Corzine pays his own way

Thursday, May 17, 2007
Bu JOSH MARGOLIN
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

It was bound to be different having a mega-millionaire as governor.

Even before he decided to cover all the medical bills from his car crash, Gov. Jon Corzine was working without a salary and paying many of his own expenses.

A review of records provided by the governor's office shows Corzine paid for more than $53,000 in improvements to the state-owned governor's mansion before the crash. That's on top of $30,000 he spent last year on repairs to the official Governor's Ocean House at Island Beach State Park.

Corzine also uses private helicopters to travel around the state about as often as he uses a State Police chopper.

And in his first year as governor, Corzine returned most of the $90,000 allotted to his office expense fund.

Corzine, 60, is a former chief executive at Goldman Sachs, where he led the charge to take the financial services giant public and reaped a windfall from the deal. He entered politics with a 2000 run for U.S. Senate that cost him $60 million and spent another $42 million on his 2005 run for governor.

With a personal net worth near $200 million, he is the wealthiest governor New Jersey has ever had.

Athough Corzine usually winces when discussion turns to his money, the topic moved front and center after the April 12 crash. As he recovered at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, his staff announced Corzine's entire medical and rehabilitation cost would be covered out of his own pocket.

The bills for his treatment - including three surgeries and more than a week in intensive care - are expected to total hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It's not the first time the governor has spared the state from an expense since taking office in January 2006.

Corzine used a State Police helicopter 48 times during his first year in office to attend a wide range of functions. The trips, which cost the state about $1,200 an hour, included flights from a Marine Corps event in Morristown to a union convention in Atlantic City and from a breakfast at the governor's mansion in Princeton to a convention in Cape May.

"I have tended to use the helicopter a little more than some of the previous governors already," Corzine said during a news conference last Monday.

Former Gov. James E. McGreevey got in political hot water for using the State Police chopper 277 times in 2002, his first year in office. The next year, McGreevey used it only 19 times.

Corzine said in a recent interview that he uses a private helicopter "anytime I have a political thing or a personal thing" to get to.

He does not own a chopper (although he is a part owner of a private jet), but contracts with a private service. Corzine has spent more than $86,000 on the service since taking office, typically using it up to five times a month.

The governor paid more than $4,000 to have a chairlift installed at Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion, then had it taken out after one use because he preferred going up and down the stairs on crutches. Corzine is also paying for the pool to be heated so he can use it in his rehabilitation; that cost has not yet been calculated.

Before the crash, Corzine paid for $53,000 in improvements at Drumthwacket, including $2,100 for electrical work, more than $10,000 for painting and $17,215 for renovations and furnishings in the garden around the pool.

Like governors before him, Corzine was allotted an expense account to be used entirely at his discretion, exempt from public scrutiny. In 2006, $90,645 was deposited in the fund and it was increased to $95,000 for 2007.

For his first year in office, Corzine spent about $36,140 on events including a budget summit at Rutgers, a retreat for his Cabinet and senior staff and breakfast meetings for key officials at Drumthwacket. In the end, Corzine returned $54,505 to the state treasury.