The Record: Cash for Contracts
Wed April 28, 2010
The Bergen Record Editorial

NEW JERSEY has done much to curtail pay-to-play, the unsavory practice by which lawyers, construction companies and other public contractors donate to politicians who later hire them for taxpayer-funded jobs.

But those rules apply only to state contracts and campaigns, leaving open hundreds of loopholes in the form of town councils and freeholder boards. Happily, those loopholes have slowly been closing, as officials in 98 New Jersey towns have banned pay-to-play, including in Closter, Ringwood, Teaneck and West Milford.

Three South Jersey counties have also banned the practice, and a group of Bergen residents is lobbying freeholders in Hackensack to follow suit, according to the good-government advocate Citizens' Campaign.

The trend has taken root in Dumont, Staff Writer Ashley Kindergan reported. The council's Ordinance Committee is reviewing pay-to-play laws, including a Citizens' Campaign model that would limit contributions to municipal candidates and parties to $300 by anyone receiving a contract within a year. The model law also would limit to $500 donations to county parties or any political group that supports local races.

That takes square aim at "wheeling," a sort of next-generation pay-to-play that has brought some $38,000 in cash to Democratic candidates in tiny Dumont, a Record investigation found. Under this nefarious practice, contractors take a bank shot into campaign accounts, donating money to a political action group or county party that donates to local campaigns.

Strong pay-to-play laws help protect the public interest. We urge officials in Dumont and any other town or county that has not yet banned pay-to-play to do so. If state elections aren't for sale, municipal and county offices shouldn't be, either.