Monday - May 11, 2009

An Out Of This World Way To Spend Your Tax Money

A quarter of the money goes to pay a dead woman

N.J. legislators question funding for defunct food-in-space program
by Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin/The Star-Ledger
Monday May 11, 2009, 6:06 AM

For more than five years now, the state has been sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to a small, nonprofit organization with the Star Wars-sounding name, E3CO, whose mission is teaching elementary and high school students about growing food in space.

But if the mission of E3CO seems a bit strange, what happens to its money each year may be even stranger. Records show that much of the money has gone to pay the salaries of two people—one with political connections and the other a woman who has been dead two years.

The E3CO funding comes in the form of a state appropriation tacked onto the Rutgers budget each year. Tax records show that the nonprofit group has been receiving an annual payment of more than $100,000 to cover its operating expenses, with $60,000 going to the salary of executive director Patricia Rowe. Another $33,388 went to Sara Crane, the ex-wife of Joseph Salema, the one-time chief of staff to former Democratic Gov. Jim Florio.

The university said Rowe died in 2007 and it put a freeze on the money this year because it had no evidence the group has been doing anything since her death. University officials could not say what the organization has done with the money in recent years. E3CO has filed no records or receipts to account for any expenditure.

But despite the freeze by Rutgers, the Legislature again added a $130,000 special appropriation in the new proposed state budget to continue the funding to the South Jersey-based group.

Senate Republicans charge that Democratic lawmakers kept the funding to the group intact for political reasons.

“Nobody has seen any report of what they are doing with the money,” said Sen. Marcia A. Karrow (R-Hunterdon). “It looks like New Jersey is basically funding two salaries.”

Karrow said there should be an investigation.

“It’s one little item in the budget, but it’s in your face and it’s got the perception of something very personal here,” she said.
...
“All my colleagues should know by now that I will not be silenced as I fulfill my duties to the citizens of Warren and Hunterdon counties, no matter how many times they shut off my microphone,” Karrow said. “It’s hard work and we’re meeting with lots of resistance in Trenton, but we can and will rescue New Jersey from waste, fraud and abuse.”

TRENTON—The mission of E3CO, a small, non-profit group that received $130,000 in annual state funding to teach kids about growing food in space, was abruptly aborted today, following revelations that much of the money was earmarked for the salary of a woman who is dead.

“We’re going to take this one and send it to the moon, where it belongs,” declared Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), who promised that E3CO’s funding was being pulled. “It’s over. It’s buried. It’s dead. Should never have existed.”

It’s CYA time in Trenton again!
Yesterday both Gov. Jon Corzine and Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) said they would pull the plug on the program’s funding.

“I don’t really understand why New Jersey is in the business of space program funding,” said the governor. “I can assure you it will not be either funded in 2009 or funded in 2010.”

The money came through a special state appropriation entered in the Rutgers budget each year. Rutgers did not control or administer the program—but was simply the conduit for the funds from the legislature. More than $400,000 in state funding has gone to the group by way of the university’s budget since 2003.

Sen. Marcia A. Karrow (R-Hunterdon), who first raised questions about the grant more than a week ago during a budget committee hearing in Trenton, said the elimination of the funding does not answer how the money was put in the budget in the first place.

“They’re going to eliminate the funding, but when is the AG (attorney general) going to investigate why this has been in the budget at all?” she asked. “Perhaps we deserve a refund.”

She said the controversy over the funding shows why the state grants system needs to be reformed, so that applications for state funding are filed before money is awarded, and that the funding is then audited after the fact to document how it was spent. She added that the governor could have vetoed the spending at any time over the last four years, but did not.

Goodman said E3CO had first gotten started with a NASA educational grant to teach school children about living in space and how to grow food for long-term missions aboard the International Space Station and to Mars.

...

The state money was first appropriated for E3CO in 2003, according to budget records, when former state Sen. Wayne Bryant co-chaired the powerful Budget and Appropriations Committee. Campaign finance records show Rowe and Crane contributed money to the re-election campaign of Bryant, who was convicted last year on federal corruption charges.

Ayup, that’s the New Jersey way alright. Buy yourself a Senator and then collect the sugar forever. And there are so many many spoons in the sugar bowl that an extra can stay in there for years and nobody will ever notice. Until a Republican comes along and gives the bowl a kick.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/11/2009 at 05:01 PM   
Filed Under: • Politics •  
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