New Jersey residents, sex offenders, perverts, and pedophiles could be coming to your neighborhood. The latest Governor Jon Corzine scheme not only affects our wallets but threatens our children. How? The Governor and Democrat-controlled Legislature are trying to force more so-called affordable housing [read – Section 8] on every town in New Jersey. The priority for this housing goes to the “hard-to-house.”

Who are the “hard-to-house?” The “hard-to-house,” also known as “special needs populations” by Trenton bureaucrats, includes sex offenders and child predators. Governor Corzine, state legislators, and the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) call the foisting of those predators into areas where your children play “Community integrated housing opportunities.” Parents call the designs of Governor Corzine, the Legislature, and COAH a nightmare. Current state guidelines enable bureaucrats in the Division of Community Affairs (DCA) to force child predators and sex offenders next door to your children’s schools, playgrounds, and parks. The horrors perpetrated on children as a result of Trenton’s housing policies are too atrocious to describe.

Today, parents find it more and more difficult to provide a safe environment for their children. Families in my resort town can attest to the challenges of protecting their children from the intravenous (IV) drug users, mental health patients, homeless, and ex-convicts that many New Jersey towns ship in to Atlantic City.

Parents must take steps to protect their children from the increasing number of perverts and despicable creeps seeking to take advantage of young children in our town and society. There is a reasonable standard of care that parents expect from the justice system. Is it not reasonable for our elected officials to restrict child predators from living around schools, playgrounds, and parks – the areas where children congregate? This common sense is shared by parents, but not by New Jersey courts and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

While Trenton was forcing perverts and pedophiles in to the areas where children play, Galloway Township and Cherry Hill pushed back against Trenton. They passed “Peeping Tom” ordinances that create buffer zones, where sex offenders and child predators cannot live. These “Peeping Tom” buffer zones are within a certain distance of places like schools, parks, and playgrounds. Unfortunately, the New Jersey Appeals Court struck down the municipal sex offender residency restrictions in both Galloway and Cherry Hill. The ACLU defended the sex offenders challenging the ordinances. The Courts, Corzine, and COAH have all sided with pedophiles, rather than our children.

The courts have prevented municipalities from restricting sex offenders’ access to our children. That is disgusting. Parents cannot work through municipal law to take reasonable steps in preventing the molestation and abuse of their children. If this has not affected you yet, it does now. Governor Corzine, the State Legislature, and COAH have all given priority placement to sex offenders, perverts, and pedophiles in so-called affordable housing that taxpayers are forced to fund. Doesn’t it feel good that you can provide a roof and home to men that attack our children’s innocence?

Governor Corzine is forcing so-called affordable housing units on every New Jersey town. Strangely, we hear very little, if anything, about this “hard-to-house” plan, even during an election. It makes New Jersey citizens wonder if our elected officials at the local, county, and state level do not have our children’s best interest in mind. Rather, they are too busy practicing cronyism, providing patronage jobs, increasing spending, and raising our taxes.

Parents and concerned citizens ought to call for a resolution from their municipal government condemning the Appeals Court decision. Our state legislators should act to change the law and/or constitution to allow towns to govern themselves and have the ability to restrict the access of perverts and pedophiles from living next door to you.

Mr. Kurtz and his wife Cara are proud parents of a six-month old son, Blasius. He was recently selected as the first President of the Atlantic City New Republican Club (http://acnewrepublicans.wordpress.com), is the Managing Editor of The Atlantic City Scoop (http://cityofatlantic.wordpress.com), an Atlantic City political blog, and a trustee of www.LibertyandProsperity.com, a constitutional education group.