Proposed legislation would enforce financial transparency for public institutions after one university nearly collapsed. Some say the bills are redundant, others that they don’t go far enough.
Linda Stamato, former chair of the Board of Governors at Rutgers, the state’s public flagship, said that the bills will be effectively toothless in ensuring fiscal accountability unless they give the state the power to intervene in institutional planning.
“The reason they’re so focused on fiscal accountability is because that’s what’s been in the headlines,” she said. “That’s what’s driving this, because it’s embarrassing for [Governor Phil] Murphy. But there’s no enforcement mechanism built into the legislation, so what’s it really going to do?”