GOP seeks funding for security grants

Star Ledger | August 3, 2005 | Rick Hepp

[BATNF]

GOP seeks funding for security grants

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

BY RICK HEPP Star-Ledger Staff

Assembly Republicans called on acting Gov. Richard Codey yesterday to use $40 million from this year's budget for state homeland security equipment grants they said went unfunded for "political reasons."

The Attorney General's Office doled out more than $8.3 million last year to towns so they could purchase first-responder equipment. But a Star-Ledger review of the list showed more than $7.8 million was awarded to towns in Democratic legislative districts while municipalities in Republican legislative districts got just $523,454.

Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Morris) said the towns that were shut out deserve a second look because "it is clear that party affiliation of the legislators and town leaders was one of the top criteria."

DeCroce said Codey should review the resubmitted proposals and fund those applications he feels are appropriate. And since the grant program was killed for the budget year that began July 1, the Republicans want Codey to fund the proposals using $40 million now earmarked for property tax assistance and community development.

"The buck stops with the governor, and the governor has not followed through with his responsibility," DeCroce said during a news conference at the Statehouse. "He and his treasurer should figure out where those dollars should go."

Codey spokesman Sean Darcy said the Republican claims "are more partisan politics."

Meanwhile, a Treasury Department spokesman said the Republican lawmakers could always submit the failed proposals to the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development Block Grant program that they want to reappropriate for homeland security.

"Our role is to facilitate the Legislature's efforts to provide (property tax) assistance at the local level, and it wouldn't be unprecedented for those types of domestic security items to be included in any future distribution of grants," said the spokesman, Tom Vincz.

Republicans also renewed their call for Codey to fire Attorney General Peter Harvey, whose office was responsible for distributing the Statewide Local Domestic Preparedness Equipment Grant program. A spokesman for Harvey declined to comment.

Created by the Legislature nine months after the 9/11 attacks, the grant program was intended to help towns purchase first-responder equipment, such as new radios, gas masks, protective suits and bomb-sniffing dogs, that they could not afford on their own.

Since the grant program began, however, towns in Democrat-controlled districts have received more than $21.3 million of the money disbursed by the state, while towns in Republican districts got just $1.6 million, according to a Star-Ledger review of grant lists provided by the state.

Assemblyman Sean Kean (R-Monmouth), whose district received no money through the grant program, said Codey should allow towns to resubmit their proposals from last year as a matter of fairness.

"This is a partisan game," Kean said. "But what's worse than that is that law enforcement spent time and money to fill out the applications and they never had a chance. That, to me, is adding insult to injury."

© 2005 The Star Ledger © 2005 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.

[BATNF]

A little old it is what started this whole thing about dems taking homeland sec. money

[Admin Moderator]

Please post a link.