The Republican head of the Assembly Budget Committee supported calls by Democrats on Tuesday to strengthen ethics codes governing the farmland preservation program. Different ethics laws govern different counties. Greenwald said uniform standards should govern the program across the state. Another Hunterdon County Republican, state Sen. William Schluter, has also backed ethics code reforms. Before they accept taxpayer money for agreeing not to build homes on their property, farmers in Hunterdon County must quit the agricultural development committee which helps decides whose farm gets accepted.
Farmers can remain on the committee, but they refrain from discussing their own property.
Farmland Preservation Executive Director Gregory Romano told budget committee members he did not have an opinion about whether the ethics law should be changed. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Brown Jr. defended the program. Brown denied the state was spending too much money on marginal land owned by politically connected developers. In response to a recent series of stories by the Gannett State Bureau about the farmland preservation program, Brown also said land appraisers hired by the state did a thorough job of evaluating properties. He denied, as he has in recent weeks, that the state pays more than market value for farms.