Community Update

The Sourland Conservancy received the following response from the Director of the NJ Sierra Club when we inquired about the way he was quoted in a Hillsborough Township mailer:

Sierra Club Decries Political Dirty Trick in
Hillsborough

Statement by Jeff Tittel, Director, NJ Sierra Club

For
Immediate Release

October
31, 2013

Contact
Jeff Tittel, 609-558-9100

“This
is a political dirty trick and a deliberate mischaracterization of the Sierra
Club’s position. The Hillsborough Republican Election Committee willfully put
in part of a quote without the entire quote to again confuse and misrepresent
Sierra Club’s full position. The people who put out this flyer have basically
lied to the people of Hillsborough when it comes to open space and the Sierra
Club’s position. This is type of stuff that Nixon did during Watergate and just
like Nixon they didn’t think they would get caught. He got caught and we are
catching the Hillsborough Republicans doing the same thing. What they did was
wrong and despicable. "

This
quote came from Sierra Club’s testimony on a state bill to dedicate state sales
tax for open space preservation. What is in bold is the continuation of the
quote that was left out.

 “We
need new revenue for new recreation areas OPEN SPACE AND FARMLAND
PRESERVATION. 80 percent of sales tax revenues come from urban counties and 80
percent of open space monies go to rural counties .The people who pay for
open space should be able to enjoy it.”

 “The
Sierra Club opposes the diversion of open space monies for ball fields
especially artificial turf. There are still plenty of important environmentally
sensitive properties in Hillsborough that need to be acquired. This diversion
will hurt those efforts by promoting sprawl and over development, which will
lead to higher taxes, trafficking, and flooding.”

 “We
are concerned by taking the open space money for other purposes it would lead
to more raids on open space money benefiting developers at the expense of the
people of Hillsborough. We are also concerned since they are willing to do
anything to win that they will do almost anything with this open space money.
We are especially concerned that they would use this for pay to play purposes.
Also use the money to clear cut forest, pave over environmentally sensitive
lands for large scale recreational complexes that could be privatized and are
more a commercial enterprise then they are for public use.”

 “If
they can deliberately lie and mislead on a piece of mail they should not be
trusted with your open space monies. The people of Hillsborough deserve better
and should be working to preserve open space and improve their quality of life.
We are calling on all environmental groups to denounce this dirty trick. We
urge the people of Hillsborough to vote NO against these dirty tricks and for
open space,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.