Coming Soon: Polls Show Many NJ Residents Blame Whitman For Financial Troubles In State And Towns

Whitman nearly bankrupted the state government with phony tax reduction, and was responsible for transferring much of the burden of taxation to homeowners and senior citizens in towns all over NJ.

Haines became known as a travel-loving lottery queen, spending more than $100,000 on travel junkets all over the United States and the English speaking world, including a $7000 trip to Scotland a few years ago, compliments of the taxpayers.

Whitman Resigned After Property Tax Hikes Were Assured

Whitman resigned early in 2001 to go haunt the federal government, and left the governorship in the care of "acting" governor Donnie DiFrancesco, the confidante and crony of Republican Chairman George Gilmore, who let the CIBA Geigy five year landfill buried-drum permit get renewed at the DEP without telling the Dover Township governing body, on June 26, 2001.

But we digress.

Haines Shares Responsibility For
DMUA's $5.3 Million Deficicit

Haines is the former Dover Municipal Utilities Authority chairman who started big deficits rolling by looting the authority's reserves in 2001 and 2002 to try to buy votes for herself and Councilmen Carmine Inteso and Michael Fiure in the 2001 and 2002 elections.

Because of Haines' remarkable foresight and vision, the DMUA now has a $5.3 million one-year budget deficit.

Haines Switched With "Mayor" Aldrich

Haines, who was appointed to the township committee in 2002 in a job swap that saw Mayor Clarence Aldrich get the Superintendent's job at the DMUA in exchange for his seat on the governing body, lost the 2002 election after her sorry record with the state government became known to the voters.

When DiFrancesco had to withdraw from the 2001 gubernatorial primary election for "personal" reasons that had something vaguely to do with not repaying a $300,000 loan to the Hovnanians, Gilmore got DiFrancesco, a lawyer naturally, a gig with Dover Twp. as condemnation lawyer for some open space buys.

The appointment was justified by Gilmore, who claimed lawyers from Warren County were especially good at condemnation work.

Gilmore And McGuckin Gave Contracts To Forty Lawyers

Gilmore and Council Pres. McGuckin had forty other lawyers appointed to no-bid legal contracts, after Michael Fiure, also a lawyer, got a $90,000 job with the county parks department two weeks before he was sworn in to the council on January 3, 2004.

Fiure Made And Maruca Seconded $90,000 Gilmore Motion

Gilmore got a gig of his own, on Fiure's motion and a second by Gilmore stooge Maria Maruca, executive director of Seaside Heights Business Improvement District, for a no-bid $90,000 legal services contract for near-useless work on the township administrative code which was changed to permit more than fifty crony appointments, including the forty lawyers approved by Gilmore and McGuckin.

Pure Coincidence That $90,000 Cost Same In Both Venues

It is purely coincidental that the value of Gilmore's contract in Dover Twp. and cost of Fiure's useless job to county taxpayers is the same $90,000, but it is NOT a coincidence the consequences of the largest spending increase in township history were funded by the taxpayers.

Is Haines The Worst Hypocrite In Ocean County?

So when Haines accused Mayor Paul Brush of "hiding legal costs" recently, more than one snicker was heard from the darkness, as the base alloy of hypocrisy became more evident in a Republican party that was already knee deep in greed and hypocrisy to begin with.

Observer Editorial: Dover's
Government Is Not An Annuity

The Ocean County Observer put it this way in a recent editorial: "Somewhere there are candidates who must realize that Dover's government is not an annuity for those with the right party registration and a license to practice law."

They are only one small step away from calling it a "license to steal."

We'll reprint the entire Observer editorial later this week.

Today's digression prepared for publication August 31, 2005.