I have to wonder how long it will be before the national and state housing slump result in massive tax appeals, causing local budgets to spring leakes. And what about the state budget, which is dependent on the economy and already is a mess? Not a pretty picture.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
E-mail me by clicking here.
Gov. Jon Corzine is ready to wade into the swamp that is school funding in New Jersey, a move that could go a long way toward determining what real tax and budget reform will look like.
After more than a year of review, Gov. Jon S. Corzine will propose a new school financing formula as early as next week that would give at least $400 million in new state money to poor and disadvantaged children who live outside traditional inner-city school districts, according to officials familiar with the plan.
The new formula would replace a two-tiered system that concentrates education spending on 31 districts in historically poor cities like Newark, Camden and Paterson.
The current arrangement, known as the Abbott system, has been widely criticized as shortchanging the other 584 districts in largely suburban and rural areas, some of which serve children just as needy. The new approach would apportion money to schools based on the characteristics of the students, including income, language ability and special academic needs.
The new aid formula is likely to create a political firestorm in the state — legislators have irresponsibly pit the urban schools against middle-income suburban ones — and certainly will land in court. This is especially likely because the looming budget gap has killed any chance that the state will boost funding to the level necessary before the plan has been unveiled.
According to the Times, the governor is proposing an increase in school funding of about $400 million, which sounds like a lot but isn’t when you take into account that the state pays such a small portion of school funding across the state now.
That means that, in order to create a formula that addresses the main issues — equalizing funding for rich and poor, ensuring that all students in the state have access to the same level of education, cutting property taxes — school spending in the state will probably have to be cut, a move destined to create more problems than it solves and that could end up benefitting no one, while hurting the court-protected Abbott districts. (And this doesn’t even take into account future funding.)
If that happens, the courts are sure to dismantle the formula, sending everyone back to the drawing board.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
E-mail me by clicking here.
This has been a development long in the making, a proposed science and research center on Route 1 at the township’s border with Plainsboro — a proposal that meets the zoning agreed to by the Township Council and Princeton University back in 2003 as part of a swap of zoning for open space that met little opposition at the time.
On first blush, this development seems a good idea: Loads of tax revenue should be coming our way, while muhc of the impact should take place away from residential areas.
But it is unclear what the traffic impact maybe — whether Route 1 will grow worse, whether Ridge Road or Route 522 will be affected, whether Kingston might find itself deluged.
Kingston residents had some early concerns, but were assuaged by the donation of significant open space, property that is part of a green belt designed to protect the village from encroaching development.
We’ve received one letter about the project — opposed — but it seems too early to react. Let’s see what the final plan looks like before we make up our minds.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
E-mail me by clicking here.
I wrote yesterday about the governor’s announcement that he plans to move forward with his monetization plan, even if it means driving smack into the brick wall of public opinion.
“I’m willing to lose my job if that’s necessary to set our fiscal house in order.”
But, as The Asbury Park Press (an editorial page that I often disagree with) points out, the plan really is nothing more than another gimmick,
borrowing today what will have to be paid back tomorrow through taxes or tolls. It’s another quick fix that will bring an influx of cash that will be quickly frittered away, saddling either the commuters of New Jersey or the next generation of taxpayers with an even heavier financial burden.
The governor is right about the state’s finances and, as he has said over and over, the fiscal condition in the state makes it difficult to do the kinds of things that will make the lives of the people living here better. But gimmicks are the wrong way to address the issue.
The Press says the governor should try a different tack:
Corzine may have faith in his ideas to wring billions of dollars out of the state’s toll roads to cut the state’s borrowing debt in half and provide permanent funding for transportation projects. We don’t. Neither do many of the state’s residents, especially the commuters who would unfairly shoulder the burden of Corzine’s plan with the dramatic increase in tolls.
Corzine should instead insist that the Legislature get to work doing what most households have been forced to do in the face of skyrocketing property taxes over the past several years: Cut spending. He should make the state do what New Jersey families have done as a horde of new taxes and fees has driven their cost of living steadily higher: Eliminate waste and cut out “extras.”
This would be a good start, but it will not be enough. The state needs to completely reform its way of doing business — including streamlining government at all levels and reducing the number of towns and school districts.
New Jersey residents, as well, will have to reconsider what they believe is important. To right the fiscal ship while also cutting property taxes, New Jersey residents will have to sacrifice some things. I can’t say what — that will have to be up to those affected. That’s why we need to convene a constitutional convention that brings nonpolitical representatives together to hash these questions out.
The politicians have had their opportunities and failed miserably. It’s time to give someone else a try.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
E-mail me by clicking here.
There is a good post on Blue Jersey about how Tuesday’s status quo election may offer the Democrats a two-year window to get reform done and that, should they left it close, they are likely to find themselves feeling the wrath of voters.
Here is the response I offered:
I am in complete agreement with Mr. Rudy that the time has passed for reform to take place. Property taxes are too high, there are too many layers of government in this state and too many people with too many hands in too many tills.
But I am less optimistic that the voters want reform. My suspicion, from covering elections over the years and writing about local and state government, is that voters know their is a problem and want it fixed, but that they want it fixed without there being any pain — or at least no pain for them.
So suburban voters are ready to toss the urban school kids overboard and residents of towns who are unlikely to face consolidation want to see consolidation happen elsewhere.
Consider Jamesburg, which has almost no tax base and nearly had to close its library this year. Jamesburg should merge with Monroe — it is the donought hole to Monroe’s donought — but its elected officials are vehemently opposed to consolidation, as are Monroe’s. I understand this from a purely parochial point of view — no one wants to put themselves out of a job — but it is an example of the difficulties that consolidating municipalties will face. That’s why I was chagrined to find that the consolidation commission that was created earlier this year was defanged before it ever came into being (originally, towns would have been forced to merge after a vote of the Legislature).
There is a need for progressives to craft a bold plan for reform — municipal and school consolidation, a general reduction in the number of taxing districts (there are about 1,400 in the state right now), a realignment of the counties (elimination??), a new school-funding formula, an increased reliance on income taxes (this would not only reduce property taxes but change the warped, tax-chasing incentives that drive our land-use decisions), etc.
Much of this may not be popular — as I said, New Jerseyans tend to want others to pay for their reforms — and it could lead to some volatility. I would argue — as Mr. Rudy does — that the volatility already is there.
We’ve wasted too much time spinning our wheels. Let’s get the reform
train moving forward.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
E-mail me by clicking here.
Hank Kalet 