Joint Leg. Com. on Gov't.  Consolidation & Shared Services

    Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 10:00 AM

    Meeting - Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ

Joint Committee on Gov’t. Consolidation and Shared Services:  for discussion on October 4:

“…Three plans are expected to be presented by the committee, headed by Sen. Bob Smith, a Middlesex Democrat….Next week, the Joint Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services will take up the school districts, an even more explosive topic…”

All the suggestions place the design of local government in the hands of those most affected by it -- the residents. In this rather novel experiment in democracy, the taxpayers will decide what they want. No mergers, no consolidations will happen without voters' say-so. To a certain extent, the size of property tax bills will be determined by those paying them…” (Star Ledger editorial, Oct 2)  

1) Establishes a panel along the lines of the federal base-closing commission, which has recommended shuttering certain military bases. The panel would identify which municipalities would benefit from merging with neighboring towns and would calculate the savings such a consolidation could produce.

2) Eliminates administrative duplication by having counties collect property taxes, do property assessments, provide health services and handle animal control. Again, the voters would have the final say on this service streamlining.

3) Combine fire districts as a way of saving money while increasing efficiency.

Joint Leg.Com. on Con.Reform & Cit. Prop.Tax Con. Convention

    Thursday, October 05, 2006 - 1:00 PM

    Meeting - Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ

The committee will hear testimony from invited speakers regarding property tax caps and spending tax caps as mechanisms for providing property tax relief.