreover, he contended that the state should prime the pump by investing heavily in infrastructure, building highways, schools and energy systems to create jobs and stimulate the economy.
   Ironically, state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri was on the radio that same morning warning that his department might not have enough money to cover the cost of snow removal this winter. The commissioner said he was concerned that bids from contractors who plow state highways were going to come in much higher than last year because of fuel surcharges — and there would be no room in his department’s budget to absorb the anticipated increase.
   The apparent disconnect between Mr. Kolluri’s budgetary constraints and Mr. Corzine’s grandiose spending plan was not lost on the administration’s critics. How, they asked, in a state that is already $30 billion in debt (third highest in the nation), anticipates a gap of $2 billion or more in next year’s budget and doesn’t even have enough money to pay for snow removal this winter, can the governor possibly be thinking about buying up bad mortgages and pouring more money into infrastructure projects? Admittedly, it would seem on the surface that New Jersey simply can’t afford to make the kinds of investments the governor is considering. Then again, a pretty powerful case can be made that, under the circumstances, the state can’t afford not to make these very investments.
   Consider what might happen if large chunks of New Jersey real estate end up in foreclosure. Homes will be abandoned. Pretty soon, entire neighborhoods will be blighted. Then the values of nearby properties will plummet — and whole communities will suffer the severe consequences. Consider, too, how investment in public works created jobs and stimulated economic recovery in the 1930s, a time not unlike the present in terms of financial turmoil — and how inattention to our infrastructure causes bridges to crumble, children to be educated in substandard schools and 21st-century sources of energy to remain untapped.
   We’re not suggesting that everyone jump on Mr. Corzine’s bandwagon. But we do believe that an objective evaluation of his economic stimulation package should await the release of its details, expected sometime this week. Until the governor’s overture is turned into a clearly defined plan of action, those who are so quick to find superficial or ideological fault with it are best ignored.