The editorial below from the Trenton Times neatly summarizes New
Jersey’s problems with the FHWA because of “pay to play”
legislation the state recently enacted. The amendment in the
House version of TEA-21 that addresses this problem must be
included in the final bill!
What a
tangle!
Saturday,
March 12, 2005
EDITORIAL
The House of
Representatives has approved a huge highway and transit
authorization measure, and in the process it did a wise thing -
something this Congress does with relative infrequency. It
approved an amendment to allow
New Jersey's
pending law aimed at restricting the corrupt pay-to-play system
to apply to federally funded transportation contracts.
But hold the
applause. The effort to rescue the state's first real stab at
curbing political corruption remains as complicated as a
six-level freeway interchange.
The
New Jersey bill,
which has been passed by both the Senate and Assembly, would
attack pay-to-play by barring the state from awarding contracts
worth more than $17,500 to anyone contributing over $300 to
state or county political parties or gubernatorial candidates.
The measure codifies an executive order issued last year by
then-Gov. James E. McGreevey and retained by acting Gov. Richard
J. Codey. Unfortunately, the order stirred the attention of the
bureaucrats at the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), who
responded by withholding $260 million in aid to
New Jersey on
grounds that the ban violates federal competitive bidding laws.
The state
responded in three ways. First, it sued in federal court for
reinstatement of the funding; no decision has yet been delivered
in that case. Second, some of its officials went to Washington
to attempt to convince the FHA that the state's pay-to-play ban
is in perfect harmony with the spirit and intent of the bidding
laws because it eliminates the built-in markup that successful
players add to their bids to cover their campaign contributions
and it encourages additional businesses to compete for the
contracts.
In the third
move, three congressmen from
New Jersey, Reps. Bill Pascrell,
D-Paterson, Robert Menendez,
D-Union
City, and Frank
LoBiondo, R-Vineland, introduced the amendment to the $284
billion federal transportation authorization bill to protect
New Jersey's
anti-pay-to-play effort. Their amendment would allow (not
require) states receiving federal aid to declare companies
ineligible for highway work if they have donated money to
political campaigns. The House approved the amendment by voice
vote after only one member - an
Illinois
congressman whose remarks indicated that he didn't understand
the issue - rose in opposition.
But it's too
soon to declare victory.
New Jersey's
anti-corruption initiative will get statutory protection only if
the amendment survives the Senate-House conference process and
the final transportation bill is signed by President Bush.
Neither of those is a sure thing. Therefore, acting Gov. Richard
J. Codey took action last Monday to safeguard the state's
federal transportation funding by conditionally vetoing the
pay-to-play bill to exclude contracts using money from the
federal treasury.
Both houses of
the New Jersey Legislature will have to approve the altered bill
before it can become state law. Then, if the
Pascrell-Menendez-LoBiondo amendment survives and becomes
federal law, the Legislature will have to enact a new law
restoring the state's pay-to-play statute to its original
comprehensive form.
No one said
that cleaning up political corruption in
New Jersey would be
easy. But who thought the feds would make it so tough?
Copyright 2005
NJ.com. All Rights Reserved.
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