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Education chief is now free to see her goals through
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
BY JOHN MOONEY
Star-Ledger
For the past five years, Lucille Davy toiled mostly behind the scenes on education policy, first as a lawyer in the governor's office and then filling in as
So when Gov. Jon Corzine launched a national search this winter for a permanent commissioner, many didn't give Davy a serious chance.
But as the months dragged on and other candidates dropped off, the woman who one former colleague calls "a survivor" began to win over Corzine's staff with her work ethic and intelligence, and three weeks ago the governor named her to the post. The state Senate is expected to confirm Davy's appointment.
Now comes her hardest test yet. Davy faces some big decisions for the state's public schools, from finance and state funding to high school reforms and testing.
Friends and colleagues of the 51-year-old Pennington resident say she doesn't seem daunted. They remark that she works at only one speed -- logging long hours, traveling the state, and sending off e-mail messages into the night. Even as an interim commissioner, she was pressing ahead.
"It doesn't feel anything's different," she said recently. "I always took the job seriously, and whatever I have done before obviously remains useful to what's ahead."
But a few moments later, Davy said the appointment after the long search still felt good: "I'm very excited at the prospect of now finishing the work."
Davy has been acting commissioner since September. She said improving math instruction will be one priority of her tenure.
A former math teacher in Livingston and
"When I came here, the math piece was something I knew I wouldn't be able to get done in six months, but now it's a major front-burner issue again," she said.
Another priority is testing, she said. Davy switched gears on the state's testing program almost immediately after she stepped into the job last fall, pledging to provide exams that would be more useful for teachers and families.
The new system is still under development, but Davy said it will include some significant changes, possibly including exams for each required course instead of the single test now given to 11th-graders.
'VERY UNUSUAL'
Jay Doolan, as one of the top directors in the state Education Department, was involved in much of the work Davy later overturned. But he said Davy won him over with her knowledge of the issues and a willingness to listen.
"We had four or five meetings where she was at the table herself," said Doolan, the state's director of instruction and assessment. "That's very unusual. Normally a commissioner would lay out the vision and charge an assistant commissioner to get it done. Not Lucille."
The rewriting of the state's school funding formula could prove Davy's most daunting task. Corzine brought attention to the problem in his speech to the Legislature Friday, saying the funding formula will be critical in his broader plans to lessen property tax pressures on communities.
"I hope she's given the latitude to have an open ear to all the concerns out there," said Lynne Strickland, a lobbyist for suburban school districts. "There is going to be a lot of competing interests in the funding formula, and hopefully she'll stand tough."
Davy is hardly new to any of these issues or some of the controversies.
Born in
In the late 1990s, Davy worked for Gov. James McGreevey as his education counsel, and she also worked on the staff of the state's Democratic Committee. Her husband, James Davy, was McGreevey's chief of operations and later human services commissioner.
'HEAVY LIFT'
Colleagues speak of how tenacious Davy is.
"She's a survivor because she's very smart and very effective in what she does," said Peter Cammarano, former chief of staff to Richard Codey, who as governor appointed Davy acting commissioner.
"I'm not surprised he (Corzine) kept her on," Cammarano said. "She got the chance to prove herself."
It was during her time in the State House when the latest round of debate erupted over the state's epic Abbott vs. Burke school funding rulings. The state Supreme Court decisions have led to billions of dollars in additional aid to the state's neediest schools, but now the funding is being revisited by the Corzine administration.
David Sciarra, director of the Newark-based advocacy group that led the Abbott vs. Burke suit on behalf of the needy districts, said Davy will have a lot of work ahead in reforming a department that has depleted resources and increased responsibilities.
"The governor himself has conceded that the department has dropped the ball over the last few years in terms of Abbott accountability," said Sciarra. "The commissioner has a heavy lift to get that department in shape."
Davy has built a good relationship with the state's dominant school associations, including the teachers union and the school boards association. Her relationship is a little cooler with local school leaders, who've had five commissioners in the last 10 years.
She's had to defend five years of virtually no additional state aid to a majority of districts, on top of new spending limits. Then, this summer, she chastised suburban superintendents at a breakfast meeting for the perks in their contracts.
Some said the criticism was unfair and was meant only as a distraction from the state's funding freeze.
Davy recently made no apologies.
"That's the way I am; I'm not going to say anything I don't mean," she said. "I'm the first person to support educators, and I think the education profession is a very high calling. ... But, that said, we need to be considerate of the world we live in."
She's not one to criticize and run. After slapping
With continued troubles in
By many accounts, that openness has helped her in a department not accustomed to inclusiveness. And in the end, Davy said, she hopes to be remembered for that.
"I think people think of me as a straight shooter but also one who is going to listen to them," she said.
John Mooney covers education. He may be reached at jmooney@starledger.com or (973) 392-1548.
Don't bank on reduced property taxes just yet
Corzine: Slowing growth is goal
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 08/1/06
BY JONATHAN TAMARI
He also added some detail to several of his proposals to address the state's soaring property tax bills, including the potential for local sales taxes, increased tax relief for renters and a plan that his education commissioner hopes will eliminate some of the disparities between the haves and have-nots in school funding.
With the statewide property tax levy currently at $20 billion and projected to grow to $26 billion by 2010, Corzine said he hopes to instead limit the growth to roughly $22 billion.
"You've made real progress in people's minds," Corzine said, if property tax collections are held to that number and existing tax rebates are turned into direct credits on property tax bills.
Earlier in the day, however, Republicans called for a more dramatic impact.
"If we're not going to do something significant, and we're just going to nibble around the edges, we might as well not be here," said Assemblyman Joseph R. Malone III, R-Burlington.
Fleshing out proposals
During a 43-minute question-and-answer session with reporters, Corzine also detailed some of the property tax reform initiatives he outlined last Friday.
He said he hopes to look at some of the sales tax expansions proposed earlier this month as an alternative way to raise money. Corzine also said municipalities, which currently depend almost exclusively on property taxes, may be allowed to charge impact fees to developers or a local sales tax as alternatives.
Taking on one of the state's most contentious issues, Department of Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said she hopes to unveil a new school funding formula by the end of the year that would narrow the gap between so-called "Abbott" school districts — which receive enhanced state support as a result of a series of Supreme Court cases — and other needy areas that get far less aid.
Under the new formula, aid would depend on individual students' needs and a community's wealth, Davy said.
"The idea of who's Abbott (and) who's not Abbott is not going to be as relevant in that kind of a formula because if you've got kids that need more, the funding behind that would be greater," she said.
Davy hopes the formula will address the demands by a number of poor, rural schools that have sued the state for additional support.
Districts with less school aid must lean more on local property taxpayers. Davy said she hopes to have a new formula in place by the end of 2006 so it can help next year's school budgets.
Corzine said tax relief may be reworked to give renters and low-income residents more support.
Pension figures
In another area designated for reform, government worker benefits, towns and school districts were hit with another piece of bad news before lawmakers could even get to work. Local governments learned that pension contributions for police, firefighters and public employees will cost $267 million more next year, up to a combined $650 million.
Corzine hopes negotiations with labor unions and action by lawmakers can reduce future costs, though unions plan to fight his proposal for a 401(k)-like system for newly hired employees.
ON THE WEB: Visit our Web site, www.app.com, and look under Special Reports for a link to: Fixing N.J.'s Tax Mess: The Summer Special Session for stories, video, full text of Gov. Corzine's speech, and links to blogs and a forum.
Jonathan Tamari: jtamari@gannett.com
Corzine: Let towns levy sales tax
The Record, Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Corzine will push legislators this summer to give towns the authority to raise money beyond property taxes.
"I think you could look at a whole host of other revenue-raisers at the local level. The one most commonly provided to municipalities in other states is the sales tax," Corzine said.
Giving towns more taxing power was among an array of "relief and reform" proposals Corzine outlined in a speech Friday that opened an unprecedented summer legislative session on property tax reform. Among the ideas he singled out was a plan to allow towns to charge impact fees on developers.
But on Monday, he expanded that to include local sales taxes. However, he saidlocal income taxes are off limits for now. "I don't think we're going to go there," Corzine said.
On Monday, Corzine also identified several short-term priorities, including changes to the current property tax rebates.
He has called for replacing the rebate checks, mailed each September, with a direct credit on property tax bills. Corzine also said he will review the possibility of adjusting the size of the credit based on income level. Seniors now get a $1,200 check regardless of income.
And those who now get the rebates might not get the credits. Corzine said he wants to review the current income levels that determine who qualifies for rebates.
Corzine also said he was "desperate" to complete revisions of the school-funding formula soon. He said one goal of the new formula would be distributing state aid according to the location of poor students instead of a rigid list of needy districts.
Corzine has supported increasing property tax rebates since last year's campaign for governor, arguing that they help soften the burden on lower- and middle-income homeowners. But instead of doubling the funds dedicated to the program as he had promised, Corzine proposed only a modest increase this year after reviewing the state's grim fiscal situation. He ultimately agreed to cut the program amid difficult budget negotiations last month.
The governor also has proposed replacing rebate checks with direct credits. Critics often charge that the rebates are an excuse for politicians to put their names on checks, and Corzine has said he is not interested in using them for that purpose.
One prominent rebate skeptic, state Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, said last week that he would be more supportive of direct credits. Codey said taxpayers often don't think of the checks as property tax relief, but the credits would be understood as such.
Corzine discounted Republican calls to immediately cut property tax bills by $3,000 to $5,000., saying: "Where do they think they are going to get the money?"
Republicans said the state should cut more than $2 billion in current operations and use that money to lower local tax bills.
Corzine, however, stressed that the ambitious reform plan he laid out Friday would take time, possibly years, before taxpayers realize savings. "People shouldn't be looking for instant gratification," he said.
