consolidation – Page 2

Consolidating power

http://www.nj.gov/governor/news/video/jw/player-viral.swf
Much of the focus of yesterday’s corruption bust in New Jersey has been on the ugly behavior of the officials involved, the scope of the sting and the bizarre nature of some of the offenses.

But the governor said something yesterday that deserves more attention than it’s been getting. It wasn’t part of the prepared remarks; rather, it came afterward and registered little more than two paragraphs at the end of this story in The Asbury Park Press:

And he said the solution is to reduce New Jersey’s sprawling government — the state and its many authorities and commissions, 21 counties, 566 municipalities, 603 school districts, fire districts and local and county utility authorities.

“We have layers upon layers upon layers of government. And you in the press corps who follow this know how difficult is it to get to consolidation and shared services,” Corzine said. “If there were ever an example of a need to seek some element of consolidation in the efforts of how we deliver government, I think this is testimony. There are so many targets of opportunity for individuals who want to test somebody’s credibility in this state.”

This year’s gubernatorial election is being waged over Corzine’s record and the palpable sense that the state has run off the road and into a massive ditch. There has been a lot of talk about property taxes and the Republicans have talked about cutting government — without much in the way of specifics.

But the ability of this state to function efficiently and ethically is severely compromised by the shear number of government entities — about 1,400 taxing agencies. There may not be another issue as important. We know the governor thinks it’s important, though he has done very little so far to change it. We know little about where Christie stands on the issue.

My questions to the candidates are:

Do the number of municipal governments, school boards and other taxing districts help or hurt the state?
How?
Assuming there are too many, how would you reduce them?

Their answers should be considered when everyone in the state goes into their voting booths in November.

What if there were school districts that had no schools?

The logic of having a school board in a community without schools has always escaped me. Think about it: A district might have 60 or 70 kids, which it ships to another district, paying tuition and transportation. It has little say on how much any of this costs, but it still has to put its budget before the voters. None of this makes any sense, but then, this is New Jersey where the number of taxing entities — state, county, municipal, school, fire, other — numbers more than 1,400.

So, the bill signed by Gov. Jon Corzine the other day eliminating what are called “non-operating school districts” seems like a no-brainer. Unless, of course, you are one of the districts involved.

The legislation clarifies a process that began two years ago, but still has detractors — like Rocky Hill Mayor Ed Zimmerman or Frank Chilson, school board secretary for Rocky Hill and Millstone, two local districts facing extinction:

“It seems it would be very difficult for a Millstone or Rocky Hill resident to be elected to the receiving districts’ schools based on population,” said Frank Chilson, secretary for both school boards.

An injunction was expected to be filed Wednesday on behalf of the Rocky Hill and Millstone school boards in an attempt to stop the shut down, he said. Among its objections, the injunction states that the community was not given the opportunity to vote on the issue, he said.

“It’s really taxation without representation,” Mr. Chilson said.

Borough Mayor Ed Zimmerman said he also is concerned about the disenfranchisement of Rocky Hill voters.

“The biggest issue here is we’ve got nine months of an appointed person over there and then we’ll never have a say in education again, or taxes,” he said.

It is a legitimate concern, though the reality is that the boards in those districts have always had little say. And they have few alternatives.

Rocky Hill is bounded on three sides by Montgomery, with whom it will merge, and Franklin to its north. Milltsone is bounded by Hillsborough, with whom it will merge, and Franklin. The choices would seem to be to merge with one of their neighbors or build a school of their own — which would be absurd.

The reality is that this must be the first step in a longer process of reducing the number of government entities in the state, a process that should slash the number of school districts significantly, as well as the number of municipal governments and eliminate fire districts completely.

There are going to be a lot of angry municipal and school officials as we move forward, but I believe that, in the end, we’ll see tax savings and for some an increase in services.

If two became one

When things become bad enough, towns will consolidate. That, I think, is the lesson that we should be taking from the recent police and courts merger down in Gloucester County.

As the Packet Group paper, the Windsor-Hights Herald, reports, the borough of Swedesboro has disbanded its Police Department and signed a shared-services agreement with Woolwich to take over patrols and court services. The agreement is expected to save Swedesboro taxpayers about $400 annually and Woolwich taxpayers $68 a year.

The consolidation of law-enforcement functions likely wouldn’t have happened, however, were it not for the squeeze put on smaller towns by the Corzine administration, which wants to see local governments streamline, eliminate duplicated services and share services whenever possible,

Consider:

”There had been talk (about sharing a police department with Woolwich) in Swedesboro for as long as I have been mayor, which is about six years,” Swedesboro Mayor Thomas Fromm said Tuesday.

”But when Gov. Corzine announced his municipal aid cuts at budget time last year, that’s when we realized what we had to do. We knew we needed to do something real, and something bold, for our taxpayers, and we began in earnest at that time,” he said.

In 2008, about one-third of Swedesboro’s $2.2 million municipal budget was used for police- related expenditures, according to Mayor Fromm.

Hightstown and East Windsor have been talking for nearly a year, while the two Princetons have gone back and forth for years, slowly merging many smaller services but failing to share police services or go all the way to full consolidation.

As for Jamesburg and Monroe, officials in the two towns treat consolidation like a particularly nasty strain of swine flu.

Consolidation — whether full-bore or incremental — makes fiscal sense for Hightstown and Jamesburg, at least on the surface. Both towns have faced difficult fiscal choices in recent years, with stagnant ratable bases and increasing costs forcing the towns to cut services and increase taxes. Jamesburg even considered closing its public library to give it some budgetary room last year.

East Windsor and Monroe, however, have not felt the same level of pain — but the state’s own fiscal emergency may change that. It is going to get more and more difficult for the state to justify giving cash to towns like Monroe and East Windsor that completely surround their poorer neighbors when it doesn’t have enough money to pay its debts and provide basic services.

Dragging their feet, like everyone else

There are a lot of reasons more towns do not consolidate in New Jersey — debt, tax inequities, an unnecessary sense of singularity — but I’m wondering if the biggest reason might not be foot-dragging that kills discussions before they can start.

Consider the case of Hightstown and East Windsor. An independent group in the borough conducted a study calling for a full-blown study to be done. The Hightstown council was split but agreed to at least explore the issue. East Windsor said it was open to the discussion, but only were it clear that substantial benefits would accrue to the township.

That was three months ago. Informal discussions are set to begin this week, which means that real discussions of a real study are likely still months away.

My guess is that consolidation is unlikely, unless the state does what it should have done following the 2006 legislative joint session and empower a panel to push the process forward. As things stand now, the vague assistance the state can offer is just not enough to get anyone to the table, whether it be East Windsor and Hightstown, Jamesburg and Monroe, the Princetons or the many other doughnut and hole communities and small towns in the state.

Will the Princetons be a test case on consolidation?

Consolidation of the two Princetons is back on the table.

Members of the governing bodies of both towns — along with numerous residents — appear ready to move ahead with a study, despite a history of failed consolidation attempts. At a Monday meeting on the issue, even people who in the past opposed a merger said they were ready to investigate — even if they were not ready to take a position on consolidation.

Borough Councilman David Goldfarb, a past opponent of full municipal consolidation, said, “We should move ahead very carefully, make sure we are all on the same page before we move on to the next step, and don’t make any assumptions.”

Mr. Goldfarb said, “I think we can go forward with the next two or three steps without throwing the c-word in front of everybody and getting an uproar and having everybody taking sides.”

Such a discussion — occurring at a time when the governor is pushing for more shared services and potential municipal and school consolidations — could help frame the debate statewide. The issues — cost savings and services, debt, identity and representation — are the same ones that pop up in every discussion.

And while the Princetons already share more services than most communities — there are probably 20 or so agencies and commissions that operate jointly, including the Planning Board, tax assessment and collection, the Board of Health, the library and the school district — there remains plenty of other areas that could result in savings. Most notable, of course, is the existence of two separate police departments, one of the largest costs incurred by any municipality.

There is no doubt that New Jersey has too many layers of government (can we reform the counties?) and too many municipalities (566!) and school districts (611!) and that we need to streamline. It will require municipal mergers, school regionalization and other changes.

Critics of consolidation dispute this assertion, which is why the Princeton discussion is likely to have implications well beyond the township’s borders (the township is the doughnut that completely surrounds the borough) and even beyond Mercer County and central New Jersey.