Corzine admin says NJ Pike monetization report incomplete & therefore confidential

The Corzine administration has filed a paper with a Superior Court in Trenton arguing that since their consultant studies on privatization and monetization of the New Jersey Turnpike are incomplete they are exempt from open records laws.

Two Republican state legislators filed a lawsuit demanding release of the consultant report after the state treasury department rejected their requests for copies.

The Treasury has published the first screening level report by UBS a year ago but the promised  followup report  - also by UBS - first expected in the spring or early summer has been put off, apparently because the state governor Jon Corzine does not want to deal with the subject until after this year's elections.

State lawyer Cynthia Hackett said that since the report remains incomplete it is exempt from open records laws. She calls it a "classic example of a pre-decisional, advisory and consultative document that is (lawfully) confidential."

"It is unconscionable that critical public information, paid for with tax dollars, is being withheld from New Jersey's citizens and legislators," state assemblyman Jennifer Beck (Repub), one of the litigants is quoted by AP.

Republicans in New Jersey have taken a "hands off our roads" populist stance against any privatization or monetization of the state tollroads in response to the Democrat Governor's obscure and glacially paced explorations of making them more businesslike and unlocking some of their value for the state treasury. This is precisely the stance that Democracts took in Indiana where a Republican governor was extracting some value for the state from its tollroad. 

The inclination to oppose for the sake of opposition is stronger than any principles the parties supposedly stand for.

The elections are Nov 6, and the Court has scheduled its first hearing on the matter Nov 16, so the lawsuit is good only as a publicity prop.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-10-29