Lawmakers look at consolidation

Posted by the Asbury Park Press  and other Gannett newspapers on 08/9/06

BY JONATHAN TAMARI
GANNETT STATE BUREAU

TRENTON — Lawmakers took aim at New Jersey's labyrinth of bureaucracy Tuesday as part of an effort to cut government costs and control growing property tax burdens.

But one former official who tried to trim expenses through consolidation said those plans often fail, or produce only small gains.

"I count myself an advocate of shared services, but I've seen as many failures as successes, especially when the big-buck services are included," said Regan Burkholder, a former municipal administrator who has worked on shared services in Summit and inNorwich, Conn.

As an example, Burkholder told lawmakers on a committee studying government consolidation that six months of work to coordinate with towns around Summit produced $9,000 of savings, or 0.03 percent of the city budget.

Burkholder said it would likely take "coercion," rather than incentives, to save the kind of money that would make a dent in property taxes. He compared shared service deals to sand castles: "Lots of work, undone in a moment."

Democrats and Republicans on the joint committee studying government consolidation, however, said fewer administrators would mean less costs to taxpayers.

Sen. Robert Smith, D—Middlesex, the committee's co-chairman, said New Jersey should look to states that rely on county school districts, instead of the local administration in New Jersey that has produced more school districts than towns. Smith called it "the most inefficient system in the country."

"I believe that maintaining our current system of 616 autonomous districts is inefficient and wasteful, and it only promotes duplication and inequality," Smith said.

But Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, said parents enjoy hands-on, local control.

"They like the sense that they can walk in the door and talk to teachers up to the superintendent and have a viable hand in their kids' education," Strickland said.

The New Jersey School Boards Association said there are pitfalls to consider.

"We don't want to sound obstructionist. We do support consolidation," said NJSBA spokesman Mike Yaple. "But it should lead to educational and economic benefits, and any shift to a county-wide system should be decided by the voters."

Yaple said more than half of school districts save money by not joining the State Health Benefits Program and could pay more if forced to join it. And if districts merge, he said, state law requires the larger district's union contract to be the one used — even if its salaries are more generous and therefore costlier to taxpayers.

"The biggest obstacle would be apportionment — how much each community pays," Yaple said. "When school districts regionalize, the amount they pay changes. So it's a virtual given that one town's taxes will go down, and another town's taxes will go up. The Legislature has always had the ability to consolidate school districts by legislative fiat, and the fact that they haven't done it recognizes some of the very real concerns that taxpayers would have."

Several lawmakers pointed to New Jersey's 1,389 different entities that can levy taxes, including municipalities, school districts and fire districts.

"We can no longer ignore the fact that our state has become a bureaucratic nightmare," said Sen. Joseph Kyrillos Jr., R-Monmouth.

Members of the Somerset County Business Partnership, which helps coordinate government cooperation, said they have had some success in slashing that bureaucracy.

In 2005, partnership officials said, they saved Somerset County towns a combined $13.7 million. But they said those savings alone will not stop growing property taxes.

"Shared services is a means to hold back the deluge. It is a patch on a broken system," said Gregory Bonin, Branchburg Township administrator and president of the Somerset County Municipal Managers Association.

Bonin said existing laws provide significant obstacles to contracting government.

When Branchburg tried to work with the county health department, for example, he found that existing laws would have made the change more expensive, not less.

Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, the committee's co-chairman, said the panel will explore ways to make consolidation easier and encourage cooperation that will streamline government, despite likely opposition.

"This committee was not created for the purpose of winning a popularity contest. It was created for the purpose of initiating and executing change," Wisniewski said.

The New Jersey State League of Municipalities favors voluntary consolidation but "strongly opposes" forced mergers, according to a league statement.

"We believe in self-determination," said the league's executive director William Dressel Jr.

Tax-cut panel focuses on consolidation

Special legislative committee seeks mergers among municipalities and school districts

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

BY TOM HESTER

Star-Ledger Staff

Lawmakers looking at ways to cut property taxes warned local officials yesterday they should prepare for a future of less government and less spending.

"All constituencies and interest groups need to be brought to the table and have a reality check," said Assemblyman John S. Wis niewski (D-Middlesex), co-chairman of a special committee looking at government consolidation and shared services, which held its first meeting yesterday in Trenton.

The state's 616 school districts are clearly in the sights of Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), the panel's other co-chairman.

"I call it the Willie Sutton theory: That is where the money is," said Smith, paraphrasing the infa mous bank robber of 1930s and 1940s. "Sixty-five percent of local property tax dollars go into the schools. That is 616 bureaucracies, 616 school superintendents, 616 lawyers, 616 purchasing departments. It is crazy."

The six members of the Joint Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services, one of four panels leading a special ses sion on property taxes, vowed to examine ways to reduce the 1,389 governments and agencies that have the power to levy taxes in New Jersey. That breaks down to 21 county and 566 municipal governments, the 616 school districts, 186 fire districts and 300 local authorities.

Assemblyman Robert M. Gor don (D-Bergen) indicated that the examination could reach as far as the hometown firehouse.

"Little Wildwood Island in Cape May, a 4.5-square-mile beach with four municipalities, (has) nine firehouses and more fire trucks than the city of Trenton," Gordon said. "The 70 towns of Bergen County ... (have) more fire equipment than the five boroughs of New York, a city with almost 10 times more people."

Smith said he intends to push his idea of establishing 21 county school districts. In each, one staff of administrators would oversee the operation of existing school districts, purchasing, transportation and health and insurance costs while allowing the schools to retain their hometown identity.

It dovetails with legislation sponsored by Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), who wants to create 21 "super" superintendents appointed by the governor who would have the power to promote shared services and approve school budgets and local superintendents' contracts and salaries.

Smith said 11 states have some sort of county-based school systems.

"New Jersey's system of 616 independent school districts, each with its own administrative, transportation, labor, health care and insurance costs, is the most ineffi cient system in the country," he said.

The New Jersey School Boards Association said no more than 58.9 percent of property taxes -- about $11 billion -- goes for school costs. Mike Yaple, a School Boards Association spokesman, said the group does not oppose school consolidation as long as it is approved by voters and can be shown to reduce taxes for all districts involved.

Wisniewski said the committee also will examine streamlining more than 200 state laws and civil service statutes that may impede local government consolidation or shared services, as well as the possible elimination of state government agencies that are no longer needed.

Robert H. Levin, chief of the state Office of Legislative Services' Local Government Section, told the committee that threatening local government with a "stick" to combine could violate the constitutional standard of "state mandate, state pay."

The last time towns consolidated was in 1995, when Paha quarry became part of Hardwick in Warren County. Efforts by eight other pairs of towns since the 1950s failed. There are 70 regional school districts.

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Following article re: Joint Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform, meets in Trenton today, 8-9-06 10 a.m.