>Improvement Authority Paid Over $4 million To Democrat Donors
Latest BCIA Loan: $3 Mill For Toms River School
HACKENSACK, NJ — The Bergen County Improvement Authority is a runaway train whose primary purpose is to support the corrupt Bergen County Democratic Organization by making questionable loans in order to churn out millions of dollars in fees for major donors to the county Democratic machine, say the county Republican freeholder candidates.
Over the course of the past six-and-a-half years, the BCIA has churned out over $4.2 million in fees to a list of lawyers, auditors and financial consultants who donate heavily to the BCDO and other Democratic organizations in the state. Republicans says the BCIA is part of a corrupt county government system that helps support the all-Democratic freeholder board that provides little oversight of the BCIA.
“The BCIA is a key link in the chain of corruption forged by the Bergen County Democratic Party machine,” said GOP freeholder candidate Chris Calabrese. “These fees and contracts are what feeds the campaign war chests of freeholders David Ganz and Bernadette McPherson – the pawns of party bosses.
Despite the county’s claim that the BCIA is an essential agency that helps municipalities, research shows that of 22 loans made since 2002, 11 of them have gone to either county government or various arms of county government, including two $65 million loans to the Bergen County Utilities Authority in Little Ferry. Last week the BCIA made another questionable $3 million loan to the Toms River school district in Ocean County. The freeholders approved that loan without discussion.
“There is nothing indispensible about the BCIA – except to the extent that it uses county resources to pay large fees to firms that donate big money to feed the corrupt political machine of the indicted Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero,” said Freeholder candidate Chris Calabrese.
Calabrese said the hunger for loans for the BCIA was on display earlier this year when Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney harangued the Glen Rock School Board to take a loan from the BCIA. “Pure and simple, McNerney was trying to strong arm the school board so the BCIA could generate more fees.”
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