Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 3

TUESDAY, JULY 25, 2000 ASBURY PARK PRESS PAGE A3 I ry I 1 Jj Franks attacks Corzine's spending plans Wculcl Be TUP tf fionovs Corme I Corin jr. Urgrsl In US. i JM Increases I Mrmiv A Mmmvc I History' 1 4. f-Lj i j- a $630 Billion. Jf A I I j' To be piitl for by TV? If 1" l077c? )D vr i i csf'Vi Taxpayers would foot a big bill, Republican says By ALAN GUENTHER GANNETT STATE BUREAU TRENTON A record tax increase, averaging $4,934.51 per taxpayer, would be required to pay for spending proposals by Democratic U.S.

Senate candidate Jon Corzine, his Republican opponent, Rep. Bob Franks, charged yesterday at a Statehouse news conference. The price tag far four of Corzine's biggest spending proposals totals $756 billion, Franks said. Corzine said Franks' estimates are bogus. But Corzine refused to say what his proposals would, in fact, cost.

Franks complained that Corzine is blessed with a virtually unlimited advertising budget because of his personal fortune. Playing a Corzine TV commercial during the press conference, Franks said the retired Wall Street financier can use a flood of comrpercials to make broad, popular promises "without telling taxpayers what the cost will be." Corzine backs universal long-term care for seniors, universal health care and free higher education for students. Using statistics on Corzine's own campaign Web site, Franks totaled the costs yesterday: $550 billion for free long-term care for senior citizens. popular goals as Corzine but would work at them in a more modest fashion, without spending as much as Corzine. From Corzine campaign headquarters, spokesman Tom Shea said, "I'm not going to get into numbers, other than to say Jon is committed to pursuing these within the context of a balanced budget in a way that allows us to pay down the debt and protect Social Security and Medicare." Shea did offer one specific: He said Corzine wants to offer a $3,000 tax credit for the 11 million families providing long-term care for seniors.

A $3,000 tax credit for the 11 million families would total $33 billion. Asked if that accurately assesses the cost of Corzine's plan, Shea said he didn't know. Franks wants to debate Corzine in all 21 counties in the state. Shea called that debate schedule "ludicrous" and "absurd." He said he is willing to work with Franks to set up a debate schedule that is "mutually agreeable to both candidates." During the recently concluded Democratic primary election, Corzine refused to debate on network-affiliated television. The price tag for Corzine's proposals was pegged at $1 trillion by his primary opponent, former Gov.

Jim Florio. But Florio was buried by Corzine's record-shattering, $35 million campaign, most of which he paid from his estimated $400 million per- -sonal fortune. I Shea said Corzine would not. avoid major network TV debates' during the upcoming election. Rutgers to increase parking-permit fees RUTGERS University officials hope a planned crackdown on unauthorized parking will help solve a perennial parking shortage on the New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses.

Higher parking-permit fees, which will help pay for the crack- down, are part of an overall plan that also envisions construction of new parking decks in the not-too-distant future. Permit fees for students will rise next month from $30 to $40, while fines for violations will jump from $10 to $20. Rutgers will use the added revenues to beef up enforcement patrols during extended hours and to place attendants at lot entrances. 2nd J. woman dies after S.C.

crash ANDERSON, S.C.: A New Jersey woman has become the second person to die from injuries suffered in a crash on Interstate 85. Kimberly Duckett, 27, of Cherry Hill, N.J., died at 1 a.m. Saturday from a head injury received in the three-car collision Thursday on I-85, Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said. Authorities said Duckett was a passenger in a vehicle that struck a car that had collided with an 18-wheeler. The driver of the car, Todd Fee-ney, 18, of Townville, died from neck and chest injuries at the scene of the wreck, authorities said.

Nikolle Hanley, 26, of Merchant-ville, N.J., and two children, 6-year-old Justin Hanley and 5-year-old Alyssa Hanley, were in stable condition Sunday at Anderson Area Medical Center, a hospital spokesman said. From wire reports Battleship set for tow to Camden Associated Press Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio (left) looks over several charts as he assists his colleague Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob questioning Democratic Senate hopeful Jon Corzine's Social Security plan. Franks promised only to provide details of his own proposals in the weeks to come.

Campaigning with House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio, Franks said the Corzine proposals would "bankrupt America." Kasich called the Corzine plan a Ex-Newark mayor is indicted; $110 billion for universal health care. $58 billion for free higher education for students. $38 billion for universal free preschool. Attd what would Franks spend to solve the same problems? He wouldn't say. Associated Press fi "dinosaur" that would stand no chance of approval in Congress.

Kasich declined to discuss presidential politics. His name had been mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush. Franks said he supports the same The money ran out before the work was finished. The elementary school was completed and opened in 1994, but the two middle schools are unfinished, even though they are being used, Assistant U.S.

Attorney Ralph J. Marra said. Also charged was Camille Sa-voca, 53, of Newark, a vice president and 25 percent owner of Gibson Associates, and William Bernowich, 53, of Washing-tonville, N.Y., a firm employee. Arraignment is to be within the next two weeks. The date has not yet been scheduled.

A message left for Gibson Kenneth Gibson at his office was not immediately returned. His lawyer, Cathy Fleming, issued a statement calling the indictment "unfortunate and unwarranted. Mr. Gibson looks forward to clearing his name and is confident when all the facts are elicited, he will be vindicated." The statement said, "Both he and his office have cooperated with all requests for information." Savoca intends to plead innocent and be "completely vindicated," according to her lawyer, Lawrence S. Lustberg.

A message left for Bernowich's lawyer was not immediately returned yesterday. U.S. Attorney Robert J. Cleary declined to say whether the former board members would be charged, I Lj but said the investigation is contin-" uing. Gibson Associates was hired as construction manager in 1991 and billed the Irvington school board $4 million before work was halted in 1995 "due, in part, to cost over- runs," the indictment said.

During that period, Gibson recommended that the school board approve "millions of dollars, in change orders," it said. Work resumed after about a two- year hiatus, Marra said. Prosecutors and school board officials yesterday could not say how much money Gibson and his improperly got, but several items mentioned in the indictment put the amount over six figures. School board President Andrea McElroy said all members from the early 1990s are no longer on the board. Superintendent of Schools Ernest H.

Smith said he has just completed his first year with the district, which has 8,000 students. Gibson and Savoca are also charged with diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars in company funds to personal investments and expenses, but not declaring the 1 money on personal and corporate I income tax returns. 5 No tax liability figure was given, but the indictment said that in 1992, Gibson used over $170,000 in com- y. pany funds for his own use, but certified on his income tax return that he made only $5,760 from his firm that year. The 16 charges Gibson faces carry up to 72 years in prison, but the actual term, if convicted on all 16, would be about five years with- out parole, based on sentencing guidelines, Marra said.

'A (I I V- I'M?" 1 1 i a Kenneth Gibson and two other members of his engineering firm are charged with overbllling the Irvington school board. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWARK Former i Newark Mayor Kenneth A. Gibson, the first black person elected to lead a major Northeastern city, was indicted yesterday on charges he and two business associates cheated the Irvington Board of Education. Gibson is accused of trying to bribe two school board members, and making at least one payoff to one of them. Neither person was.

identified by prosecutors, who said both are no longer on the board. The indictment also charged that his firm routinely billed for work it did not do, and overcharged for other work. Gibson, 68, of Newark, was elected in 1970. He was acquitted of state conspiracy charges in 1982, and served until defeated for a fifth term in 1986 by the current mayor, Sharpe James. The 18-count federal indictment follows a four-year probe by the FBI and IRS into an aborted school construction project.

It charges conspiracy, fraud and tax schemes dating to 1991, when his engineering and consulting firm, Gibson Associates was hired by the Irvington school board for $5 million to manage the project. Irvington sold about $50 million in bonds to build the Thurgood Marshall Elementary School and to renovate two middle schools. Lawmakers who supported the bill said it will allow municipal prosecutors and courts the flexibility to allow plea bargains. Plea bargains are a "workable and successful practice," said Assemblyman Neil Cohen, D-Union. The law is designed to help prosecutors and "speed the flow of traffic cases through the system," state Sen.

Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, said. Horn Equity Loam Refinancing Purchases Debt Consolidation Home Improvements Cash for any reason Bad Credit OK 1-800 Hidden angels One of four angel statues, sculpted in the 1 920s and hidden for more than 50 years since being removed from lightpoles on the Ben Franklin Bridge, is unveiled in Camden yesterday. The statues, called "Winged Victory," will be restored and placed at the gatevays of the soon-to-be-built Delaware River tram spanning the river from Philadelphia to Camden. By CAROL COMEGNO STAFF WRITER PHILADELPHIA V-Day for the battleship New Jersey is two days away and counting. In preparation, workmen will remove the top of the great warship's mast today.

On Thursday, the ship will be towed back to its namesake state to be preserved on the Camden waterfront as a floating museum and memorial just four miles upriver from the old Philadelphia yard where it was built. After a hard-fought battle to bring the ship to Camden, the Home Port Alliance celebrated yesterday. The nonprofit South Jersey coalition won the ship in an uphill fight against the state battleship commission and Bayonne, which also wanted the New Jersey. "This is a momentous day and it makes our maxim birthplace to berthplace a reality. We want to thank all of those who helped in the two-year quest," said retired Navy Capt.

David McGuigan, alliance president. The ship made a journey from Bremerton, last year and is now temporarily moored at a facility for inactive ships at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on the Delaware River. John Morrow of Turnersville, who helped build the ship launched in 1942, was at yesterday's celebration. "When I was working on the ship in the hot summers and cold, winters here, never did I think in my lifetime I would ever see her back for good," said Morrow, 83, a former machinist who sat dockside during the ceremony and gazed up at the ship's name emblazoned on its stern. "I can't wait to see her back in New Jersey.

That's where she belongs." The alliance invited about 100 guests to the ceremony to celebrate Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig's signing of documents that transfer ownership of the vessel to the coalition. The event was for alliance board members and volunteers who helped bring the ship to Camden, including ex-battleship crew members. Rep. H. James Saxton, also attended.

Retired Adm. Thomas Seigen-thaler, alliance executive director, said plans call for the top of the ship's mast to be removed today so it can clear the Walt Whitman Bridge during its tow from about 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday. Gov. Whitman is expected to attend an official state welcome for the ship on Friday, bargains must fit the violation factvbebate ias.com ATTflE MONMOUTH COUNTTFAIR facts don't fit the crime.

Many- claimed that would end plea bargains and clog dockets in local courts. The bill signed by Whitman creates a new traffic violation for drivers who operate vehicles "in an unsafe manner likely to endanger person or property." Guilty drivers are not charged penalty points in first or second offenses. When thev EAST FREEHOLD PARK SHOWGROUNDS New law: Plea THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TRENTON Gov. Whitman signed into law yesterday a measure that creates a new traffic offense and clarifies the rules that allow municipal prosecutors to accept plea bargains, In April, the state's Administrative Office of the Courts said municipal court judges should no longer accept plea deals when the As Low as $37 Per. Mo.

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