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Governor Christie vetoes Trenton Land Grab the New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act
June 30,2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act Friday that amounted to a huge land grab by the state , It would have paved the way for the state to assume even more debt for the purpose of buying up foreclosed properties and turning them into low-income housing.
Critics dubbed the bill the “Neighborhood Destruction Act” fearing it would make the state a huge land owner with little care as to how it would disrupt and destroy neighborhoods and depress and already depressed real estate market. Under the act the state would seize foreclosed property and pretty much do as it pleased putting anything from a Jail to a drug rehab next to your local school.
The New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act was passed in the state Senate June 25 and in the Assembly June 28. In his veto message, Gov. Christie objected to proposals adding spending separate from the Appropriations Act, calling the practice “a thinly veiled attempt to circumvent the tough choices required to meet the constitutional obligation of passing a balanced budget.”
Simple market based alternatives were ignored by the bill and the legislation would have created a new state super agency called the New Jersey Foreclosure Relief Corp., which would operate under the jurisdiction of the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and would be vested with the authority to float an unlimited number of bonds backed by the state. Sticking the tax payer with a huge debt .Proceeds from the bond sales would finance the purchase of foreclosed homes, with additional funds coming from municipalities’ affordable housing trust funds.