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     Property Tax Reform, Special Legislative Session & School Funding
11-14-06 Direction of Special Session Report Recommendations starting to leak into press articles
Panel leaning in new direction on school consolidation plans Tuesday, November 14, 2006

The idea of abolishing 600 school districts and replacing them with one for each county has faded in favor of creating "super" county superintendents to oversee local school officials and spending, members of a committee studying the issue said.

Trenton rethinking perk: Retiring at 55 A bipartisan legislative panel is expected tomorrow to recommend raising the retirement age from 55 to 62 for new state workers and requiring all state employees to contribute more to their health insurance plans.

The joint committee is one of four created in July to consider ways to lower property taxes and due to report their recommendations tomorrow. While many of the details are still being worked out, some of the lawmakers' goals are already known: • A reduction of up to 20 percent in most property tax bills next year. • A plan to increase school aid by up to $1 billion. • An increase in the powers of county school superintendents. Members of the committee on government consolidation said yesterday they are moving away from a more drastic proposal to merge all school districts into countywide systems. • Possibly the creation of a state board to identify towns and school districts that should merge, with voters getting the final say.

Panel leaning in new direction on school consolidation plans

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

BY TOM HESTER

Star-Ledger Staff

The idea of abolishing 600 school districts and replacing them with one for each county has faded in favor of creating "super" county superintendents to oversee local school officials and spending, members of a committee studying the issue said.

Another of the more radical ideas considered by the Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services -- the creation of a state board that would identify which towns and school districts should merge -- remained unsettled as legislators debated how to give voters the final say.

Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the committee chairman, also said a proposal to shift fire district elections and budget votes from a Saturday in February to the November general election is being crushed under heavy lobbying by firefighters.

The committee is one of four scheduled to make recommendations Wednesday on ways to reduce New Jersey's property taxes.

"Everybody has been discussing, discussing, discussing," Smith said. "We are coming to a general consensus on what is doable and what is not doable."

A member of the committee, Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R- Burlington), said the report will offer broad ideas on the types of things the Legislature should do. But he added, "It has got to be backed up with serious legislation that gets to the heart of some of the issues," Malone said. "If noth ing happens, people are going to go crazy."

Smith said proposals to cut down on school administration, get towns and schools to consolidate and shift the date of fire district elections have been heavily criticized by interest groups.

"Would you believe the most controversial idea is shifting the fire district elections?" Smith said. "On one hand there is more accountability on fire budgets, on the other hand the argument is let the firefighters do their thing. It's turning into a bit of a bear."

A proposal to shift school board elections and budget votes from April to November will be one of the recommendations.

Smith said his committee's report will also call for funding to promote municipal and school district consolidation or sharing of services. One version would provide the money through tax credits or state aid that would go directly to reducing property tax bills.

Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Mon mouth), a committee member, is a sponsor of a proposal to create a state board that would recommend the consolidation of towns or school districts. He said the board's merger recommendations would not be mandatory, but it was undecided yesterday how the final vote by citizens would be handled.

"Whatever we do," Kyrillos said, "it can't be something to tide us over to allow people political cover. If we don't make reforms, it won't be meaningful and it won't be last ing."

The panel's 100-page report will include several proposals that have not garnered the spotlight. Two are designed to ease health and liability insurance costs for school districts and municipalities. A third would prohibit the use of police officers as emergency dispatchers.

Another would require municipalities that obtain equipment or vehicles through the state's lease- purchase program, such as expensive sewer inspection cameras, to share them with neighboring towns. A fifth would attempt to eliminate the requirement that all health officers who join a consolidated office be paid at the same rate. The remaining bill would combine the state government's computer technology operations under one office.

Tom Hester covers state government. He may be reached at thes ter@starledger.com or (609) 292-0557.

 

 

Trenton rethinking perk: Retiring at 55

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

BY JOE DONOHUE

Star-Ledger Staff

A bipartisan legislative panel is expected tomorrow to recommend raising the retirement age from 55 to 62 for new state workers and requiring all state employees to contribute more to their health insurance plans.

The panel's final report also will recommend a switch to 401(k)-style retirement plans, instead of traditional pensions, for future elected, appointed and part-time officials. And it may call for retired state employees with relatively high incomes to contribute to their post-retirement medical insurance.

The chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform said the panel's recommended changes would have a real impact on fringe-benefit costs. Last year a study commission warned those costs threatened to eventually bankrupt the state.

The joint committee is one of four created in July to consider ways to lower property taxes and due to report their recommendations tomorrow. While many of the details are still being worked out, some of the lawmakers' goals are already known:

·  A reduction of up to 20 percent in most property tax bills next year.

·  A plan to increase school aid by up to $1 billion.

·  An increase in the powers of county school superintendents. Members of the committee on government consolidation said yesterday they are moving away from a more drastic proposal to merge all school districts into countywide systems.

·  Possibly the creation of a state board to identify towns and school districts that should merge, with voters getting the final say.

After the committee on benefits reform met for two hours yesterday, Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), who chairs the panel along with Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Passaic), discussed some of its broader recommendations while emphasizing that many details still were under negotiation.

Scutari said the panel is expected to recommend the age for retirement at full benefits be increased to 62. He said the committee had to balance the need for reform against the fact the state cannot legally alter pension benefits for employees with more than five years of service.

"There's nothing draconian that's being done to current employees," Scutari said. "Most of the changes are moving forward and are going to be prospective."

Leaders of government worker and teacher unions have demanded that any changes in their benefits be negotiated as part of their contracts. The Corzine administration is currently in private talks with state worker unions to obtain a new salary and fringe-benefit contract before the current one ends June 30.

"We're at the table discussing pension and health benefits right now, and that's where the discussions should be exclusively," Carla Katz, president of Local 1034 of the Communications Workers of America, said yesterday.

Pou, who described yesterday's committee meeting as "extremely productive," said the panel recognizes that many changes, such as higher health insurance contributions, will have to be addressed at the bargaining table.

"We don't want to change too many of the rules of what current employees expected when they started their employment," Scutari said. "Moving forward -- that's a completely different story."

During an unrelated news conference, Gov. Jon Corzine said his relationship with legislators so far has been "very cooperative" on benefit issues. "It's very difficult for the Legislature to sit at a negotiating table on a lot of the issues, so we'll work together to try to have a common view on those things that would provide support for the overall program," Corzine said.

One change that could be quickly addressed by legislation, Scutari said, would allow only 401(k)-style pensions instead of traditional pensions for newly elected officials, appointees and part-time workers.

Under another change, officials with more than one public pension would have to choose one of them as their primary pension, instead of combining them to boost their retirement benefits, he said. Also, the committee wants to cap public pensions at the same maximum used by Social Security to collect taxes. Next year, that threshold will be $97,000, Scutari said.

He added that there was discussion, though not yet a consensus, on whether to recommend 10 paid holidays for state workers instead of the 13 they now receive.

Two Republicans on the panel, Sen. William Gormley of Atlantic County and Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole of Essex County, said they submitted 37 suggestions and were satisfied enough with yesterday's discussions that they may support the committee's report instead of writing their own minority report.

"I'm happy they've taken our recommendations very seriously," said O'Toole.

Gregg Edwards, president of the Center for Policy Research of New Jersey, a conservative think tank, said lawmakers should not be timid about seeking legislative reforms, because they have sweetened benefits in the past without any contract talks.

"Full benefits at 55 is a legislative creation. It wasn't done at the bargaining table. It's their obligation to undo that misstep," Edwards said. "They got us into this mess. It's my argument it's their obligation to get us out."

There are 322,000 current members and 121,000 retirees in the pension system for state and municipal government workers. The teacher pension system has 154,000 members and 65,400 retired members. The committee proposals would not apply to members of the police and fire pension systems.

Dunstan McNichol and Jeff Whelan contributed to this report. Joe Donohue covers state government and politics. He may be reached at jdonohue@starledger.com or (609) 989-0208.