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Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Assembly hears pleas against property-tax cap’ "...Budget Committee heard testimony from representatives of towns, schools [ NJ Council of County Vo-Techs, GSCS, NJSBA,NJ Principals & Supervisos, NJEA) and public employees who repeatedly questioned the effectiveness of the 2 percent cap agreement reached Saturday by Gov. Christie and legislative leaders...School representatives and lawmakers also expressed concern over how districts would be impacted if the rising cost of educating special-needs students was eliminated as criteria for a tax-cap exemption..."
Wall Street Journal ‘A Modest Proposal in Glen Ridge’ "When the nine Glen Ridge, N.J., school board members hold their annual retreat later this month, they plan to discuss a radical notion: Should the district convert itself into charter schools? "It is unusual, but our budget process this year was very difficult," said Elisabeth Ginsburg, the board president, and constituents asked the board to find ways "to become better educationally and more economically sustainable." Such an extreme possibility reflects exasperation among some New Jersey school districts that have been battered by a loss of state aid as Gov. Chris Christie worked to close a state budget gap. Glen Ridge lost all of its $1.2 million in aid for next year, about 5% of its overall budget..."The frustration is at a fever pitch," said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools..."
Gannett/Asbury Park Press ‘New Jersey mayors against property-tax cap voice concerns’ "...Some lawmakers and education groups also are pushing for an exemption for special education costs. If children with significant challenges must be enrolled in special schools, the costs can run more then $100,000 a year for one child..."
The Record ‘Stile: Tax cap lets Christie boast help's on the way’ "...The new property tax cap is dependent on Christie’s 33 thorny, less glamorous "tool kit" bills that are expected to make it easier for town and school officials to manage costs under the new mandate. The bills will also tame the power of public employee unions...Democratic and Republican legislative have vowed to hunker down on those bills over the summer and have expressed confidence of enacting some of those reforms..."
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Assembly hears pleas against property-tax cap’
Wall Street Journal ‘A Modest Proposal in Glen Ridge’
Gannett/Asbury Park Press ‘New Jersey mayors against property-tax cap voice concerns’
The Record ‘Stile: Tax cap lets Christie boast help's on the way’
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Assembly hears pleas against property-tax cap’ published July 8 2010
By Maya Rao
Inquirer Staff Writer
TRENTON - To impose a 2 percent cap on property-tax increases without addressing what drives up government spending is "the tail wagging the dog," Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt told an Assembly panel on Wednesday.
Collingswood Mayor Jim Maley concurred, warning lawmakers, "The order we're doing this in is not the best way."
The Assembly Budget Committee heard testimony from representatives of towns, schools, and public employees who repeatedly questioned the effectiveness of the 2 percent cap agreement reached Saturday by Gov. Christie and legislative leaders.
The Senate appears poised to approve the revised tax and spending cap bill Thursday. The proposal - which would halve the current 4 percent tax cap and allow far fewer exemptions - is among 33 in a "tool kit" introduced by Christie in May to cut government spending. The Legislature is working to enact some form of the package by fall.
The latest compromise allows for exceptions to the cap on taxes set by towns, counties, and school districts in cases involving increases in student enrollment, health-care expenses, pension costs, and capital expenditures and costs associated with states of emergency.
Yet those who spoke at the Assembly hearing painted a more complicated picture of what drives up government spending, noting that New Jersey towns would face layoffs and service reductions if increases in state-mandated costs were not addressed.
Collingswood's pension bill was $1.2 million this year, up from $150,000 in 2005, Maley said. Between employee health-care costs and pensions, expenditures over which the town has no control, "we will be bankrupt, we will be closing the doors," he said. He called on lawmakers to give towns the option of granting new hires 401(k) pension plans instead.
School representatives and lawmakers also expressed concern over how districts would be impacted if the rising cost of educating special-needs students was eliminated as criteria for a tax-cap exemption.
Jennifer Keyes-Maloney of the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association said districts had requested waivers to cover special education costs more than any other reason. Not allowing it, she said, would have a "devastating impact."
Consider Cherry Hill. State records show that the average tax bill in the township jumped 72 percent - to $7,443 - since 2000, despite minimal increases in Cherry Hill's student enrollment and population.
Part of the increase was driven by the public schools' growing proportion of special-needs students: Enrollment in the category has increased to 17 percent of the student population, up from 9.4 percent, according to documents provided by the district.
Cherry Hill's two high schools are recognized as among the best in the nation, Platt told lawmakers. The district's "mission will be compromised" if the tax cap does not take into account rising special-education costs.
A representative of the state teachers' union questioned why the cap didn't allow for exemptions permitted under the current system for energy costs and reductions in state aid. The state budget signed into law last week cut $446 million in aid to towns and $819 million to schools.
The mandated expenses cited in arguments against details of the tax cap illustrated the challenges faced by state and local officials as they struggle to keep a lid on property taxes that already are the nation's highest.
Christie originally proposed a 2.5 percent "hard" cap, with an exception only for debt service. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) pitched a slightly higher cap with many more exemptions, including health insurance - a cost many local governments say increases annually by double-digit percentages.
"We're all laying off people left and right, and it's going to just increase unless we will be able to have the ability to control costs," Maley said.
"We need to have a cap, but the cap alone is not going to produce property-tax reform," said Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities.
The Assembly will consider the bill after it is approved by the Senate.
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D., Essex) expressed support for the 2 percent cap in a statement, but she said Wednesday that Assembly members could offer changes to the legislation as "we continually look to ensure the cap remains sensible," especially in regard to needed exemptions.
Contact staff writer Maya Rao at 856-779-3220 or mrao@phillynews.com.
This article contains information from the Associated Press.
Wall Street Journal ‘A Modest Proposal in Glen Ridge’
- NY SCHOOLS
- JULY 8, 2010
By BARBARA MARTINEZ
When the nine Glen Ridge, N.J., school board members hold their annual retreat later this month, they plan to discuss a radical notion: Should the district convert itself into charter schools?
"It is unusual, but our budget process this year was very difficult," said Elisabeth Ginsburg, the board president, and constituents asked the board to find ways "to become better educationally and more economically sustainable."
Ms. Ginsburg stressed that there's no firm plan on the table, but the board is exploring every avenue after a brutal year.
Such an extreme possibility reflects exasperation among some New Jersey school districts that have been battered by a loss of state aid as Gov. Chris Christie worked to close a state budget gap. Glen Ridge lost all of its $1.2 million in aid for next year, about 5% of its overall budget.
"The frustration is at a fever pitch," said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools. Among the 59 school districts in New Jersey that lost all of their state aid, a third are members of Ms. Strickland's organization. All together, her members lost over $300 million from the state for next year.
"In the 20 years that I've been working with school board trustees, I've never seen as a whole the almost depression that school folks and community supporters of schools demonstrate these days," Ms. Strickland said.
Gov. Christie is backing a 2% cap on property-tax increases as well as a series of laws that he says would help hold down costs—especially teacher salaries and benefits.
Ms. Strickland said her districts are "wary" of the cap because if the cost-saving legislation doesn't pass, the cap alone would make school boards' job more difficult.
The governor's office is pushing the Legislature to move on these items during a special summer session, spurred by the fact that property taxes have grown by about 70% in the past decade. Local-level spending grew 69% to $44.7 billion since 2001, according to Mr. Christie's office.
But charter schools—public schools that operate primarily in urban areas where district schools perform poorly—may not be an ideal option for Glen Ridge, a leafy sliver of Essex County, or other well-to-do areas.
Charter schools have to comply with many of the state laws and regulations that govern typical district schools. And they generally do it with fewer public funds than district schools.
New Jersey's charter school law "allows for the conversion of a regular public school to charter-school status," said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. But he said, "No public-school district has taken that step."
He said he is unaware of other districts considering such a move.
In Glen Ridge, Ms. Ginsburg said it's entirely possible that the board will learn that there are no financial or other benefits to converting into a charter organization. But the district just wants some relief from state mandates and information requests that take weeks of administrators' time.
For instance, principals in Glen Ridge are mandated to take an antigang seminar, including the two principals who lead kindergarten through second-grade schools.
"It takes them away for a whole day," said Ms. Ginsburg.
Write to Barbara Martinez at Barbara.Martinez@wsj.com
July 7, 2010 pm Gannett/Asbury Park Press ‘New Jersey mayors against property-tax cap voice concerns’
By MICHAEL SYMONS
STATEHOUSE BUREAU
Mayors opposed to the 2 percent cap on property tax increases hurtling toward approval by the state Legislature voiced their concerns to an Assembly committee Wednesday, taking exception to the exemptions now being excluded.
The mayors of Cherry Hill, Collingswood, East Windsor, Elizabeth and Fanwood urged lawmakers to act on management reforms that would help them control costs before limiting their leeway to raise local revenues. They also said costs beyond local officials' control — for things like special education, tax appeals, state aid losses and reserves for uncollected taxes — should be exempt from the cap.
Such costs are within the compromise 2 percent cap negotiated by Gov. Chris Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney that was announced last Saturday. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver announced Wednesday that the Assembly Democrats support the cap though still have concerns about "some holes" in its details.
"In concept, we support the cap. We know that residents of this state want to see some restraints put on their taxes. But we have to give people at the local level the leverage that they need to make it work for their community," Oliver said. "There continue to be difficulties with the (veto) as issued."
The state Senate is scheduled to vote this morning to concur with the conditional veto Christie delivered this week that puts the terms of the deal reached with Sweeney into legislation.
The state Assembly is expected to follow suit and concur with the conditional veto, perhaps as soon as Monday. It then probably will pursue additional exemptions to the cap in separate legislation in coming weeks.
The 2 percent cap would exempt pension and health care costs, capital expenditures including debt service and costs needed to respond to an emergency, but 10 other exceptions allowed under the current 4 percent cap would be erased. Voters would be allowed to override the cap in a referendum.
Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage said such override votes will almost certainly fail.
"There is no citizen in the state who's going to say, "Oh yeah, I want them to tax me more money,' " he said.
East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov said that perhaps the most significant omission from the cap exemptions is the reserve for uncollected taxes that must be maintained by municipalities to ensure there is enough cash to pay the bills — as well as pay school districts and counties their levies, which are collected by the municipalities. When tax collections drop if taxpayers can't make their payments, a municipality must levy higher property taxes to replenish and expand its reserve.
"It is not logical, it is not fair to omit" it, Mironov said.
Some lawmakers and education groups also are pushing for an exemption for special education costs. If children with significant challenges must be enrolled in special schools, the costs can run more then $100,000 a year for one child.
"That's beyond a town's control," said Assemblyman John McKeon, D-Essex. "You don't want to get a situation where you have mainstream education ever feel, hey, my kid or your kid. It'll be hurtful and destructive to all the good things we've done in the state to help people with special needs."
Mayors acknowledged the rough political terrain they're facing. Collingswood Mayor Jim Maley said Christie has seized on a potent political issue and that the Legislature is following, but he worries lawmakers won't be as keen on tool-kit and pension reforms he says are needed.
"It's popular. It's crazy popular. It's the most popular thing I've ever seen. It's crazy popular with people," Maley said of the reduced tax cap.
"My fear, all of our fear, is that you're not" going to follow through with reforms, Maley said. "It's crazy popular to tell people you owe me less. . . . It's another thing to say to folks I'm reducing your income and benefits and cutting back what you're going to get to work. We don't expect that Trenton will react the same to the latter as it did to the former."
Lawmakers say they will consider the other management reforms that would revise things like civil service and arbitration through the summer, with votes planned for late August or the fall.
The Record ‘Stile: Tax cap lets Christie boast help's on the way’
Thursday, July 8, 2010
By CHARLES STILE
COLUMNIST
Governor Christie was center stage in last weekend’s "Special Session" legislative marathon. And on Wednesday, a relaxed, low-voltage Christie said another performance was being planned.
"Bob’s request is that I do a rain dance to get it to rain sometime this week," Christie said as he stood with Alex "Bob" Puskas, owner of a semi-parched Somerset County farm that included a 20-foot fiberglass Holstein cow, with a crack near its shoulders, standing sentinel in the front field.
"I know all of you will be looking forward to that," Christie said. "We will be putting out an advisory."
Christie has reason to believe the Rain Gods will buckle to his bombast. He pulled off a political long shot last week, wrenching an annual 2 percent cap on property tax increases from the reluctant, Democratic-controlled Legislature. Yes, it is a shadow of the plan Christie championed and blustered with Elmer Gantry zeal in road shows in Rutherford and Ramsey. And yes, Christie capitulated to Democrats’ resistance by discarding his proposal’s biggest selling point, a demand to permanently enshrine the cap — with the help of voters in November — in the state constitution.
But the bottom line is this: There would be no lower property tax "framework," as Christie put it, without his browbeating and evangelizing. He drove the Democrats to drop their lip-service defense of the weaker 4 percent limit enacted by former Gov. Jon Corzine in 2007. He forced the Democrats to ante up and negotiate, largely on his terms.
Also standing in the foreground of Puskas’ 21-acre farm was an oversized and idle John Deere tractor, a fitting post-Special Session symbol for Christie. He drove the issue and re-tilled the political landscape on property taxes.
"I’m a human pressure machine," Christie said with his characteristic Jersey Guy immodesty. "There is no reason for me to take my foot of the pedal now, is there?"
The pressure machine, however, will face a different stress test over the summer doldrums. He knows that the 2 percent cap could easily resemble a leaky and oversold "top kill" cap used to stanch the Gulf of Mexico oil leak. It looked promising in the photos and inspired hope but proved to be no match to the oil plume’s relentless power.
The new property tax cap is dependent on Christie’s 33 thorny, less glamorous "tool kit" bills that are expected to make it easier for town and school officials to manage costs under the new mandate. The bills will also tame the power of public employee unions. Collective bargaining rules would be rewritten and tilt more in favor of management during arbitration, pension benefits would face another round of reform, and towns would no longer be required to enroll in the Civil Service system, which would let local officials ignore seniority in their personnel decisions.
Democratic and Republican legislative have vowed to hunker down on those bills over the summer and have expressed confidence of enacting some of those reforms.
But pieced together, the tool kit is a (another) Christie declaration of war on organized labor. A summer-long session could allow organized labor plenty of time to amount a counterinsurgency, if not to weaken the bills, then to kill them. Unions may not be popular with taxpayers, but now that Corzine has closed his checkbook, labor’s political loot becomes more valuable in the 2011 legislative elections.
The New Jersey Policemen’s Benevolent Association aired a hard-hitting cable television ad late last month, warning that the property tax cap will force towns to lay off cops and even whole departments. In May, the Communications Workers of America gave a foretaste of the battle to come, warning that the Civil Service reforms will let politicians "hand out jobs to their cronies and the politically connected."
Still, the cap agreement, reached with Democratic Senate President Stephen Sweeney, gave Christie a critical public relations shield that will deflect the fallout of a potential perfect storm stirred by his new budget. Property tax bills, mailed out to homeowners next month, will reflect increases. Seniors will no longer receive coveted rebates. Parents will dig deeper to pay for after-school sports programs.
Christie could become the primary target of voter anger. Republicans huddling behind his coattails now may look for refuge elsewhere. But the promise of a coming 2 percent cap, at the very least, lets Christie proclaim that help is on its way.
Sweeney, too, demonstrated a shrewd, tactical retreat. Better to join the bandwagon than let him spend the next six months branding Democrats with the dreaded "O-Word" — obstructionists. The arrangement now defuses the attack, and it was worth noting that the normally combative Christie toned down the partisan rhetoric in recent days. The agreement buys Sweeney – and a reluctant Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver — more time to assert themselves in the clinches over the coming tool kit skirmishes.
"All the rest of this stuff is political posturing. And I understand that’s the way it works in Trenton, I really do," Christie said, responding to Oliver’s initial decision to hold out on the new cap compromise.
Posturing is also a euphemism for acting — or rain dancing — and Christie has demonstrated that as political thespians go, he’s as good as they come.
E-mail: stile@northjersey.com
Governor Christie was center stage in last weekend’s "Special Session" legislative marathon. And on Wednesday, a relaxed, low-voltage Christie said another performance was being planned.
"Bob’s request is that I do a rain dance to get it to rain sometime this week," Christie said as he stood with Alex "Bob" Puskas, owner of a semi-parched Somerset County farm that included a 20-foot fiberglass Holstein cow, with a crack near its shoulders, standing sentinel in the front field.
"I know all of you will be looking forward to that," Christie said. "We will be putting out an advisory."
Christie has reason to believe the Rain Gods will buckle to his bombast. He pulled off a political long shot last week, wrenching an annual 2 percent cap on property tax increases from the reluctant, Democratic-controlled Legislature. Yes, it is a shadow of the plan Christie championed and blustered with Elmer Gantry zeal in road shows in Rutherford and Ramsey. And yes, Christie capitulated to Democrats’ resistance by discarding his proposal’s biggest selling point, a demand to permanently enshrine the cap — with the help of voters in November — in the state constitution.
But the bottom line is this: There would be no lower property tax "framework," as Christie put it, without his browbeating and evangelizing. He drove the Democrats to drop their lip-service defense of the weaker 4 percent limit enacted by former Gov. Jon Corzine in 2007. He forced the Democrats to ante up and negotiate, largely on his terms.
Also standing in the foreground of Puskas’ 21-acre farm was an oversized and idle John Deere tractor, a fitting post-Special Session symbol for Christie. He drove the issue and re-tilled the political landscape on property taxes.
"I’m a human pressure machine," Christie said with his characteristic Jersey Guy immodesty. "There is no reason for me to take my foot of the pedal now, is there?"
The pressure machine, however, will face a different stress test over the summer doldrums. He knows that the 2 percent cap could easily resemble a leaky and oversold "top kill" cap used to stanch the Gulf of Mexico oil leak. It looked promising in the photos and inspired hope but proved to be no match to the oil plume’s relentless power.
The new property tax cap is dependent on Christie’s 33 thorny, less glamorous "tool kit" bills that are expected to make it easier for town and school officials to manage costs under the new mandate. The bills will also tame the power of public employee unions. Collective bargaining rules would be rewritten and tilt more in favor of management during arbitration, pension benefits would face another round of reform, and towns would no longer be required to enroll in the Civil Service system, which would let local officials ignore seniority in their personnel decisions.
Democratic and Republican legislative have vowed to hunker down on those bills over the summer and have expressed confidence of enacting some of those reforms.
But pieced together, the tool kit is a (another) Christie declaration of war on organized labor. A summer-long session could allow organized labor plenty of time to amount a counterinsurgency, if not to weaken the bills, then to kill them. Unions may not be popular with taxpayers, but now that Corzine has closed his checkbook, labor’s political loot becomes more valuable in the 2011 legislative elections.
The New Jersey Policemen’s Benevolent Association aired a hard-hitting cable television ad late last month, warning that the property tax cap will force towns to lay off cops and even whole departments. In May, the Communications Workers of America gave a foretaste of the battle to come, warning that the Civil Service reforms will let politicians "hand out jobs to their cronies and the politically connected."
Still, the cap agreement, reached with Democratic Senate President Stephen Sweeney, gave Christie a critical public relations shield that will deflect the fallout of a potential perfect storm stirred by his new budget. Property tax bills, mailed out to homeowners next month, will reflect increases. Seniors will no longer receive coveted rebates. Parents will dig deeper to pay for after-school sports programs.
Christie could become the primary target of voter anger. Republicans huddling behind his coattails now may look for refuge elsewhere. But the promise of a coming 2 percent cap, at the very least, lets Christie proclaim that help is on its way.
Sweeney, too, demonstrated a shrewd, tactical retreat. Better to join the bandwagon than let him spend the next six months branding Democrats with the dreaded "O-Word" — obstructionists. The arrangement now defuses the attack, and it was worth noting that the normally combative Christie toned down the partisan rhetoric in recent days. The agreement buys Sweeney – and a reluctant Assembly Speaker Shelia Oliver — more time to assert themselves in the clinches over the coming tool kit skirmishes.
"All the rest of this stuff is political posturing. And I understand that’s the way it works in Trenton, I really do," Christie said, responding to Oliver’s initial decision to hold out on the new cap compromise.
Posturing is also a euphemism for acting — or rain dancing — and Christie has demonstrated that as political thespians go, he’s as good as they come.
E-mail: stile@northjersey.com
