Thursday, January 28, 2010

Christie Begins Exercising Vetoes

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie exercised his veto power for the first time related to a $1.267 million change order approved on January 6 by the board of the Schools Development Authority.
Including the vetoed amount, change orders for construction of a new addition to the Burlington City High School in the Burlington School District total $18.825 million.
The original contract price was $28,723,000, meaning that the project has now increased by 66 percent to $47,548,791, according to figures provided by the SDA.
“We will be placing far greater scrutiny than ever previously imposed on contracts and expenditures like these,” said Governor Christie. “This is symbolic and symptomatic of a much larger problem at the SDA when you have change orders that increase a building contract price by a staggering 66 percent.”
“This careful and critical review is precisely the role that my Authorities Unit will undertake during my administration to ensure that taxpayer money is not being wasted,” Governor Christie said.
The Governor’s veto letter was delivered to the SDA yesterday afternoon.
The Governor also vetoed action taken at SDA’s January 6 meeting, in which the board approved the readoption of certain regulations of the New Jersey Administrative Code. Executive Orders 1, 2 and 3, issued by Governor Christie on January 20, require that all pending and proposed rules and regulations be reviewed by the Red Tape Review Group prior to adoption by any state agency or authority.

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