The adoption of the large-scale federal infrastructure package last year will provide New Jersey with a much-needed infusion of several billion dollars to upgrade its infrastructure. Given that the American Society of Civil Engineers gave New Jersey a D+ on the current condition of its infrastructure, it is critical to make sure that this money is spent carefully and that the contractors who are selected to repair our roads and sewage plants and install charging stations for electric vehicles are selected on merit and cost-effectiveness — not as a result of big political contributions.
This new reality is what makes the proposed Election Transparency Act’s virtual elimination of pay-to-play protections not only ill-advised state legislation, but also terribly ill-timed. The act does away with state pay-to-play contribution limits and cancels local pay-to-play reform laws — essentially gutting state and local pay-to-play protections, instead of preparing for better enforcement so New Jersey’s awarding of government contracts won’t waste millions. It was good to see New Jersey’s legislators hit pause on this legislation. It is now essential, however, to ensure this pause is a permanent one and that enforcement against circumvention is increased.
It is essential to recognize that pay-to-play reform is not traditional campaign finance reform. Because bans or limitations on contributions by people and companies seeking government contracts are government contract regulations, pay-to-play protections have withstood court challenges all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, while many campaign finance reform laws, unfortunately, have been struck down.
Political contributions and government contracts
Most importantly, the primary purpose of our state’s existing pay-to-play reform laws are to sever the link between political contributions and lucrative government contracts — not limit the amount of money in politics. Without pay-to-play protections, the public pays more for a lower-quality project and it makes it more likely for projects that are not even needed to proceed. You can be sure that law firms, engineering firms, and accounting firms that work on infrastructure projects factor the cost of making big political contributions into their pricing. Similarly, politicians will steer as much government work to their large campaign contributors as they can, resulting in merit becoming a secondary concern.
The explosion of super PACs and independent expenditure efforts have made increased enforcement of New Jersey’s pay-to-play protections more critical than ever. The answer is not to throw out smart contracting protections under the cover of a broad campaign finance overhaul. The state can and should step up its enforcement of the circumvention clauses that are an important part of the existing pay-to-play laws. Making an example of a couple of violators would have a profound deterrent effect.
Effective oversight and implementation of huge federal infrastructure spending in New Jersey will boost our economy by speeding the distribution of goods and services and creating good-paying jobs. It will make our roads safer and enable us to improve our mass transit systems. And it is critical to the transition to non-carbon-producing renewable energy and to safeguarding our drinking water. That is, if we do it right.
Returning to the old days of trading political contributions for lucrative government contracts ups the risk of wasting our precious tax dollars. We simply can’t afford to go back.