Dealing with the problem at the authorities

by: Jason Springer

Fri Feb 26, 2010 at 10:15:00 AM EST

There are many difficulties facing our state. While state workers have been the aim recently through pension reform and many areas are about to feel the pain of budget cuts, the issue of salaries and benefits at state authorities continues to cast a large shadow. Here are some highlights from the executive summary of the report:

Eight executive officers have base salaries higher than Gov. Chris Christie's $175,000.
There are 748 authority employees paid over $100,000 per year.
About half of the authorities reviewed didn't take part in the state furlough program requiring 10 unpaid leave days.
Several authorities have more paid holidays than the state; provide more generous vacation and/or sick leave; let employees annually "cash in" unused sick and vacation time; and reimburse employees for mileage at the federal rate of 55 cents a mile rather than the state rate of 31 cents.

Some of these positions and salaries are compensated for their benefits through the same pension system Legislators have been so focused on fixing. According to the report, some authorities actually allow employees to cash in unused sick time at the end of each year, not even when they retire. But Speaker Oliver believes that the authorities also need to be included in pension reform plans:

"Why should the Turnpike Authority be excluded? Why should the Sports and Exposition Authority be excluded? It's all taxpayer generated money or money that rightfully belongs in the state treasury even though they are independent authorities."

This would set up a showdown with Senator Sweeney, who wants the Assembly to pass the Senate version so there isn't further delay. He wants reforms at the authorities to move on a parallel track.

While the number of employees at authorities has decreased over the last four years by 2002 employees and the majority have revised their policies to bring them in line with the state, there are still abuses in the system and much more work that needs to be done to reign in some of these authorities. You can see the full Inspector General's report here. In an effort to begin dealing with the problems, the Governor issued Executive Order 15 yesterday:

The governor's 15th executive order bans those public entities from hiring lobbyists to seek influence with his administration, the Legislature or the federal government. It also scales back generous severance packages and caps travel and entertainment expenses for authority employees at $250. Existing contracts permitting lobbying or "golden parachutes" for departing workers must be provided to the governor's office by March 1 and "terminated as soon as legally permissable," Christie said.

You can view the full Executive Order here. Christie acknowledged he will need to go the Legislative route as well to make some of the systemic changes necessary and he has already signaled a willingness to work with Senator Weinberg, who already has legislation in to create more transparency at state authorities.

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More difficulties with mergers and consolidation

by: Jason Springer

Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 03:15:00 PM EST

Anyone who still thinks it's going to be easy as a talking point to fix New Jersey's problems should take a look at a few recent examples to see the roadblocks along the way. First let's look at the proposed merger between Sussex Borough and Wantage, which was voted down last week 3-1:

The consolidation seemed to make sense: The towns already share three regional schools, a construction department and a court system and, served by the State Police, wouldn't have to quibble over police. Plus, the towns had assets (land and utilities) to share. In an unsettling economy, when cutting property taxes is the driving political issue, this one seemed like a rural no-brainer.

They're actually much further along in the process of working together and sharing services than many other towns, but they still said no, despite the projected savings:

According to the Consolidation Study Commission report, the towns - if they merged - could have saved $585,000 in the first year. Future savings could have been greater with even more cost-cutting. That's a nice chunk of change, but it wasn't enough to persuade residents to erase a border - especially those in Sussex Borough, population 2,000.

It will remain to be seen if a Christie administration will force these consolidations, but something is going to have to give because this happens all over the state. Some of the smaller towns feel like they will lose their identity and be swallowed up by the larger town, while the savings are not really worth it. So they're will to pay a little more to keep their Home Rule. Lets look at the recent consideration given to merging just police services in Medford and Medford Lakes:

The budget for the Medford Lakes Police Department is approximately $1.1 million dollars. A consolidation study indicated that Medford Township police officers could provide services for roughly $600,000.
Ten years from now, Medford Lakes predicts its police budget would be approximately $2 million dollars. The study indicated that Medford Township police could provide services for roughly $700,000.
The savings to residents would equate to roughly $1.3 million dollars.

But despite the proposed savings, Medford Lakes council decided the residents wanted to "keep our cops" and voted down the proposal. They didn't even put it to the voters before putting an end to the year long plan and proposed savings. As the Courier Post put it:

We complain of high property taxes...yet balk at any real opportunity to shrink the government's size and cost.

If we're not going to consolidate and merge towns, at least a step in the right direction would be to start with bulk purchasing for better rates. It's not just towns, we have commissions and authorities with bonding power, local school boards, regional school boards, county government, state government and more.

Of course erasing borders and overcoming the feeling that smaller towns are losing their autonomy as they perceive it will be more difficult, but if we don't start taking steps in the right direction we're not going to be walking at all. And we can't afford to stand still anymore.

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