NJ can borrow to save land and historic sites
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
By Phil Gregory
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New Jersey residents narrowly passed a plan to authorize the state to borrow $400 million dollars to preserve land and historic sites. Open Space initiatives are usually popular with New Jersey voters. But many residents expressed frustration that they were being asked to authorize more state borrowing at a time when budgets are being cut.
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52% of voters cast ballots in favor of the bond act. Tom Gilbert, Chairman of the New Jersey Keep it Green campaign, says the margin of victory is not surprising considering all the concern about the economy and the state's finances.
He says it could take a year for the bonds to be issued to pay for the projects that will be funded.
Gilbert: Yes there's a lot of concern about state debt and so forth but you know it's going to be a little bit of time before the bonds and any then fiscal impacts in terms of debt service. That could be two budget cycles from now before there could be any impact on the state budget.
Environmentalists say they're looking forward to working with Governor-elect Christie to find a long term stable source of funding for land preservation.