Governor Corzine Signs Landmark New Jersey Stem Cell Research Bond Act

New Jersey Governor's Office ^ | July 27, 2007 | Various

[ZULU]

Jul-26-07 Governor Corzine Signs Landmark New Jersey Stem Cell Research Bond Act

NEWS RELEASE: Governor Jon S. Corzine July 26, 2007 FOR MORE INFORMATION: Press Office - 609-777-2600

GOVERNOR CORZINE SIGNS LANDMARK NEW JERSEY STEM CELL RESEARCH BOND ACT

WEST ORANGE – Governor Jon S. Corzine today signed the New Jersey Stem Cell Research Bond Act, a $450 million bond referendum that will provide financing for stem cell research grants to eligible institutions over a 10 year period.

“New Jersey continues to forge ahead as a pioneer in stem cell research and discovery,” said Governor Corzine. “This ballot initiative represents a landmark economic investment that will create new jobs and spur new business ventures while bringing the potential of revolutionary life-saving treatments and cures to millions afflicted by some of the most devastating diseases and injuries.

“We will be asking the voters for their support, and they can be assured that this funding will be expended and distributed based solely on the scientific merit of projects as judged by an independent review panel,” Corzine said. “At a time when the federal government has taken a step backward, I am proud of our legislative leadership for their support in keeping New Jersey front and center in this promising research that offers hope to so many.”

The Stem Cell Research Bond Act, upon approval by voters, authorizes the sale of State general obligation funds in the amount of $450 million over 10 years. The grants will be awarded by the Commission on Science and Technology subject to evaluation by an independent research review panel and in consultation with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority concerning commercial viability of the projects.

The State Treasurer also must certify that recurring revenues are available annually to meet the operating costs of the program. Research grants cannot exceed $45 million per year. Any of the $45 million not awarded in a year can be carried over to subsequent years.

“The support of each and every voter this November will be crucial in determining the size and scope of our research and, ultimately, the size and scope of the cures we find. The bottom line is that we’re not just committed to leading the way tomorrow, but to leading the way right now. We’ve set New Jersey on a bold new path and today we push forward,” said Senate President Richard J. Codey (D-Essex).

“Every dollar we invest in stem-cell research holds the promise of saving lives and achieving significant breakthroughs in human health,” said Assemblyman Cohen (D-Union). “We have a humanitarian responsibility to do everything possible to encourage the world’s best and brightest minds to conduct stem cell research here in New Jersey. With President Bush’s continued obstinate opposition to virtually all stem cell research, it is left to us to blaze new trails into 21st Century medicine.”

Last fall, Governor Corzine signed into law a bill providing $270 million to build research facilities. In June, nearly $9.2 million in predevelopment funding was approved for the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick, the first to be approved from the $270 million authorized under legislation signed by Governor Corzine. The Stem Cell Institute will receive $150 million of the total amount authorized.

Recently, $10.5 million in research grants was approved by the Commission on Science and Technology, with $5.5 million for two core facilities and nearly $5 million in individual grants to 16 researchers from university and nonprofit institutions in the state.

Sponsors of the legislation (S1091/A3186) were: Senator Dick Codey (District 27); Senator Barbara Buono (District 18); Assemblyman Neil Cohen (District 20); Assemblyman John McKeon (District 27); Assemblywoman Joan Voss (District 38); Assemblyman Michael Panter (District 12); Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula (District 17); Assemblyman Mims Hackett, Jr. (District 27).

###

[ZULU]

New Jersey is one of three states operating in the red. It can't meet its current fiscal obligations without selling assets (monitization) or raising taxes which the current liar in office promised NOT to do.

New Jersey is a perfect example of why Democrats can't be trusted with government.

[tcostell]

It’s worse than that... even if you ignore the actual moral debate about the science, who in their right mind would believe that the same people who brought you the department of motor vehicles now know enough about stem cell research to provide the funding in any sort of rational way?

I’ve written about it at some length here:

http://freenj.blogspot.com/2007/07/so-easy-even-dmv-can-do-it.html

[Eva]

A friend of mine told me that PETA had added, “ethical treatment of plants,” to their protection of animals claim. Someone else pointed out that liberals oppose genetic alteration of plants, but not people. Stem cell experimentation falls into this category because it is really all about cloning.

The liberal agenda is all about power and all the disparate pieces of their agenda all fit together for the same purpose, power to the left. I was researching post modernism at University of WA and I came across a lecture (part of a post modern series) that was entitled, “Should lesbians consider cloning?”

[ZULU]

That’s a great blog site and a great article.

Did you read bout him signing a bill which would mandate lowering of greenhouse gases by private industry, private homeowners and electric power generators - even those providing electricity from out of state? Not only wil that raise the cost of living even more with additional rules and regulations, but it will require a new army of government officials.

I think I have it figured out. The ultimate goal of politicians is to have EVERYBODY working for the government so they can exert total wage and benefit controls on the masses.

Corzine is a liar - he lied about taxes.

He’s also an idiot. Nobody but a total idiot would appoint a nutcase like Zulima Farber to the position of State Attorney General.

[Coleus]

NJ poised to enact comprehensive anti-global warming law
PSEG: Customers need aid to fight Global Warming
Dark sides to ethanol boom

[Coleus]

 

Adult Stem Cells cure, Embryonic Stem Cells have never worked and kill.  See the Benefits of
Adult  Stem Cells to Human Patients - DoNoHarm

Embryonic Stem Cell Funding is Worse than Abortion

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Other People's Body Parts
NJ will give $5M to stem-cell projects (NJ would become the first state to fund embryonic stem cell)
Jersey pumps millions into stem cell drive, 5 research centers to be built

New Jersey Governor Corzine to Push Lawmakers on Stem Cell Research Bill

New Jersey Senate Approves Embryonic Stem Cell Research Measure

[nmh]

BTW this research is with EMBRYONIC stem cell research.

It is NOT ADULT stem cell research where all promise and success has been.

They leave it vague ... “stem cell research” but NJ is pushing EMBRYONIC stem cell research - a LOSER!

[Coleus]

Another reason to vote No on $450 Stem Cell Bond Referendum
Studies: Stem cell, open space borrowing mean big debt hike

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Gov. Jon S. Corzine has spent months arguing the state must tackle mounting debt, yet supports plans to borrow $650 million for stem cell research and open space preservation that new studies show would mean a "significant" debt increase.  Under plans approved by the Legislature, voters would be asked in November whether to authorize borrowing $450 million for stem cell research and $200 million for open space preservation at a cost to taxpayers of up to $52 million per year.

Corzine has expressed support for the stem cell and open space borrowing, but hasn't signed the bills into law.
That support comes as the former Goldman Sachs chairman contends the increasing debt makes it impossible for the state to invest in transportation, public schools, state colleges, health care and other key needs. He's been finalizing a plan to try to make more money off state assets such as toll roads to pay down state debt.  Studies by nonpartisan legislative staff have found the stem cell and open space proposals "would, over time, result in significant debt service costs to the state."  The Office of Legislative Services analysis estimates the stem cell plan would increase state debt by as much as $37 million per year.

Though stem cell grant recipients would have to pay the state a return on any profit they make from the funding, the study cited "uncertainty that grants would result in financial gain." But the Corzine administration noted a 2005 Rutgers University study predicted stem cell research would bring $1.4 billion in new economic activity to New Jersey through 2025, including new tax money and jobs. Corzine spokeswoman Lilo Stainton said money won't be borrowed without voter approval and said the treasurer won't approve grants unless recurring revenue exists to pay the debt, linking stem cell borrowing to Corzine's plans to make money from assets. "The state is already blessed with a strong workforce and an excellent location, but if we fail to invest in the bio-tech industry we will cede high-paying jobs to other locations," Stainton said. The OLS study of the proposed land preservation borrowing found it would increase state debt by $15.27 million per year.

Stainton said Corzine views that as "a stop-gap measure that will help ensure preservation projects can continue while we work with environmentalists and others to create a long-term solution." Assemblyman Richard Merkt, a state borrowing critic, bashed the proposed borrowing. "New Jersey is slowly bleeding to death from state government's borrowing too much to feed its spending addiction," said Merkt, R-Morris. "At some point in the not-too-distant future, the loss of blood will become critical as debt eats up more and more of the state's operating revenues."New Jersey's debt has nearly doubled since 2000 to about $30 billion total and will cost the state about $3 billion this year, about 10 percentent of the state budget. A state report released late last year found New Jersey was the nation's fourth-most indebted state, behind Massachusetts, Hawaii and Connecticut.

[MountainFlower]

“We have a humanitarian responsibility to do everything possible to encourage the world’s best and brightest minds to conduct stem cell research here in New Jersey. With President Bush’s continued obstinate opposition to virtually all stem cell research, it is left to us to blaze new trails into 21st Century medicine.”

so the current lie/ deceit / lingo for the "post-modern" philosophy is to call it "HUMANITARIAN RESPONSIBILITY"?! Hmmmmm! Then they better be sure to use humane means, garner the stem cells from adults and cords of live-born babies and not from killed fetus', eh? But this is the lie to get everyone to buy into the assumptions that stem cell research is being done with no harm to anyone, to bring cures for everyone. Judging by the write up, and their issue with President Bush's limits on stem cell research it is NOT likely they will hold to any ethical standards.

[ZULU]

Yeah - more money, and less incentve for businesses to stay there and pay taxes.

The Dems are all jackasses and Corzine is their chuef.

[ZULU]

Yeah - more money, and less incentve for businesses to stay there and pay taxes.

The Dems are all jackasses and Corzine is their chuef.

[Coleus]

Corzine signs stem-cell research bill

John O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerGov. Jon Corzine greets Carl Riccio after signing the New Jersey Stem Cell Research Bond Act at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange. Riccio was injured in a high school wrestling accident.

Gov. Jon Corzine this afternoon signed legislation giving residents the opportunity to vote on whether the state should borrow $450 million to bankroll stem cell research grants.   During a ceremony at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, Corzine was joined by political leaders, scientists, and rehab experts, who hailed the referendum as a key step in making New Jersey a leader in stem cell research.

"This is one of the most exciting days I've had in my life," the governor said, opening up the event.

Barbara Johnson, mother of Christopher Reeve, attends the signing of the New Jersey Stem Cell Research Bond Act at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation today.

Corzine said he would campaign personally for the referendum (A3186), which will appear on statewide ballots in November.  Among those attending the ceremony was the mother of the late Christopher Reeve, the actor who became a national spokesman for stem cell research after a horse-riding accident left him paralyzed more than a decade ago. The New Jersey stem cell institute, which has already been approved, is going to be named after Reeve, officials said.  "It's an emotional day, a wonderful day," said Reeve's mother, Barbara Johnson of Princeton.

Last month, Corzine and top legislative leaders reached agreement on the plan to seek voter approval to the money to pay for the researchers who will work in the new science labs - a strategy Corzine said repeatedly will keep the state "on the cutting edge" of the emerging stem-cell technology.  The bond issue will finance up to $45 million per year in stem cell grants over 10 years. It replaced a proposal approved by the state Senate (S1091) to provide $230 million in grant support.  Last month, the state Economic Development Authority separately approved $9.1 million for design and pre-development costs of the proposed Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick, a $150 million research institute expected to take about three years to build. The institute will also run satellite facilities in Newark and Camden.

The new stem cell center is scheduled to occupy five floors of a 16-story University Research Tower to be built by Rutgers University, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in downtown New Brunswick.  Anchored by a nine-story parking garage, the new tower will include two stories for the hospital's Cardiovascular Institute and space for a proton beam cancer treatment center as well as the five floors devoted to the stem cell center.  Critics have opposed the state's stem cell research plans, saying they are immoral because the cells often are harvested from human embryos. There was, however, no discussion of the criticism during the bill-signing ceremony.

[MountainFlower]

see post above with picture. :o/

prayers going up over NEW JERSEY! That state will need it...Father keep the eyes of the people open to the TRUTH of this matter. Keep their ears and hearts open that they hear the real words being spoken, and are able to see the deceit and call it for what it is. Father cover the state with the blood of Jesus, that TRUTH will reign on this issue and the vote will be for TRUTH, and LIFE in Jesus Name. Father may the plans of the enemy fall to the ground, null void and powerless, unable to be carried out regarding stem cell research and the abortion industry. May their deceit fall back on them, in Jesus Name, exposing them and the industry for the evil they do. Father, may YOUR TRUTH reign. In Jesus Name, AMEN!

[EODGUY]

Avoidance of the phrase “embryonic stem cell research” was abandoned at the University of Wisconsin Madison as well.

Everything is “Stem cell research” although everyone knows the 350 million dollar research facility being built on campus is for embryonic stem cell research.

I did get a little vicarious enjoyment when the UW Madison was rejected in its quest for a patent for embryonic stem cell research or an integral aspect of the macabre practice that has, to-date, produced NO successes !!

If only the money being dedicated to the destruction of human beings in the embryonic stage was used for adult stem cell research; umbilical cord stem cell research and amniotic cell research, the successes already realized using those methods would multiply exponentially......and no life would be harmed.

EODGUY

[Pinkbell]

"With President Bush’s continued obstinate opposition to virtually all stem cell research, it is left to us to blaze new trails into 21st Century medicine."

This is indeed a lie. President Bush supports all forms of stem cell research, as long as it is not embryonic. Adult stem cell research has been very successful. So far embryonic stem cell research has yielded no results.

[MountainFlower]

so the explicit deletion of “embryonic” from the verbage is another form of deceit, to cover the TRUTH! of course!! but it is slid in there (or should I say OUT OF THERE?) so slick that unless someone has their ‘discernment’ cap on, it will slip by undetected.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

It's happening in all the states with a Rat Governor. These states are taxing with abandon and selling state assets to finance BS schemes like universal health care here in WI, for example.

[ZULU]

Corzine is the Father of all Lies.

He lied about taxes, probably lied about Katz, and probably lies about everything else.

Now he is really pushing monetization to cover unanticipated (???!!!!) public employee benefit shortfalls.

TWO POINTS:

1) If a private company can BUY state highways and then MAKE A PROFIT on the operation, WHY can’t the geniuses in Trenton do the same thing?? I thought Corzine’s forte was business.

2) As far as the public employee pension system is concerned, New Jersey has a big monkey on its back - Jersey Cops.

They can be hired right out of High School - no degree required. After 20 years they can retire at 60% or so of THEIR LAST YEAR OF SERVICE’s TOTAL INCOME INCLUDING OVERTIME. So they work twenty years, rack up as much o/t as possible in the last year, and retire with a big pension - then they get ANOTHER civil service job and rack up a second state pension in another system. They are raping the public.

ALSO, New Jersey has MANY commissions and boards. The State Parole Board, which recently released a 49 year old murdering rapist, is PACKED with political hacks with little or no qualification for their positions and receive $111,466 per year (the chairman gets $123,775)!!!!!! A LOT of these political hacks held elected jobs with very low salaries for many years. When they get appointed to bodies like this, they ADD the total years of PRIOR “employment” as elected official to THREE YEARS at these inflated salaries and the pension they receive is based on their THREE HIGHEST years of “service” AND the number of years in the pension system as “employees”.
They, ALSO, are raping the public.

[ZULU]

Its not just the Rats in Jersey - its also the Jersey Repubs - many of them just Democrat clones.

To wit (or to witless) Chrissy Whitman. She cut state taxes three years in a row by 10%. GOOD JOB. But she didn’t cut “services” or payrolls. On the CONTRARY, the state workforce and expenditures increased on her watch.

She ALSO cut local and state and employee contributions into the state retirement system - because the markets and economy were doing well. And no governor who followed her corrected the problem. Now the state is in hock about $58 billion in pension system payments ALONE - not counting all the other problems the imbeciles and crooks in Trenton have created.

She did all this to help make her look like an economic genius and possibly get into the White House.

But she turned out to be the jerk who helped start New Jersey down the road to future fiscal ruin.

But “Its Her Party Too”!!!