What A Bunch Of Phonies!!

Republican State Senators Do Not See Any Problem With $103,000 Spent On 80 Vacation Junket Trips By Whitman Administration Lottery Queens Haines & Hedinger

But State Chairman Joseph Kyrillos And Haines’ Friend Sen. Diane Allen Say (Rightly So) That Governor Jim McGreevey “Sends The Wrong Message To State Taxpayers” In $57,000 Trade Mission To Ireland For Himself, His Wife And Twelve State Officials

McGreevey Agrees, So Democratic Party Will Reimburse Taxpayers The $57,000; But Double Standard Applies As Republican Party Will NOT Reimburse Taxpayers For $103,000 In Lottery Junkets, Or $22 Billion In Whitman Stock Market Losses, Or $300 Million In Last December’s GOP Lame Duck Spending Hemorrhage

Trenton: Governor Jim McGreevey said the Democratic Party will reimburse more than $57,000 spent on a trade delegation trip to Ireland last summer for the governor, his wife and about a dozen state officials.

The “lavish” Irish trade mission trip drew fire from Republican State Chairman Joseph M. Kyrillos, a state senator who was instrumental in helping former Governor Christie Whitman create the $6 billion budget deficit McGreevey inherited when he took office this past January.

No Republican Funds For $103,000 Lottery Junket Reimbursement

Senator Kyrillos said “these are tough economic times for the people of New Jersey”, but he did not volunteer any Republican funds to reimburse state taxpayers for more than $103,000 spent by former Republican State Lottery Director Virginia Haines and Deputy Lottery Director Carole Hedinger for more than 80 out-of-state vacation junket trips, including a “lavish” eight day $6200 vacation junket to Scotland by Haines.

Senator Diane Allen (R-Burlington), who helped former Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco and Sen. Kyrillos squander more than $300 million in pork barrel spending in last December’s lame duck legislative session, called the $57,000 McGreevey trip “inappropriate”.

McGreevey’s Trade Mission Was In Ireland Four Days; Haines And Hedinger Were Out-Of-State 450 Vacation Junket Days, Including Haines’ Eight Day Scotland Excursion

Sen. Allen, a Whitman administration friend of the two lottery queens, also did not volunteer any GOP reimbursement funding for the lottery vacation junkets, which took Haines and Hedinger out of state for a total of more than 450 junket vacation days.

Haines spent 330 days out of state on the vacation junkets and then, in a related scam, put in a voucher (and was paid) an extra $9787 in “unused vacation time” when she retired in February at the age of 55 with a $1.9 million golden parachute state pension.

Whitman Lost $22 Billion In Stock Market; Haines
Got $1.9 Million Golden Parachute

The Haines’ golden parachute came at a time when the state pension fund is in deep trouble after Whitman lost more than $22 Billion in the stock market following a huge pension fund bond issue floated to buy stocks before she left town for a job in Washington D.C.

The ranking Republican on the budget committee (the committee that helped precipitate the $300 million lame duck spending hemorrhage) Assemblyman Guy Gregg of Sussex County, said the $57,000 McGreevey trip to Ireland “seemed unfair” as state and local agencies endure budget cuts and “families face frozen wages or layoffs”.

Assemblyman Gregg made no comment, however, about the $103,000 in lottery junkets, or the $300 million in lame duck Republican pork barrel spending, or the $22 billion in Whitman stock market losses which, apparently, did not reach the same level of unfairness in connection with frozen wages or layoffs for New Jersey families as McGreevey’s $57,000 Ireland trip for which taxpayers will be reimbursed by the Democratic Party.

Holzapfel Has No Comment At All About Any Of This

Tenth District Assemblyman James W. Holzapfel (R-Ocean), a resident of Dover Township and a supporter of Whitman budget policies, offered no comment at all as to who, if anybody, would be available to reimburse the taxpayers for the $103,000 lottery junkets, the $22 billion in stock market losses or the $300 million lame duck legislative rip-off, or last year’s $6 billion state budget deficit, important funding obligations which will show up in next year’s property tax bill for Ocean County communities. (12/02/02)

Further information on these issues is available from OCPolitics•Com: Click here for recent three part series on “Christie Whitman Wrecks The State Government - Then Leaves Town”.

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