The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 2

A-2 Thursday, June 17, 1993THE COURIER-NEWS NEW JERSEYREGION ANALYSIS IN THE REGION How did Jersey find itself in tax-cut mode? wflfeda Associated Press photo New Jersey Sen. Robert Littell, R-Franklin, left, and Assemblyman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-Morris-town, center, co-chairman of the Joint Appropriations Committee, listen to public testimony on the proposed $15.46 million state budget Wednesday in Trenton. Richard Kamin, R-Flanders, sits at right. OPINION Public comments on Legislature's proposed $1 5.46B state budget al submitted in February, the year-ending operating surplus was only $50 million. The Republican-led Legislature reduced Florio's spending including cutting $17 million from vaunted capital programs also financed by the borrowing.

They also took advantage of raised revenue estimates to create a budget with $112.1 million in surplus and $150 million in the tax relief fund. Originally, lawmakers said the relief fund would be used to offset anticipated federal tax increases. Then Florio called it a "slush fund" and said if there was money, they should lower taxes right away. Assembly Speaker Chuck Hay-taian, R-Hackettstown, reportedly plans to introduce a bill today to reduce income tax rates for the middle class. But if the $235 million had not been available to begin with, a $150 million tax cut would have left the state with a minuscule surplus again one of the reasons for the borrowing to begin with.

Spokesmen for the Legislature and Treasurer's Office say revenues cannot be traced from one budget to the next. "You can argue that, but you could also argue 20 different scenarios," said Bob DeSando, spokesman for Haytaian. "The pot of money could come from a number of different sources." He said lawmakers came up with the money by reducing Florio's spending plans. Treasury spokesman Richard McGrath said someone could also argue the tax-cut money came from a $412 million Medicaid reimbursement the state received from the federal government earlier this year. TRENTON (AP) After three years of tight budgets, the Legislature and the Florio administration are squabbling this year over a $150 million "taxpayer relief fund" that presumably will be used to cut taxes.

How did New Jersey get to such a place just in time for an election in which the governor and all 120 legislative seats are on the ballot? An argument can be made that a tax cut would not be possible if the state hadn't borrowed money in December money that will have to be repaid, with interest, starting two years from now. In a refinancing supported by both the administration and legislative leaders, the state borrowed $1.8 billion at low interest rates to replace $900 million in older, high-interest bonds. Under a complicated plan, the other $900 million was deposited in an escrow account and earmarked to pay debt service over 2 Va years. That freed up an equal amount in budgets for that period, and those funds were dedicated to bolster a dangerously low surplus and finance long-delayed construction and renovation projects. Supporters said the projects would produce jobs and spur the economy, hopefully boosting tax collections enough to pay the bill $87 million a year for 17 years starting in July 1995.

The plan called for depositing $235 million of the freed-up funds in the surplus for the current fiscal year, which runs through the end of the month. That money is included at to top of the balance sheet in the budget for next year, but after other revenues are added and appropriations are subtracted, the surplus is much lower. In Gov. Jim Florio's budget propos Five plead innocent to harboring illegal aliens TRENTON Five Chinese men, each appearing somewhat confused by the American legal process, pleaded innocent Wednesday to harboring 57 Chinese immigrants in a Jersey City warehouse. All the men, except for one, are accused of beating the illegal aliens to maintain discipline and prevent escape from the warehouse.

Chun Yen Chiu is charged with renting a house in Jersey City where evidence of alien smuggling was found. Bank off N.Y. commits $71 for housing help NEWARK The Bank of New York committed 71 million Wednesday over the next five years to provide housing aid to poor and middle-income state residents, pushing banks' overall commitment in New Jersey past $1 billion for low-interest loans and mortgages. Under the deal with Bank of New York, the bank will lend at least $50 million over the next five years for low-interest home mortgages along a sliding scale depending on the applicant's percentage of median family income, said bank executive vice president Donald Colby. Master plan contract awarded to Mo.

firm EAST RUTHERFORD The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority awarded a contract Wednesday to develop a master plan for the Mead-owlands sports complex. However, the authority board again deferred a decision on whether to prepare a feasibility study for adding an inflatable dome and luxury suites to Giants Stadium. Commissioners wanted to receive more economic background before deciding whether to go ahead with the feasibility study. The $350,000 contract for the 750-acre complex went to HOK, a Kansas City company that worked on Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Woman arrested after carrying gun into court NEWARK A Newark woman was arrested after carrying an automatic handgun in her purse into the Essex County Courthouse, site of the fatal shooting of a city narcotics detective.

County Sheriff Armando Fon-toura said Betty Jean Williams, 47, told police Tuesday she had confiscated the handgun two months ago from a youth who was playing with it. She placed the gun in her pocketbook and then forgot about it, Fontoura said. Williams was charged with possession of a weapon and taken to the Essex County Jail Annex in North Caldwell after her bail was set at $10,000 with a $1,000 cash alternative, the sheriff said. Compiled from reports by The Associated Press. CRIME cutting $10 million from an $81.5 million pool of money Democratic Gov.

Jim Florio had set aside for the urban hospitals. The federal government was to match the state aid with an equal amount of money, for a total of $163 million for the hospitals. The budget the committee released this week is about $183 million less than the spending plan Florio proposed last January. Almost half that amount, $88.5 million with the cut to the hospital pool included, comes from the Department of Human Services. Florio had proposed a state budget of $4 billion for the department.

Eleanor Stone, executive director of the state Board of Human Services, said the department serves one out of every eight New Jersey residents. Meanwhile, the state's largest public employee union, the Communications Workers of America, criticized the panel's decision to cut $62 million from the "interdepartmental" account. TRENTON (AP) It was a love feast, for the most part. Speaker after speaker at a hearing on the Legislature's proposed $15.46 billion state budget appeared eager to tell lawmakers how much they loved it, in stark contrast to last year's stormy process. Representatives of business, the community colleges, agriculture, the travel and tourism industry, and Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer heaped praise Wednesday on the Republican-controlled Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

But the proposed spending plan wasn't without its detractors. The spending plan does not include a middle-class tax cut, but Assembly Speaker Chuck Haytaian, R-Hackettstown, is expected today to propose an income tax cut for that category of individuals. Sister Jane Frances Brady, president of the Hospital Alliance of New Jersey, asked the panel to reconsider Study: N.J. could lose 1 73,000 jobs to Mexico under pact The project came up with its figures by studying the investment criteria of the AmeriMex Maquiladora Fund. The fund was established by investors in both countries to acquire controlling interests in U.S.

manufacturing companies and then "move all or a portion of the firm's manufacturing operations to Mexico," the study said. isn't an erosion of jobs, (but) we also have to realize that we're in a new global economy and adjust accordingly," Hern said. Hern said 140,000 jobs in New Jersey depend on the exporting of goods, and that traffic in Garden State ports is expected to increase under some sort of free trade agreement. providing enhanced investor protections. J.

Brooke Hern, spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Commerce, said the department was concerned about any possible loss of jobs under NAFTA, but that there was "another side to the coin" to the agreement. "Yeah, we have to make sure there lose more than many others," Stern said. The study, titled "Jobs at Risk" and compiled by the Washington-based Manufacturing Policy Project, revealed that New Jersey ranks 11th out of 48 states reviewed. California heads the list with more than 747,600 jobs potentially at risk, Stern said. Attempts to reach the Manufacturing Policy Project for additional comment Wednesday were unsuccessful.

NAFTA was drafted by the Bush administration to stimulate more direct foreign investment in Mexico by TRENTON (AP) New Jersey could lose 173,000 manufacturing jobs to Mexico if the North American Free Trade Agreement is approved as is, a study released Wednesday said. Ira Stern, spokesman for the New Jersey Fair Trade Campaign, said the study also reveals more than 5.9 million manufacturing jobs throughout the U.S. are at risk under the trade agreement. "This study shows NAFTA could cause a major exodus of jobs to Mexico, and we in New Jersey stand to Lawyer: Confessed murderer did act of mercy for victim's family THE SEMI-ANNUAL STOREWIDE SALE. AN ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE ALL PARTIES CAN ENDORSE.

BEGINS JUNE 17, ONLY AT BROOKS BROTHERS child. Clark and his family lived in Warren more than 30 years ago. The almost weeklong search focused on parts of the Timber Acres development on Forest Drive. It ended, however, after local police, members of the Major Crimes Unit of the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office, FBI agents and police from Montgomery County, were unable to locate a body. Montgomery County State's Attorney Andrew Sonner said police found the body in a 3-foot-deep grave in a wooded area that had been searched last year.

The site was not far from the Houghteling residence and near a campsite the 40-year-old man once used. "I believe he has done this out of a sincere desire to give that family some peace," said defense attorney Benjamin Vaughan. "This was his Attorney says killer identified grave site of Bethesda woman to bring family some peace. ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) Hadden Clark, who confessed to killing a 23-year-old Bethesda woman last fall, had a "sincere desire" to help her family when he identified her grave site, according to his attorney.

Police searching a wooded site in Bethesda Tuesday night found the body of Laura Houghteling, whose disappearance last October led to Clark's arrest and guilty plea on Monday. During the last seven months, police also had searched locations in New Jersey and Massachusetts. A search for Houghteling's body was conducted in Warren Township last November after Clark told authorities that he had buried her body in the yard of a house he lived in as a last act to do something for someone else. "He could have taken this to his grave," Vaughan added. Although Clark's guilty plea to second-degree murder was a result of an agreement with prosecutors, Sonner said the deal at the request of the Houghteling family did not require him to identify the spot where he had disposed of the woman's body.

Sonner said the body appeared to be unclothed and essentially intact. He emphasized that there was no indication that any other bodies were buried in the area. Clark has been investigated in the disappearance of a 6-year-old Silver Spring girl, Michele Dorr, who vanished Memorial Day weekend in 1986. At the time, Clark lived with an older brother next door to the Dorr home. Sonner said there was no evidence of sexual assault on Houghteling from the initial examination of the body, but an autopsy will be conducted by the Maryland Medical Examiner's Office in Baltimore.

Houghteling, a Harvard graduate who had returned last fall to live with her mother, disappeared Oct. 19. Clark, who lived out of his pickup truck and at his makeshift campsite, said he suffocated her with a pillow. He is scheduled for sentencing on June 25. Courier-News Staff Writer Jordan Friedman contributed to this report.

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