A scheme to expand the powers of the Burlington County Bridge Commission has collapsed, which is the fate it should have met from Day One......The scandal-plagued commission needs to get its own house in order before it starts funneling money through a loan program that uses the county's good credit rating to keep interest rates reasonable.
This week, sentencing was delayed a third time for a commission lobbyist and spokesman who admitted in federal court that he deliberately over billed the commission for several years beginning in 1997.
By most accounts, the activities of Robert Stears resulted in up to $1 million in losses.
The state Attorney General's Office has also subpoenaed the commission to determine what work - if any - state Sen. Martha Bark, R-8th of Medford, performed as a consultant to the Palmyra Cove Nature Park project, this to the tune of $233,101.
The park is under the bridge commission's jurisdiction.
Equally troubling, the Tacony-Palmyra and Burlington-Bristol bridges came up short this summer when federal inspectors found them "structurally deficient" in the aftermath of the collapse of a highway bridge in Minneapolis.
With its less-than-stellar reputation, the commission has a way to go to regain public trust...
...Still, it's hard not to see this loan initiative as an opportunity for more pockets to be lined, more money to be doled out and more power to be wielded by commissioners who were never elected by the people they serve.
This has all occurred under the watchful eyes of the GOP controlling nearly all levels of county government for years. A GOP freeholder board, who made appointments to the bridge commission while 
