The SCC Boondogle

The State Assembly held hearings yesterday on the mismanagement and outright incompetence of the School Construction Corporation (SCC). The SCC was created in 1998 to act as the overseer of the State's school construction program that was mandated by the State Supreme Court. Funded with $6 Billion of your dollars the SCC jumped right into spending it with little or no controls or accountability.

Let's take a look at where we stand after 5 years of ongoing construction. According to Jack Spencer, head of the SCC only $1.66 Bbillion remains of the original $6 Billion tax dollars. By time the SCC has spent the remaining $1.66 Billion it will have completed around one third of the required projects. So according to the head of the SCC it will cost the taxpayers at least another $12 to $18 billion to fund this program. The Ledger today reports that Assemblyman Joe Malone, one of the originators of the SCC bill, "...estimated it will cost another $18billion to $25billion to build the scores of new schools still needed to meet the court mandate." According to Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper in her report on the SCC was full of "waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers dollars."

This is such an outragous story that someone or many someones should be tarred and feathered. $6 Billion in taxpayer money thrown away, and nary a peep from the public. Where is the outrage!