Details of Bryant projects released

[SAdams]

Enjoyed reading this line:

"Shortly before the documents were released, Codey said they should be made public.

I think the public will see, as they scrutinize these lists, that this money helped support many good causes," he said in a statement."

It's a shame Codey didn't think these lists and this "Mac" fund should be made public BEFORE the People found out about it. And NOW he makes a statement? But then again, "E-mails show that Codey had a key say in how much money some programs received." Like that power don't you Codey?

And good causes? Yea, good causes for Bryant and his family.

"Most of the $4 million that Bryant controlled from a now-defunct grant program that had little meaningful oversight went to South Jersey causes, including at least $1 million to Lawnside, where his brother was mayor and the former state senator resides."

"The papers show that Treasury officials knew of the familial connections for at least one of Bryant's grants. One form includes a notation "Wayne's brother" by a $200,000 award to Camcare Health Corp., where his brother, Mark, is president."


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Details of Bryant projects released
N.J. Treasury opens records of the former senator's influence. Other politicians also had control of money.

By Jonathan Tamari

Inquirer Trenton Bureau
Former Camden County Sen. Wayne Bryant, now on trial on allegations that he traded his influence over the state budget in exchange for a pension-boosting, low-show job at a medical school, steered taxpayer money to a wide range of causes in South and North Jersey, Treasury documents released late yesterday show.

Some unelected staffers for other officials also appear to have had influence over the grant money, the documents show.

Most of the $4 million that Bryant controlled from a now-defunct grant program that had little meaningful oversight went to South Jersey causes, including at least $1 million to Lawnside, where his brother was mayor and the former state senator resides.

The pool includes $200,000 that he sent to the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, where Bryant allegedly held a job with few responsibilities. The award is a focal point of his corruption trial.

But according to the most detailed information yet released on what politicians referred to as the "MAC account," which lawmakers used to steer money to selected projects, Bryant also directed money to the districts of fellow Democrats on the Senate budget panel, which he chaired. The awards include $75,000 for sidewalks and a school in Wood-Ridge, where Sen. Paul Sarlo (D., Bergen), is mayor, and $100,000 for a women's group in Metuchen, hometown of the current budget chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Buono (D., Middlesex).

The documents were released late yesterday in response to a Republican Open Public Records Act request.

The papers show that Treasury officials knew of the familial connections for at least one of Bryant's grants. One form includes a notation "Wayne's brother" by a $200,000 award to Camcare Health Corp., where his brother, Mark, is president.

Bryant's attorneys have argued that he was doing his job as a senator to bring "pork" home to his district.

"You may not like it," Bryant attorney Carl Poplar said in his opening statement. "But it doesn't make it a crime."

The awards came 2004 through 2006 from a $128 million fund.

While all of the grants have previously been made public, there has never been an accounting of who was behind them.

The documents indicate that the program was open to some unelected staffers who worked for Senate President Richard J. Codey (D., Essex), who was also governor in late 2004 and 2005. Among them:

"Cammerano" - an apparent reference to Peter Cammarano, Codey's former chief-of-staff, is listed next to a $50,000 grant for "recreational improvements" in Metuchen, his hometown. Then-Treasurer John McCormac's name is listed by a $150,000 grant for a women's program. Codey controlled $12 million of the fund.

E-mails show that Codey had a key say in how much money some programs received.

One note from David Rousseau, the current treasurer and then a deputy in the department, read: "Felician College - they sent me a letter requesting $200k; you told me $150k the other day."

Democrats backed Republican causes to provide political cover for the program, which mostly steered money to Democratic districts, another e-mail indicates.

"We have had cover on the last few lists because we have had republican projects - I have none on the next list," Rousseau wrote. He listed several GOP lawmakers Codey might consider to give awards in their districts.

While three key senators, Codey, Bryant and then-Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny (D., Hudson), controlled the funds in the upper house, the documents do not show a similar division in the Assembly. Most of the grants tied to Assembly lawmakers do not have names attached.

Shortly before the documents were released, Codey said they should be made public.

"I think the public will see, as they scrutinize these lists, that this money helped support many good causes," he said in a statement.

[oldhardhead]

MAKING NJ MORE ELECTABLE... oops, I mean affordable.
Incumbent Democrats and your tax money

MAC Account

Newly released documents detailing a controversial and now-defunct $128 million New Jersey state grants fund show a pattern of unchecked spending.

They show Democratic lawmakers directing large pots of money, funds apparently were approved before organizations formally applied for money and dozens of grants went unclaimed because the preapproved recipients never applied for their money.

The state Treasurer's Office released hundreds of pages of documents related to the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development Grants program late Friday, to comply with an Open Public Records Act request by Republican Sen. Tom Kean Jr. and Assembly Leader Alex DeCroce. Republicans said it was their fourth request for documents, and they threatened to sue if the state did not comply.

The program, which Republicans refer to as a slush fund for the majority party, operated in 2004 and 2005 before newly elected Gov. Jon S. Corzine froze the fund with $26 million remaining in 2006, after a Republican sued. Corzine later shut the fund down permanently after an internal review.

After a Republican sued, and only after they had the chance to hand out most of it, THEN Corzine shut down the fund...

Documents show how NJ grants program worked -- Newsday.com

NORCROSS GRANTS

The document was simply titled, "Norcross Grants."

Among the grants listed was money for the Lawrenceville Scholarship Program. The notation said "$100k grant approved, application will be sent out shortly."

There was a formal application process for the millions of state dollars once doled out by the leadership of the New Jersey Legislature to favored projects, towns and groups with need, but confidential documents released Friday tell the real story. It took a call to someone with pull to get money, and the decisions over where those public funds went were made before any applications were even filled out.

George Norcross, for example, was never a member of the state Legislature. The Camden County Democratic power broker held no elective office. But he remained the de facto voice of the South Jersey legislative delegation and he secured $305,000 in grants in 2005.

Your grant is approved, now we will send you an application to give us a paper trail to cover out a**, is what it looks like to me.

How groups got funding at the whim of Trenton - Breaking News From New Jersey - NJ.com

[oldhardhead]

Corzine said this week that his lawyers found problems with the way money was distributed, but uncovered nothing criminal. He said his lawyers were concerned over whether the legislative and executive branches had retained their separation of powers, as required by the Constitution.

THIS WEEK??? It's October 2008. Where was he in 2004 and 2005 before the Republicans sued?

HIS lawyers? Oh, THAT gives ya the warm and fuzzy doesn't it?

Newsday.com

Documents show how NJ grants program worked

By ANGELA DELLI SANTI
Associated Press Writer
October 17, 2008
TRENTON, N.J
Newly released documents detailing a controversial and now-defunct $128 million New Jersey state grants fund show a pattern of unchecked spending.

They show Democratic lawmakers directing large pots of money, funds apparently were approved before organizations formally applied for money and dozens of grants went unclaimed because the preapproved recipients never applied for their money.

The state Treasurer's Office released hundreds of pages of documents related to the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development Grants program late Friday, to comply with an Open Public Records Act request by Republican Sen. Tom Kean Jr. and Assembly Leader Alex DeCroce. Republicans said it was their fourth request for documents, and they threatened to sue if the state did not comply.

The program, which Republicans refer to as a slush fund for the majority party, operated in 2004 and 2005 before newly elected Gov. Jon S. Corzine froze the fund with $26 million remaining in 2006, after a Republican sued. Corzine later shut the fund down permanently after an internal review.

Corzine said this week that his lawyers found problems with the way money was distributed, but uncovered nothing criminal. He said his lawyers were concerned over whether the legislative and executive branches had retained their separation of powers, as required by the Constitution.

New questions about who controlled the fund and how the money was distributed arose during the ongoing political corruption trial of former state Sen. Wayne Bryant, who chaired the powerful Senate Budget Committee in the years these grants were allocated. Rousseau testified that Bryant and then-Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny each directed $4 million, while Senate President Richard Codey directed $12 million.

Bryant is accused of steering millions in grants to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in exchange for a low-show job that padded his pension. Bryant has denied wrongdoing.

Republican lawyer Mark Sheridan said the grants program was fundamentally flawed. He said it's up to the legislative branch to appropriate the funds, while the executive branch administers the money according to the Legislature's instructions. Violations of the Constitution are not criminal, however.

Lawmakers even had a nickname for the fund: MAC account, a play on ATM cash machines.

Codey, who doubled as governor in 2005, said Friday he would not block release of the grant program documents by invoking executive privilege. He said this week the state grants-making process has since been revised and is now among the most transparent in the country.

The documents released Friday include a list of grantees grouped by the senator who proposed them and memos discussing grant allocations, including some between Codey and then-Deputy State Treasurer David Rousseau. Also included was a list of grants that would not reach their intended recipient because no application was ever filed.

A 2005 letter from Rep. Donald Payne to Codey seeks $275,000 in grants to four organizations, three of which Payne said he was on the board of and one where he was an adviser. All the programs served urban youth in Essex County, the 10th District congressman said.

An e-mail from Rousseau to Adrienne Sneed Byers, Payne's district director, instructs the congressman to pare his suggested grantees to $200,000. Rousseau notes that the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark and Vicinity, one of the suggested recipients, was already in line for a $50,000 grant "from one of the Assembly members in Essex County," and Payne cut it from his list.

On a $100,000 Lawrenceville Scholarship program grant, a notation shows "grant approved, application will be sent out shortly."

A listing of grantees from Codey's $12 million share shows various senators and assembly members associated with portions of those funds, though some are listed only by their first name, "Pete," or by first name and last initial, "Joe F." The names of members of Codey's staff appear alongside other grants, though any link between the staffer and the grant is unclear.

The documents show the Assembly also gave out grants, with one 10-page listing of $70.5 million in allocations divided up into "Senate" and "Assembly" grants. Another list shows $20 million in grants controlled by the Assembly.

The documents show checks continued to be written through March 2006, when Corzine froze the fund. That left 350 community organizations without grant money they had been promised.

-----------------------------

How groups got funding at the whim of Trenton
by Ted Sherman and Robert Schwaneberg/The Star-Ledger
Sunday October 19, 2008, 8:24 AM
The document was simply titled, "Norcross Grants."

Among the grants listed was money for the Lawrenceville Scholarship Program. The notation said "$100k grant approved, application will be sent out shortly."

There was a formal application process for the millions of state dollars once doled out by the leadership of the New Jersey Legislature to favored projects, towns and groups with need, but confidential documents released Friday tell the real story. It took a call to someone with pull to get money, and the decisions over where those public funds went were made before any applications were even filled out.

George Norcross, for example, was never a member of the state Legislature. The Camden County Democratic power broker held no elective office. But he remained the de facto voice of the South Jersey legislative delegation and he secured $305,000 in grants in 2005. They ranged from $100,000 for the scholarship fund for disadvantaged students at the Lawrenceville School to $20,000 for the Lupus Foundation.

Norcross, in a statement issued through his lawyer, William Tambussi, said he had recommended the grants at the invitation of Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) in late November 2004. At the time, Codey also was acting governor following James E. McGreevey's resignation and was considering a run for a full term. Codey and Norcross have long been political rivals.

"Acting Governor Richard Codey called me to tell me that he had authority over a substantial amount of discretionary funds and that I could recommend $500,000 of funding to worthy causes," Norcross said. "I was delighted to recommend several deserving causes."

Codey could not be reached for comment yesterday, but his spokeswoman, Jennifer Sciortino, said Codey remembers events differently.

"Senator Codey only recollects one conversation he had with George Norcross, and it was about a grant to a school for a scholarship program for economically disadvantaged students," Sciortino said. "He doesn't recall any other particular requests for grants. However, he did look over the list of grants that Norcross received and they appear to be for worthy causes."

Others far from Trenton, notably Rep. Donald Payne (D-10th Dist.), also got a piece of the pie. A series of e-mails from the district director for the congressman from Essex County to state Treasury officials pressed for a list of causes Payne wanted funded. The congressman was eventually asked to whittle his list down to $200,000, and did.

The documents were released late Friday in response to demands by Republican lawmakers to open the books on the secret deals behind $100 million in discretionary legislative grants paid out during the 2005 and 2006 budget years.

While the money by and large went to worthwhile groups and needed projects, the way it was distributed showed the funding was part of the political grease used to secure votes or support from Democrats, select Republicans, and those who might help them all get re-elected.

Sen. John Adler (D-Camden) unsuccessfully sought a $110,000 grant for the Silver Care Center, a nursing home and rehabilitation center in Cherry Hill, copies of e-mails show. The president of the Silver Care Center, Marc Silver, contributed $7,800 to Adler between 1998 and 2007, according to records maintained by the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Silver Care's grant application was withdrawn at Adler's request, according to Jim Manion, a spokesman for the Senate Majority Office.

"When he found out it was a for-profit entity, he agreed it should be canceled," Manion said.

Before that happened, however, bureaucrats in the Treasury Department explored an alternative. One wrote in an e-mail July 7, 2005: "Do we direct funds to a nonprofit who can then contract with Silvercare to achieve the intent of this grant which per the data sheet is to acquire 7 new ventilator beds for Silvercare, or do we lapse the funds?"

Adler is in a too-tight-to-call race for the House seat being given up by Rep. Jim Saxton (R-3rd Dist.). The Republican candidate, Medford Mayor Chris Myers, said, "The documents released last night prove that Trenton politician John Adler tried to improperly direct $110,000 in taxpayer money from his Trenton slush fund to a campaign contributor's for-profit company."

Adler's campaign manager, Mark Warren, said: "This latest attack is just another desperate attempt by Myers to distract the voters from the choice they face on November 4th the choice between continuing George Bush's failed economic policies with Chris Myers or turning our country in a new direction with John Adler."

Republican lawmakers yesterday said the documents spell out in black and white what they had long suspected: There were clear fingerprints showing who sent what money where. And they dismissed Democrats' defenses -- that both parties had participated in the "Christmas tree" process, that the money went to worthy causes, that the system has since been reformed -- as "an unbelievable spin job," in the words of Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex).

"It was never the 'causes' that we questioned," said Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Morris). "It was the process. It's not about who got the money, but how they got the money and why. ... The entire sorry spectacle stinks."

Democratic Party state chairman and Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union) said Republicans were being hypocritical, having engaged in similar practices when they held power.

"The Republicans played Santa more often than the Salvation Army," Cryan said. He added that the Democrats' grants went overwhelmingly for "good programs, property tax relief, infrastructure, things everyday New Jerseyans use."

MAJORITY'S DISCRETION

Details about the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development Grant Program, as it was formally known, began emerging earlier this month during the ongoing federal corruption trial of former senator Wayne Bryant (D-Camden), who is accused of steering grants to the state medical school in return for a job that required little work and boosted his pension. Bryant insists he is not guilty.

During the 2005 and 2006 budget years, the program had $128 million available and paid out $100 million before it was frozen. State Treasurer David Rousseau testified earlier this month that of the $40 million in grants for the 2006 budget, Codey controlled $12 million, Bryant controlled $4 million and then-Majority Leader Bernard Kenny (D-Hudson) controlled $4 million. He said unnamed Assembly members controlled the $20 million balance.

With the program's constitutionality facing a court challenge, Gov. Jon Corzine shut it down in early 2006. Codey later instituted a system he calls "one of the most open and transparent in the country." It requires lawmakers requesting grants to sign their names, which are posted on a state website.

Legislatively directed spending, known as "the Christmas tree," has long been a kind of spoils system for the party in power. In 2001, when Republicans controlled the Statehouse, they refused to share any of the $149 million in baubles hung on that year's Christmas tree, drawing protests from Democrats.

"I learned about this Christmas tree, but I never knew it was only lit on one side," said Assemblyman Albio Sires (D-Hudson), who also was mayor of West New York in 2001 and is now a congressman. The new documents show West New York benefited once Sires became Assembly speaker, getting $7 million over two years. Unlike the Senate documents, the Assembly's do not reveal which lawmaker requested specific grants.

[Pineygirl]

Corzine said this week that his lawyers found problems with the way money was distributed, but uncovered nothing criminal.

Oh, well, then.
As long as it isn't CRIMINAL it's OK.
That's exactly the same talking points Scavelli made about the $800,000 misappropriation.

I guess I should be more open-minded, huh? More tolerant of other peoples' definition of "moral" and "ethical."

Maybe I'll start working on that in the New Year...

[SAdams]

Amazing it takes Corzine's lawyers to see there is something wrong. NOT Corzine, but his lawyers. I guess they kind of figured that out based on the past corruption in this State. And considering Corzine's part of that corruption, he couldn't see the forest for the trees. All of them couldn't.

Hey I wonder if I can get a grant. Send me the money and I'll fill out the paperwork later. If ever. And then the legislators can pass a law stating its A-OK to do this. Something like they did with Norcross.

[oldhardhead]

Corzine said this week that his lawyers found problems with the way money was distributed, but uncovered nothing criminal.

"problems with the way money was distributed"??? You don't say.

Republican lawyer Mark Sheridan said the grants program was fundamentally flawed. He said it's up to the legislative branch to appropriate the funds, while the executive branch administers the money according to the Legislature's instructions. Violations of the Constitution are not criminal, however.

Oh, well then, it's all okey-dokey.

Here is a joke:

Q:
Why isn't it against the law for legislators to commit Violations of the Constitution?

A:
Because the legislators make the laws!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha!

[SAdams]

Love the joke OHH

Here is a joke:

Q:
Why isn't it against the law for legislators to commit Violations of the Constitution?

A:
Because the legislators make the laws!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha!

But would like to add something to the answer.

A:
Because the legislators make the laws!!! And the APPOINTED judges adjust the laws to fit the legislators needs because the legislators APPOINT them!
HAHAHAHAHAHhahahahaha!

They don't need no stinkin' Constitution! It's the Constitution of Norcross they follow!