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Lost amid 40th District election battle – the issues
Thursday, May 28, 2009
BY RICHARD COWEN
NorthJersey.com
https://www.northjersey.com/politics/Lost_amid_40th_District_election_battle__the_issues.html
The bitter primary campaign by Republicans in the 40th District Assembly race has produced a lawsuit, three election complaints and a lots of angry rhetoric — but not a lot of discussion of the issues.
Incumbents Scott Rumana, R-Wayne, and David C. Russo, R-Ridgewood, face a stiff challenge from two businessmen, Joseph A. Caruso of Wayne and Anthony Rottino of Franklin Lakes, both making their first run for the state Legislature.
Gaining a GOP primary nomination in the heavily Republican 40th District makes a candidate a heavy favorite to win the general election in November.
Challenger Joseph Caruso says he’s bringing fresh blood to the Republican Party, which he says has lost its voice even as the state budget has become a huge problem for ruling Democrats. Like the other Republicans in the race, Caruso blames the Democrats for a state budget that has spiraled from $21 billion to $33 billion in seven years.
“The Republican Party is broken in New Jersey,” Caruso said. “We’re a party in need of a major overhaul. We raise money, but our party has no message. Our party has no unique ideas anymore.”
Both incumbents and challengers agree that the state must make deep cuts in its spending to help New Jersey struggle past the economic doldrums. Rottino and Caruso are calling for abolishing the state’s business tax, now pegged at 9 percent, as well as a 20 percent reduction in state spending, which is favored by gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan.
“Every time you turn around, it’s getting harder and harder to do business in New Jersey,” said Rottino, a developer who also owns two Harley-Davidson dealerships and a health club in Teterboro.
Rumana and Russo agree that state spending must be drastically reduced, but they say massive layoffs of the state workforce are not politically feasible. They favor steady reductions in state staffing through attrition and consolidation of positions.
“You can’t just shoot from the hip on these issues,” Rumana said. “The difference between Caruso and Rottino and myself is that they’ve never spent a day in office, and I have. I’ve been a freeholder, mayor and assemblyman.”
Caruso and Rottino say eliminating the state business tax would free millions of dollars to be poured instead into new business investment. Russo agrees with the idea in concept but says the lost tax revenue would somehow have to be replaced or it would open yet another gap in the state budget.
“I agree that business taxes are too high,” Russo said. “Eliminating the business tax might work, but only if you can find revenue elsewhere.”
Caruso, 35, is the finance chairman of the Bergen County Republican Organization and owns a financial services company in Lyndhurst. One of his more radical ideas is to close the state Department of Environmental Protection, which he claims is strangling business with overregulation. He says the federal government could pick up the responsibilities for protecting the environment.
Rumana, 45, and Russo, 55, don’t agree with getting rid of the DEP but favor abolishing the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), which is responsible for imposing low-income housing quotas on municipalities. The quotas stem from Supreme Court decisions that communities have an obligation to promote housing for people of modest means.
As assemblyman, Rumana has sponsored several bills that would limit COAH’s powers. Rumana also has sponsored a bill to create a constitutional amendment to eliminate COAH altogether.
Caruso and the 43-year-old Rottino say they, too, would work to abolish COAH. They also favor abolition of the state’s Green Acres program, which buys up land from developers and preserves it as open space.
Rottino said it should be up to municipalities, not the state, to pay for open space preservation. Both Rumana and Russo favor continuation of the Green Acres program, which has exhausted its funding and will need to be replenished through a bond referendum. But because the state is so deeply in debt, Rumana said, it appears unlikely that the Green Acres bond issue will make it onto the ballot this year.
The political stakes are highest for Rumana, the freshman assemblyman who also is chairman of the Republican Party in Passaic County. Rumana took over the leadership three years ago, in the wake of a corruption scandal in which then-Chairman Peter Murphy went to prison for wire fraud.
Caruso and Rottino both have the backing of a political action committee, GOP Strong, started by Murphy.
Throughout the campaign, Rumana has sought to paint Caruso and Rottino as puppets of Murphy. But Caruso and Rottino say they are in the race to advance their own ideas and agendas.
E-mail: cowen@northjersey.com
https://www.northjersey.com/politics/Lost_amid_40th_District_election_battle__the_issues.html
