On Municipalities Laying Student Fees

by: IndependentNJ

Tue Apr 06, 2010 at 10:02:54 AM EDT

Recently, I found out that Mahwah, home to Ramapo College (my alma mater), passed a resolution asking for a $100 fee for full time students (half for part time) to support their police, fire, etc. They were joined by other college towns such as Wayne and Montclair.

Of all the stupid ideas that have been churned out by the greedy municipalities this one is the worst. Although I graduated from Ramapo three years ago, I feel like future generations are being jerked around by municipal greed.

In fact, college students have been jerked around by municipalities for many years. Maybe if we didn't have to subsidize all these 566 municipalities (489 of which have their own police force), and 616 school districts, maybe we'd have some money to create a permanent trust fund for the appropriate funding of our college campuses.

When Governor Corzine shut down the state government 4 years ago, there was one item that was being ignored by the media, and that was the cuts to education. Instead, the North/Central Jersey faction of the Democratic Party and the South Jersey faction of the Democratic Party started fighting over whether they should allocate half or whole of the sales tax increase, respectively, towards these perverse subsidies and they shut down the state. Where were the people that believed that maybe all of the sales tax increase (instead of the half proposed by the North/Central faction) should go to debt reduction, because THAT'S WHY WE RAISED THE SALES TAX TO BEGIN WITH.

Everyone talks about making sacrifices, how come the municipalities aren't doing the same.

IndependentNJ :: On Municipalities Laying Student Fees

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On Municipalities Laying Student Fees | 1 comments

To reduce fees: consolidate (0.00 / 0)

In the midst of our prolonged recession the message should be clear that consolidation of municipalities and school boards is needed now. One mayor, or police chief, or DPW chief can manage multiple municipalities. Having so many municipalities and managers only means that smaller towns often end up with less competent managers. Consolidation can lead to better leadership, better results and lower costs. Same for school districts. No large successful corporation would allow for such proliferation. We should not allow it either. In the process of accomplishing consolidation there would be less need for piling a municipality fee on top of all the other fees paid by students.

"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." - Sen. Ted Kennedy

by: Bill Orr @ Tue Apr 06, 2010 at 17:56:22 PM UTC