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.
It still amazes me that we need a bill to tell us we shouldn't have school districts without actual schools, but the Governor made things official yesterday:
Gov. Jon Corzine Tuesday signed into law a bill that will clear the way to merge with larger districts 26 small school districts that do not operate schools.
The districts include tiny towns like Teterboro, Tavistock, Hi-Nella and Rocky Hill. Their school boards usually meet just once a year to approve sending a tuition check to a neighboring district.
The Governor called it a positive first step toward school district consolidation. The new law is meant to clarify a 2007 law that got tangled up in taxes. Small districts say they're not the problem and while there may be larger issues, that doesn't mean they should continue to exist. Jay put up a diary with some video on the press conference:No schools will be closed as they merge the districts. I'll put the video the campaign put out below the fold.
