Law would give public vote

By Nathan Mayberg
NEWTON — If a bill now proposed by Assemblyman Parker Space (R-Wantage) had been in effect in 2011 when the Sussex County Board of Freeholders voted to back $27.7 million in bonds, the voters of Sussex County could have decided whether they wanted to be responsible for a relatively new company's bid to install solar panels on schools and municipal buildings.

Back then, the Sussex County Board of Freeholders, of which Space was a part of, voted unanimously to approve backing the bonds for SunLight General Capital, a firm recently started on Wall Street by French financiers.

After a lawsuit by the contractor hired by the now insolvent firm, Sussex County ended up being responsible for paying back the estimated $26 million debt issued by the Morris County Improvement Authority. The county also had to bond $6.5 million to pay the contractor, Power Partners Mastec.

"The solar project that has messed with Sussex County would have been thoroughly examined out in the open, and then put to the voters," Space said in an emailed statement describing the law.

According to a summary of the bill, the law would require a bond ordinance authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds by a county or municipality to go before voters at the next general election following passage by a board of the bonds obligation. Only after the ordinance has been approved could the county or municipality issue the debt or bond obligation.

The bill also has the support locally of Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose (R-Franklin) and State Senator Steve Oroho (R-Franklin).