Lesniak Bill Puts COAH on Steroids

BOGOTA, NJ – Americans for Prosperity State Director Steve Lonegan announced today that the taxpayer advocacy organization will oppose Senator Raymond Lesniak’s (D-District 20 Union) proposed legislation, Senate Bill S1, purported to “gut COAH”, because the legislation will create an even more powerful and destructive LOW INCOME HOUSING bureaucracy than currently exists.

Lonegan described the new entity created by the legislation to be “a hybrid super bureaucracy that combines the State Planning Commission, the Economic Development Authority, the Home Mortgage Finance Association and the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs into a super bureaucracy that puts COAH on steroids”. AFP will launch a radio and internet campaign aimed at educating taxpayers of the true impact of the bill and urging voters to call their legislators and oppose this misleading legislation.

The legislation, according to its own words, plainly states [“The Council on Affordable Housing established by the “Fair Housing Act,”… is abolished, and all of its powers, functions and duties are continued in the State Planning Commission…except as herein otherwise provided.] Further, [“All appropriations and other moneys available and to become available to the Council on Affordable Housing are hereby continued in the commission, and shall be available for the objects and purposes for which such moneys are appropriated subject to any terms, restriction, limitations or other requirements imposed by State or federal law.”]

The legislation grants the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs the powers of what amounts to a “Low Income Housing Czar”. Additionally, the legislation further elevates the role of the Economic Development Authority and the Home Finance Mortgage Association to even more involvement in the planning and funding functions behind the advancement of a radical “progressive” public housing policy” Lonegan said. “This bill does not “gut” COAH -- it shifts its power to a more complex and authoritarian bureaucracy.”

“New Jersey’s housing market is suffering in this bad economy, but the advocates of this left wing program remain committed to advancing their agenda regardless of cost,” Lonegan said. “They are moving all power to a central bureaucracy that can bond money without voter approval to fund their pet projects, undermining home rule with their rules and regulations, creating a politically managed, taxpayer subsidized housing policy that will only continue to damage the state’s economy and drive people from this state” Lonegan concluded. “This bill must be stopped and Governor Christie must live up to his commitment to end COAH, not make it even worse.”