Tag: State

Windfall to nowhere

The state apparently did better during the third quarter of the current fiscal year than it initially expected, giving it $533 million more in revenue than expected.

The money, however, won’t go very far — much of it is rightly targeted to debt reduction, though the governor wants to shift some to reverse aid cuts to small towns and restore the state Department of Agriculture, both of which are worthy recipients. But there is no mention of restoring aid to hospitals or higher education, both of which seem more important to me.

And, just as significantly, the extra revenue this year is expected to disappear again during the 2008-2009 budget year. As the Ledger writes, state Treasurer David Rousseau

emphasized the state continues to have serious budget problems despite the windfall, which was based on last year’s tax returns when the economy still was thriving. That isn’t the case now, and Rousseau said he expects revenues in the budget year that begins July 1 to be $159 million lower than anticipated.

So, while the windfall is nice, it means little in the long run.

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

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Your money or your vote

The state budget mess appears likely to put an end to an experiment in democracy that really was never given much of a chance in New Jersey.

According to the Record of Hackensack, the budget for the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission is being cut drastically at a time when its responsibilities are on the rise. That means that some programs could be on the chopping block, including Clean Elections.

This year, amid the state’s fiscal crisis, the agency faces a $750,000 cut in its $4.9 million budget, a reduction that supporters say would hobble a watchdog group they already consider understaffed. ELEC officials say they were blindsided by the fine print of Governor Corzine’s budget, released after his February budget speech.

The agency now has 69 of the 90 employees that legislators approved in 2004 as part of a sweeping ethics package that doubled its work, according to agency officials. ELEC now juggles oversight of lobbyists, government contractors under so-called pay-to-play laws, and public financing programs for state and gubernatorial candidates.

It also continues its traditional oversight of campaign spending: In 2007, the agency collected more than $293,000 in fines from candidates and committee officials who failed to properly file disclosure forms.

“We’re underfunded and don’t have the staff to do the job we’d like to do,” said ELEC analyst Felice Fava, whose job includes training candidates about pay-to-play laws. “Really it’s public disclosure and compliance with these laws that suffer ultimately.”

It’s a question of priorities — do we maintain our watchdogs or allow the wolves to run the henhouse?

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

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Dispatches: Removing redundancies(i.e., the merger moment)

This week’s Dispatches focuses on the need to reduce the number of municipalities in the state, pegged to a proposal from Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts that he says will streamline the new process.

And, as we speak, the Morris County towns of Chester Borough and Chester Township are floating the idea of becoming one municipality.

Bill Cogger and Dennis Verbaro, the mayors of the two municipalities, are meeting today with state officials to explore what it would take to formally become one community, given Gov. Jon Corzine’s effort to drive down the cost of state government by encouraging the mergers of small towns such as the Chesters.

“Merging is a desire both communities wish to explore,” said Cogger, who is mayor of Chester Township. “We’re hoping the (state) government will pass legislation to make the process easier and will make good on its offer to not penalize taxpayers.”

The issues faced in the Chesters appear similar to those that would face other communities — the two Princetons, for instance, or the two Hopewells. Or Monroe and Jamesburg. The difference with Monroe and Jamesburg, of course, is that they do not share a name, though their history is intertwined. Before the late 1800s, Jamesburg was part of Monroe, serving as the town’s business center. And Monroe and Jamesburg kids have always attended high school together — first at Jamesburg High School and then at Monroe Township High School.

All of these towns could achieve some savings — a point that those who refuse to acknowledge. Some, like former Chester Township Mayor Ken Caro, points the finger at larger cities to essentially throw the dogs of the scent.

“(Town mergers) is a myth perpetrated by the state to get the monkey off their back,” Caro said.

“Trenton is afraid to address the real problem — that spending in big cities is what’s out of control. (Former Newark Mayor) Sharpe James stole more in a year than we could save in a hundred in Chester.”

This, of course, perpetuates another myth — that corruption accounts for the lion’s share of excess spending in the state. Corruption is a problem, both in terms of wasted money and confidence in government, but it is foolish to assume that ending corruption will fix our fiscal problems all by itself.

There are 13 elected officials representing Monroe and Jamesburg, two clerks, two administrators, two police chiefs, etc. Merging the two towns would cut all of this in half. Merging also would expand other opportunities — residents would get the benefit of an economy of scale that doesn’t exist now.

Other towns — the Princetons, for instance — would see less direct economic benefit because they share most of the major spending items, but they likely would still see some savings.

Should all of these towns be merged? No. But we should be looking at potential mergers and asking serious questions that, in the end, could result in a reduction in the number of towns and school districts, a reconfiguration of the state’s counties, etc.

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

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Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Consolidating consolidation

Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) wants to streamline the consolidation guidelines approved by the state Legislature last year. But his fix will do little to actually push towns to consolidate.

The reason has to do with the political climate in New Jersey. While I believe we will need to reduce the number of municipalities in the state if we are to begin reining in unnecessary government spending, few municipal governments — and maybe fewer of their residents — appear willing to make the necessary trade offs.

Consider Jamesburg. The town has been in danger of losing its library and offers a skeletal, volunteer recreation program. But its elected officials have promised to fight tooth and nail to keep any merger from happening — mostly because of concerns aboaut identity. At the same time, its officials complain constantly about the level of aid it receives and about being required by the state to fund its public library.

And that doesn’t take into account Monroe, the likely consolidation partner. Monroe has no interest in merging with Jamesburg and also would fight.

(Cranbury is a different case, because of land mass — 14 square miles — and the wealth of its residents gives it the resources required to provide a level of services unavailable in most towns with a similar population. Plus, it historically has gotten by with little state aid and has rarely complained, so it seems to me that the state should probably leave it alone.)

The consolidation panel created last year would have little power to move the two towns toward a merger. Its research can only lead to a recommendation that then must go to the state Legislature and then to voters in the affected towns. It is an unwieldy process that, in the end, faces the same basic hurdles that consolidations have always faced.

Speaker Roberts wants to streamline the process. According to a press release, he wants to remove the Legislature from the process and send recommendations made by the consolidation panel directly to voters in the affected towns. He also wants to allow the state to cut state aid to towns that opt not to follow panel recommendations.

I’m not sure that this will change things much. The governor’s budget already uses municipal aid as a prod, a questionable move that has been met with significant resistence from municipal officials.

I think Roberts is correct when he says that we can “address the problem of our overabundance of local government without sacrificing the individual community identities that make New Jersey such a special place to live.”

“Choosing to continue ignoring these problems will eventually leave us with hundreds of municipalities that are as charmingly colloquial as they are wholly unaffordable.”

I’m just not convinced that the plan he is offering is the best plan to move us past the parochial objections that have frozen us in place for so long.

I’ve written before that I think the consolidation panel should make its recommendations to the Legislature and that the Legislature should make the decision. Even it that were in place, the politics of the issue are such that I could see the Legislature allow recommendations to die by inertia.

I’ve also written, however, that the tax structure is as much to blame for our woes as anything else. Because we rely on property taxes, we have created a government structure designed to bring in ratables and spread macadam.

Let’s fix the weak consolidation panel, but keep in mind that doing will only accomplish so much. Greater reform is needed and needed quickly.

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

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.