All About Debts

Debt Help The Sierra Club strongly opposes Question No. 3 - Dam Repair, Flood Control, Lake Restoration, which will fund a whole range of bad environmental projects. This referendum will require the state to bond $200 million, with the interest to be paid from the general funds, for a variety of pork barrel projects.

Three weeks before the trip, the court agreed to hear an appeal of a case in which the Sierra Club sought information about who had participated in private meetings of Mr. Cheney's energy task force in 2001. Justice Scalia's decision to go hunting with someone who had litigation pending before the court prompted editorial pages across the country to echo the Sierra Club's belief that the public might believe he could not render an impartial ruling.

Counseling Debt More than $100 million will go for fixing dams on private lakes. These lakes are owned either by developers or private lake associations. Developers who own lakes will be able to build more homes. Many of these lakes have million dollar homes on them and no public access. There are dams that need repair and under the law the owners of the lakes are supposed to pay to fix them. The taxpayers should not be asked to repair the dams for these private lakes. Governor Whitman stopped a $50 million dam repair proposal, which she thought was fiscally irresponsible. At a time when we have no money to fix bathrooms in our state parks, clean up contaminated sites, or buy homes in floodplains, why are we giving away million of dollars to private property owners?

The state Department of Environmental Protection told me that this was Tittel's idea, but that it was not likely to go anywhere given the public outcry. I certainly hope that's the case. On a broader front, the Sierra Club is hurting the Pinelands by opposing state purchases of land in the Pinelands for conservation, stating that the land is already protected. The Sierra Club has not been paying attention. Most of the housing built in Southhampton Township in the last seven years has been in the Pinelands. We must do more to preserve the farms and forests in the Pinelands, and I call on the Sierra Club to support this aim.

Consolidation Consumer Debt In addition to funding dam repairs, there is money for dam removal. Developers will get public money to remove dams so they can build houses where lakes and ponds used to be. Eliminating the lakes and ponds will destroy wetlands around the edges of the lakes and ponds and their buffers, which will allow developers to build even more houses. In some cases, these lakes, ponds and wetlands have become habitat for endangered species.

The Sierra Club, having concluded that the legislation does not apply to the Plainfield site, filed a request for a declaratory judgment with the DEP.

Debt Settlement This bond act also provides funds to extend sewers to these same lake communities and the rural areas around these lakes. The extension of sewers will promote sprawl along the path of the sewer lines, will cause more non-point pollution into the lakes, and deplete the aquifers in New Jerseys critical water supply areas. Funds will be available for new sewer plants and to expand existing sewer plants, which will add more treated sewerage into our waterways. The bond act will not, however, provide funds to fix combined sewers in our urban areas, a major source of water pollution and an obstacle to urban redevelopment.

sector creditors in 2003 extended the maturity dates on nearly half of Uruguay's then $11.3 billion of public debt and helped restore public confidence.

Debt Free In addition to funds for dredging, there will be funds for stream cleaning which destroys the biological integrity of the streams. In the process of stream cleaning trees and vegetation that help protect water quality are removed. The sides and the bottom of the streams are raked, adding more siltation and destroying the ability of fish to reproduce. Stream cleaning also sends stormwater downstream quicker, increasing flooding.

Second, we oppose Ballot Question 3 because, if approved, much of the money would provide relief to private owners whose land is not accessible to the public. It would provide $ interest loans or grants to owners of private dams and to local government units that own dams for repair or restoration projects. It would provide another $ interest loans or grants to owners (private as well as public) of lakes or streams for financing dredging, restoration projects or stream cleaning. Almost half the dams needing repair are privately owned, with public access neither to the dams nor to the lakes they create.

Consolidation Debt Service Funds will be used to establish wetland mitigation banks to finance wetland mitigation projects. For example, the NJ Department of Transportation will be able to build a new highway through a wetland and replace it somewhere else, using the funds in the wetland mitigation bank. This will be public financing of the destruction of wetlands to replace them with man-made wetlands, which the NJ Department of Environmental Protections own studies show do not work. Wetland mitigation projects are the loophole that allows the destruction of environmentally important wetlands.

Company Consolidation Debt Funds will be available for flood control. However, the projects are not really about flood control but are about allowing more development in floodplains. The projects include stream channelizations that will allow for the redelineation of the floodplain, which will then permit developers to build in places they cannot now build. These channelization projects will not actually protect anyone from flooding but will actually increase flooding.

Consolidation Debt Online Dam Pork

Consolidation Debt Free Unlike other bond acts, there is no dedicated source of funding, so we are increasing the states debt without having a stable source of funding to pay for the bonds. This is fiscally irresponsible when the state has a budget crisis. Furthermore since the bonds are not constitutionally dedicated the money could be diverted to close the budget gap. This has already happened with Green Acres, Landfill Closure, Water Supply and other bond acts. The people who will benefit most from Referendum No. 3 are builders, developers, engineering firms, contractors, bonding institutions, bond counsels, cement companies and candidates who will benefit from their campaign contributions.

Debt Problem Frankly, my dear, I dont want a dam! Vote No on Public Question No. 3.

Credit Debt Sierra Club NJ Chapter - 10/8/2003

Topic: Flood Control

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