New Jersey Rejects Stem-Cell Bonds in `Big Defeat'
By Terrence Dopp
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Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey voters rejected a $450 million bond measure to fund stem-cell research in a defeat for Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, who backed the proposal with his own money.
The ballot question was defeated by 53 percent to 47 percent, according to the state elections division. The measure would have authorized New Jersey to borrow as much as $45 million annually for 10 years to fund scientists' work in the field.
Corzine said low election turnout, about a quarter of eligible voters, and backlash over the state's fiscal position contributed to the question's rejection. He said stem-cell research could be the subject of another ballot proposition or the state could fund it as part of the state's operating budget.
``The public expects to see the finances of this state put in proper order. We're working on that,'' Corzine told reporters today at the Statehouse. ``This shows people need to be reassured that government is working for them.''
Corzine was elected in 2005, promising to use his experience as a former Goldman, Sachs & Co. chairman to fix New Jersey's finances and tame voter anger over the state's property taxes, the highest in the U.S.. Halfway through his term, he faces a deficit that may exceed $3 billion in the next fiscal year and a state debt load of more than $33.5 billion.
Own Money
The governor campaigned for the stem-cell bond measure and personally donated $150,000 to a group formed to promote its passage. Voters didn't buy Corzine's arguments that borrowing for investment in stem-cell research would attract economic development and help retain business in New Jersey, home to more pharmaceutical companies than any other state in the U.S., said Ingrid Reed, a political scientist at Rutgers University.
``This was clearly a big defeat,'' said Reed, director of Rutgers' Eagleton Project New Jersey in New Brunswick. Voters ``didn't have confidence that this would pay off in the short run,'' she said.
Voters also nixed a measure, opposed by Corzine, to dedicate all of last year's sales-tax increase to property taxes. The rejections marked the first defeats of statewide ballot questions since 1990, when voters turned back a $135 million proposal to fund low-income housing.
Separate ballot questions asking voters to approve $200 million in bonds to preserve open space and historical sites and one striking the term ``idiots and insane people'' from state voter rights laws, were approved.
``It was a mixed message,'' Senate President Richard Codey, a Democrat who sponsored the stem-cell referendum, said in an e- mail. ``They want us to get our fiscal house in order.''
`Quantifiable Payback'
In supporting the stem-cell measure, Corzine, 60, cited a Rutgers study released last month that said the $450 million in funding, coupled with a $270 million stem-cell research institute under construction, would generate $2.2 billion in economic benefit, 30,000 jobs and $115 million in state revenue.
``This has a quantifiable payback, which justifies the borrowing, which is what capital investments are about,'' Corzine said at an Oct. 23 stem-cell center groundbreaking in New Brunswick.
Right-to-life groups are against research using embryonic stem cells, because extracting them by current methods results in the destruction of the embryo they came from. Groups such as the Cato Institute, a Washington-based research group that advocates limited government and free markets, say public funding isn't appropriate for biotechnology ventures.
Anti-Tax Group
The Legal Center for Defense of Life and New Jersey Right to Life unsuccessfully sued to stop the stem-cell measure from appearing on the ballot. The initiative, sponsored by Democrats and endorsed in advertisements by actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, was favored by voters 57 percent to 36 percent in a poll of 1,002 adults conducted Oct. 18-23 by Eagleton. The survey's margin of error is plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.
Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, a Democrat, blamed defeat on a campaign by the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity. The anti-tax group, headed by Republican Steve Lonegan, funded radio, television and road signs portraying the proposals as fiscally irresponsible.
``We cannot afford more debt and spending,'' Lonegan wrote on the group's Web site. ``Adding another $450 million in debt to roll the dice on speculative medical research hardly seems like a smart bet.''
`Confusing Signal'
Roberts said the vote numbers, especially on the property- tax question, which he sponsored, sent a ``confusing signal.''
``I would think there would be continued public support for dedicating every penny, every nickel and every dollar we can get our hands on,'' Roberts said. ``This overall climate of just going in and voting `no' may have spilled over to the sales-tax dedication as well.''
In the Legislature, all 120 seats were up for re-election. In 2003, the last year all lawmakers stood for new terms, turnout was 34 percent, according to state data.
Democrats currently control the Senate 22-18 and the Assembly 50-30. Roberts said a preliminary count showed Republicans gaining two Assembly seats, to give Democrats a 48-32 edge when the next Legislature is sworn in this January. In the Senate, Democrats gained one seat, giving them a 23-17 advantage.
New Jersey's Legislature will have a record number of women, 34, when it swears in new members in January, said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics, a unit of Eagleton. Currently 26 women are state lawmakers.
New Jersey Rejects Stem-Cell Bonds in `Big Defeat'
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