Governor Corzine’s fiscal restructuring plan has become the issue du jour in both of New Jersey’s hotly contested Congressional race.
Yesterday, third district Republican congressional candidate Chris Myers called on state Sen. John Adler to oppose the plan shortly before he came out with a statement doing exactly that. Today, State Sen. Leonard Lance, a candidate for the Republican nomination in the seventh congressional district, has called on the likely Democratic candidate, Assemblywoman Linda Stender, to oppose the plan as well.
"I am calling on Linda Stender to oppose Gov. Corzine's massive tax and spend plan, which would raise tolls by more than 700 percent on working families over the next 14 years and force New Jersey into an additional seventy-five years of debt,” said Lance. “You cannot mortgage your house to pay for your groceries," Lance said.
Stender’s support could prove pivotal to the passage of the plan. Yesterday, Adler and State Sen. Jeff Van Drew both announced their opposition to it. So did every Republican in the legislature, as well as U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.
Yesterday, Adler said that he wants to cut state spending rather than raise tolls.
"The governor issued a challenge to the legislature and to the people of New Jersey to come up with our own plan to alleviate the state's financial crisis – and that's what I intend to do,” he said.
But Adler’s opposition to the plan wasn’t enough for Myers, who release a statement today criticizing him for voting for last year’s budget, which authorized the Governor to hire advisors to study the plan.
“I don’t need to spend millions on studies to tell me that an 800 percent toll hike is a bad idea,” said Myers.
Stender could not immediately be reached for comment.
