Buono: Elected state comptroller needed for N.J. BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer Barbara Buono Sen. Barbara Buono, incumbent Democratic candidate for the state Senate's 18th legislative district, which includes Edison and Metuchen, believes that the state should do more to aid local school districts while, at the same time, increasing oversight of its own expenses. To Buono, deficient levels of state aid for all school districts has been responsible for increasing property tax rates. If New Jersey is to see long-term improvements in this respect, Buono said, the school-funding formula will have to change. "I think people realize that school funding and property taxes are linked inextricably, and it's not even debatable that a more equitable school-funding formula will help reduce property taxes and help municipalities meet their expenses. I have been advocating for a new school-funding formula almost as [long] as I've been in the Legislature, and our districts are seeing expanding enrollments and the choices towns have to increase revenue are limited," Buono said. To this end, she would want to see the state fully reimburse all schools for, at least, the cost of special education, a measure that she had sponsored. This duty should fall, at least in part, on the federal government, Buono said, but since that has not been forthcoming, the state has had to rely on ad hoc funding measures, getting extraordinary aid to a district here and there, all while waiting for the school-funding formula to change. "The single most important prop tax reform that will bring immediate relief must be a new school-funding formula, one fair and equitable and that will not shortchange middle-income suburban school districts," Buono said. To Buono, this means something very simple: the state should provide 50 percent of school funding for all districts in New Jersey. The current system of aid distribution, she said, is leading to disparities between schools and municipalities that she believes are not acceptable. Having a flat, 50-percent aid formula would produce a more equitable system rather than a byzantine maze of who gets what. "I think this is absolutely necessary; the funding formula we have now imposes a wide disparity of the state [aid] to municipalities," said Buono. In particular, she said that the Abbott districts, where poorer, urban districts found to be in need of special assistance, are given more state aid than others, has taken the wrong direction. She said she is currently sponsoring a resolution that would base Abbott aid not on parity with the wealthiest districts, which it does now, but with the state average for per-pupil spending. "I just think we need to follow another approach," Buono said. Increased financial oversight on a state level is something else that Buono believes needs to be addressed. Her thought is that an elected state comptroller position would help rein in excesses in government and force efficiency. Since the position would be an elected one, she said, whoever holds it would be accountable only to the voters. She had once been a supporter of the current model for the position, but withdrew her involvement when she felt it was unacceptably watered down. "The bill was so eviscerated by a lot of these dual-office-holding mayors who went down to the governor's office and lobbied the governor to weaken some of the oversight," Buono said. The position is meant to monitor waste, fraud and abuse in the state. It would centralize budget and audit reviews and provide mandatory preapproval and monitoring of contracts. It would also provide an independent assessment of the fiscal practices and performance of state programs. Because the position would be elected, it would require a constitutional change to institute. Buono said that the position would also be placed under Clean Elections rules to discourage corruption. It would replace the state auditor position. "If people are really serious about saving money and ending fraud, then we need more checks and balances, and that's what an elected comptroller would be," said Buono. When pressed for specifics as to why this position is needed in government, she talked about the state Department of Transportation's Transportation Trust Fund. She believes there has been a "stunning" lack of accountability in the management of the fund's finances and that an elected comptroller, outside the influence of the executive branch, could be applied. "There's billions of dollars involved right now, and we need to be ensuring funds that are expended are directly related to projects and the financial transactions related to programs that are reasonable, particularly when there's billions of dollars involved with the Transportation Trust Fund," Buono said. She does feel that the New Jersey Family Care program needs to be better funded and expanded, saying that the state should have truly universal health care. While she said that any real health-care relief must come from the federal level, the least the state can do until that day comes is to expand its own programs. Edison and Metuchen are part of the 18th Legislative District.