A Quinnipiac Poll issued last week contained what I think is an interesting nugget that indicates that New Jerseyans may not be as selfish as I’ve come to think..
There is no doubt that we have too much government in New Jersey. We have a bloated state government, expensive and often superfluous county governments and more local entities than any other state on a per capita basis. All told, there are more tha 1,400 taxing entities in the state, an absurd figure that creates its own momentum for more and more taxes.
South Brunswick and Monroe, for instance, are each served by five separate and independent taxing authorities — three fire districts, a school district and governing body. Jamesburg is served by three, Cranbury by two, Plainsboro by three and so on.
And yet we keep hearing that consolidation of towns and school districts is off the table.
But what should we make of last week’s poll which showed a huge majority of respondents answer yes to this question:
One recommendation to raise the money needed to fund a cut in property taxes is
to merge neighboring municipal governments and school districts. Would you
support or oppose merging school districts or governments in the county in which
you live if it meant lowering your property taxes?
The numbers: 73 percent favored mergers, with little variation based on political affiliation, gender or race.
And support has increased over the last three years, from 61 percent who said they’d support mergers in 2006 to 73 percent today.
The question, however, is this: Can these poll results be translated into real merger proposals? I’m not so sure. Much of what I know is anecdotal, but my read on the situation based on discussions with people in the area — mayors and council members, school officials, parents, seniors, etc. — is that most people favor mergers when their communities are not affected. Their support, basically, is theoretical.
That said, I think the state could move this question along if it were to force the consolidation question onto the agenda. We have a commission meant to look into the issue — one that has could have had more teeth — but it has been dormant. That was Gov. Jon Corzine’s fault. It’s now in Chris Christie’s hands and I can only hope he will let the committee loose on the question and develop some hard data that can be used to convince voters — forget the mayors — that they may just save some money, get better services and not lose the rather amorphous notion of identity.
Hank Kalet 