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COURT HOUSE — The League of Women Voters of Cape May County held a debate for First District Assembly candidates on Oct. 14 at the Old Historic Courthouse on Main Street.

Republican challengers Michael Donohue and John McCann squared off incumbent Democratic Assemblymen Nelson Albano and Matthew Milam.

The debate was moderated by Jamie Harrison, of the state League of Women Voters, and featured questions prepared by Mary Conley, president of the county League, as well as Dennis Brown, of 98.7 The Coast radio station, which broadcasted the debate live. The format of the debate allowed each candidate 90 seconds to respond to questions.

No questions were taken directly from the public.

Opening Statements

McCann said he got into the race after Donohue’s original running mate Frank Conrad dropped out. McCann is a Sea Isle City native who attended Wildwood Catholic High School, Atlantic Cape Community College and LaSalle University. He is real estate agent and former lifeguard. He’s served on the state Real Estate Board and the county Tax Board.

Albano, of Vineland, said he got into politics to enact a law following a family tragedy. He said he’s done much for the people of the district in his two terms in the Assembly, but much more needs to be done.

Donohue grew up about a mile from the debate location in Middle Township. His is a law enforcement family, which led him into a career as an attorney and municipal prosecutor in Cape May County. He said he is running for Assembly to make the state a better place to live for his three children.

Milam, a businessman from Vineland, said he answered Sen. Jeff Van Drew’s call to run for office in order to help the state’s most vulnerable residents — senior citizens, veterans and children. He also hoped to bring fiscal responsibility to the statehouse.

Natural Resources

Connolly began the questioning period by asking the Republicans about their plans for the utilization of natural resources in the state.

Donohue said he’s heard from environmental groups that say the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has become politicized and the business community complains of the long permitting process.

He said changing the DEP to a smaller Department of Natural Resouces would depoliticizing the agency and streamline permitting process.

McCann said the DEP is “totally out of whack.”

He said no one loves the environment more than he does, but the size of the DEP makes it function inefficiently.

Albano, who serves as chairman of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, agreed that the department is broken.

“DEP has failed to do its job,” Albano said.

He suggested the DEP should be downsized with the Division of Fish and Wildlife moving to the Department of Agriculture.

Milam agreed that there is “way too much beuracracy in the DEP.” He said changing the name of the DEP would create additional costs including creating new stationary for the department.

Instead of permits taking years to be resolved, the DEP should be able to address permits in 10 days and another 30 days to iron out any problems, Milam suggested.

Taxes

Brown asked the candidates if they agreed with Gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett’s plan to cut property taxes and expand sales taxes.

“The word tax is a very, very bad word,” Albano said. “No, I will not support any kind of tax any other tax on the people of state of New Jersey, they have been taxed to death.”

Milam noted the team’s 10-point plan to address taxes that includes cutting the size of government, recurring revenue, no bonding without referendums, reducing the state’s automobile fleet, cutting out state mailings and removing stipends for inmates in state prisons.

Donohue pointed out their votes for a 2.5 percent tax on commercial construction.

“I wonder how many carpenters, how many bricklayers, how many roofers, how many plumbers lost work because of that vote,” he said.

He also mentioned a payroll tax for paid family leave.

“So I’m glad that we have a new no tax pledge but for the citizens of New Jersey, but I wish it had happened a few years ago,” Donohue said.

“The spending has to stop,” Mccann added.

He said revenue coming in would increase each year and could eventually go back to the taxpayers in the form of rebates.
He said the Democrats’ no-tax pledge was “tremendous but late” and his opponents’ records don’t support their claims.

“We know that they’re not going to change anything in the future, because you don’t change what you’ve already done in the past,” McCann said.

In rebuttal, Milam said the 2.5 percent tax was actually an affordable housing fee on commercial building, which, if they hadn’t voted for it, could have grown to as much as 10 percent. “It was a lot worse to vote against it than it was for it," he said.

Milam said they voted “no” on sales tax, liquor tax, health insurance, income tax, raiding of funds and deferring payments to the pension plan.

Economic Development

When asked by Connelly how they would support economic development, Albano said his team has been working on a lot of different projects to bring businesses and jobs into the district.

He noted their work with several companies on bringing the first solar panel manufacturing plant to the state as well as the solar power plant in Vineland. Albano also said they were working on two regional hospitals – one for teaching and one for veterans – that could bring 750 jobs to the area.

Milam focused on their support of the Invest New Jersey program, which gave companies incentives to hire new people and expand businesses. He said New Jersey was one of the first states to participate this program, offering it “before we even knew what stimulus was.”

Donohue disagreed saying, “we have done virtually nothing for businesses in the state of New Jersey.” He called the Democrats’ programs “election-year gimmicks.”

He reiterated his belief that the Democrats had raised taxes. He mentioned votes to extend corporate business tax, votes on HMOs and votes to extend energy taxes. He said these measures add up to chase businesses from the state.

“Every time you chase a business out of the state, you chase jobs out of the state,” he said. “Every time you chase a job out of the state, you chase a taxpayer out of the state.”

McCann said he would make “radical” cuts all the taxes on new businesses for three to five years including the corporate, inheritance, sales and capital gains taxes.

“Make it cost prohibitive for a company not to come into our state,” he said.

Tourism

Regarding a question on tourism by Brown, Donohue blamed former Gov. Jim McGreevey for creating the hotel/motel tax, which he said hurt tourism at the Jersey shore.

He suggested cutting special municipal aid that supports the mismanaged large cities in the state from that tax. He said Gov. Jon S. Corzine raided the $20 million for tourism calling it a “travesty.”

McCann continued the assault on Corzine saying the closure of the Atlantic City casinos three years ago over the Fourth of July weekend was a bad move. He said the casino industry never recovered from that.

Albano countered that it wasn’t a two-day closure that hurt Atlantic City, instead he said it was the economy. He said that tourism and beach replenishment need to stay as funded as they are.

Milam said he and Albano voted against the budget partly because the governor took money from the tourism fund, which funded state advertising.

“We will continue to fight to get that money back,” he said.

Transportation

When asked about transportation infrastructure, Milam, a member of the Assembly Transportation Committee, concentrated on New Jersey Transit and bringing more routes to South Jersey.

Albano hoped the Garden State Parkway project between exits 9 and 11 in Middle Township would begin soon. He said it was important not only because of the loss of life from traffic accidents, but also to put people back to work on the project. He and Milam voted against the governor’s toll plan, he said.

Donohue said most of the transportation money in the state goes to projects in North Jersey.

“We don’t see it so much down here,” he said suggesting they needed support for South Jersey every year, “not just in election years.”

Corruption

Regarding the recent corruption scandal involving several New Jersey politicians, McCann said he supports punishments “to the most extreme extent of the law.”

“When somebody comes to you with a brown bag (bribe) it would be cost prohibitive to participate in that behavior, no mercy,” he said.

Donohue called for absolute transparency in state finances with information available online for public view.

“When you do that, we’ll chase corruption out of New Jersey once and for all,” he said

Albano boasted that he was the prime sponsor of tough ethics legislation, which calls for automatic jail time, loss of positions, severe fines and loss pension for life.

Milam said law enforcement should not only go after officials taking the bribes, but also the ones offering the bribes

Pension System

Regarding pensions for state workers, Donohue said the pensions were funded at 111 percent when McGreevey took office in 2000, but are now funded at 50 percent.

McCann said he would ensure that any changes to state pensions would be four years out. He said employees should be able to trust state with their pensions.

Albano countered that both parties were to blame noting that it started with Republican Gov. Christine Whitman who first borrowed money from the pension system. He said subsequent governors failed to pay back the money, but now Corzine has put $3.2 billion back and we should continue to put at least $1 billion each year.

Affordable Housing

When asked what he would do about COAH moving forward, Milam said no municipality should be forced into affordable housing, rather they should be able to come up with their own plan. He added that regional contributions housing for seniors and older units should be restored and affordable housing should be constitutionally redefined so courts don’t have to be involved.

He said they have a bill to remove the commercial fees.

Providing affordable housing is morally right, but towns should be able to make their own plan, he said.

Albano added that he believed “everyone should be able to afford a house.”

Donohue called COAH “an abject failure.”

He said the courts decided that municipalities should not fight affordable housing and then it was turned it into a “government boondoggle.”

He said the state should scrap COAH for an urban renewal project since affordable housing is needed first in urban areas.

McCann said he knew first hand that COAH doesn’t work.

He said his family business had a fire and after rebuilding he was required to pay another $15,000 noting that “at the end of the job there’s no more money.”

Veterans

Finally, the candidates were asked about how they would address the needs of veterans.

Albano said veterans currently have to travel to West Orange or Delaware for treatment, but his plans to make the former Kessler Memorial Hospital a veterans hospital would give them a local option.

“We will continue to fight until that happens,” he said.

Milam said the state must also be ready for the influx of veterans coming in from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Noting the return of his nephew from overseas deployment in June, Donohue said he would support a veterans healthcare card.

“Our veterans should be able to present that card that says I fought for you, I fought to keep you free, send the bill to the VA (Veterans Administration),” he said.

Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com