open space – Hank Kalet

Three reasons this is a bad idea — and a fourth that makes it seem good

Three things you need to know about this story:

1. The county had to balance its budget, though I can’t for the life of me figure out how cutting the open space tax does it.

2. All of us could use a tax cut during this climate.

3. Cutting the open space tax is downright short sighted. The reason is that these kinds of measures often prove to be far less temporary than initially claimed.

There is a fourth issue to consider, as well: Cutting funding for open space will hit us down here a the southern end of the county pretty hard, because most of the remaining open space and farmland is in five or six towns. If the county does not have the money, the land will not be preserved — and you can do the rest of the math (while you are sitting in the traffic created by the development that occurs on property that can no longer be preserved).

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Buying the farm

The state’s money troubles could have a severe impact on one of its most popular programs, according to a story today in The Star-Ledger.

The Garden State Preservation Trust, which finances the preservation of New Jersey’s open space and historic sites, yesterday detailed its recommendations for doling out $91 million in farmland preservation money for projects all over the state.

The allocations leave $120 million in the fund — $109 million for open space preservation and parkland development and $11 million for historic site preservation. When that money is given out by the end of this year, the trust will be out of money.

The state is looking to put a funding question on the 2009 ballot, but that will come too late to provide money for next year.

Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Gov. Jon Corzine, said the governor has stressed the need to protect open space throughout New Jersey. Corzine said on June 30 he expects to wait until fall before launching an effort to find more funding for the trust and indicated he wants to look at open space funding as part of the larger issue of funding public works and transportation projects and reducing state debt.

Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), chairman of the upper house’s Environment Committee, said a poll taken by environmental activists in May and June showed more than 60 percent of potential voters support funding open space, either through an $800 million bond issue, a 40 cents per 1,000 gallons of water user fee to raise $150 million annually, or by dedicating sales tax revenue. Smith said it would take a special session of the Legislature to get either proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot.

“The sad part is that if we wait until 2009 for a ballot question the program will have come to a halt,” Smith said. “That would be a shame because now is the time to be buying open space. The state could really get land at a bargain right now.”

And, as anyone who lives in Central Jersey knows, open space and farmland preservation are among the few avenues we have to control sprawl and limit growth.

On a side note, the governor continues to link the fund to transportation projects and debt, meaning he is likely to put another version of the Turnpike plan on the table. That would be a mistake that could imperil both open space and infrastructure programs.

Let’s just be honest with everyone and raise the money openly. One way or another, we’re going to have to pay.

Get the debt under control

I am a supporter of stem-cell researh. And I support open space. But I can’t support either of the state’s ballot questions because the primary issue in New Jersey this year is the state’s fiscal health. Without a plan for getting debt under control, it seems foolish to me to give the state the opportunity to borrow more. The open space vote is more of a close call — the fund is running out of cash — but I think we can wait a year.

Here is our editorial on the questions.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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