2008 Legislative Priorities - New Jersey League of Municipalities

NJLM's
Legislative Priorities for 2008

NJ State Capital - Photo Copyright by Morris A. Enyeart

On Tuesday, January 8, 2008, the 213th Legislature of the State of New Jersey will begin its first Annual Session. With, at a minimum, 12 new State Senators and 22 new members of the General Assembly, who knows what to expect

But, come what may, your League of Municipalities’ intergovernmental relations staff will do their best to promote and protect the vital interests of municipal government.

As it is in so many aspects of life, effective communications will be absolutely essential for success in the legislative arena.

As your representatives in the State Capital, our six governmental affairs agents will be alert to potential problems and possibilities. We know that we can count on them to employ their talents, energies and expertise to protect and promote our interests and the interests of the property taxpayers, who have put their faith in us. But they will need our help.

The League is your League. It speaks on your behalf, and to be effective, it needs you to take an active part. Here are some of the things you can do to help the League help you. Read your Legislative Bulletin and file it for future reference. Establish a dialogue with your own senator and assembly members. Talk with them or write to them about the bills that will be good and bad for your town. Strongly oppose bills that mandate new or increased services at the local level without providing state funding to support them, as well as those that decrease local tax revenue sources.

Don’t forget that you are part of the League. When you receive a special alert, follow through on it. If you do not, you may have to live with the consequences. When you receive notice of a hearing in Trenton, try to have some official in your community come to Trenton to testify. And most importantly, try to enlist the help of your citizens. As taxpayers, they are the ones who will bear the burden of costly programs mandated by the state. Encourage them to support the League position.

Remember, what happens in Trenton has a very direct bearing on your town and your programs and on your ability to serve your citizens. It is vitally important that the Legislature and the Governor be kept informed of the local viewpoint. There is a lot to be done. Work with your League and through your League, so we can get the job done together.

I urge you to read the regular “Legislative Update” column, which appears in each issue of our magazine, New Jersey Municipalities. I counsel you to scrutinize the “Legislative Bulletins,” which we publish after every meeting of our Legislative Committee. I encourage you to heed the “Legislative Alert” letters, which are sent to you, as needed, to mark the progress of important legislation through the law-making process.

If you would like to get more deeply involved in our legislative program, please contact Bill Dressel or me. We’d be happy to make you a member of our Legislative Committee, which meets monthly in the spring and in the fall. And, whenever an issue arises that would profoundly affect you and your municipality, let our legislative team know. If you would be willing to come to Trenton to testify on that issue, you could easily be the difference between success and failure.

Following my letter, you will find a list of the League’s Legislative priorities for the first Annual Session of the 213th Legislature. As you will see, we’ve tried to fathom the depths of an ocean of issues so that we can safely chart a course to public policy success.

Based on our contact with local officials from all around the state—formal meetings, casual conversations, telephone calls, faxes, letters, e-mails—and based on our professional evaluation of the Legislative and Executive branches of state government in January, 2008, these are the issues on which we think we will need to focus our energies and our efforts.

But politics and government remain much more arts than sciences. We’ve long since learned to expect the unexpected. We live in an age when inconveniences can, with lightening speed, bypass the problem stage and emerge as full-blown crises. In fact, it’s when our proverbial legislative radar screen reads clear that we tend to worry the most.

This year—like last year, and the year before that—promises tremendous challenges. But we know that if enough of us involve ourselves in the League Legislative program, then our interests and the interests of our property tax paying constituents, can again be heard, and be acted upon, by our fellow public servants in the Capital.

Thank you for all your support in the past. When we continue to speak together with one voice, we continue to make this State a better place—for ourselves, for our children and for our children’s children. I sincerely look forward to working with you all this year, for a better future for our Garden State.

Very truly yours,

Robert L. Bowser,
Mayor, East Orange
and President, New Jersey League of Municipalities

LAND USE & AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Strengthen participatory democracy by safeguarding the institutions, through which people can, cooperatively, shape the future of their own communities.
Defend the local planning and zoning review process from attack by those who value private profit more than the public’s interest.
Urge support for initiatives which would encourage those who reap the greatest benefits from new development to, more equitably, share the costs of the infrastructural improvements, which that development necessitates.
Continue our review of potentially unnecessary and duplicative bureaucratic requirements which inhibit the construction and renovation of sufficient safe and affordable housing for the families of our less-affluent fellow citizens.

PUBLIC HEALTH & ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Promote policies that will permit communities to achieve and sustain compliance with appropriately high public health and environmental standards.
Advocate a spirit of cooperation among state and local governments, which emphasizes the solution of problems, rather than the assessment of blame.
Foster Legislative and citizen awareness of, and respect for, our public health and environmental priorities; and, thereby, increase our communal quality of life, while decreasing the costs, which will accrue in the long run if remediation efforts become necessary.
Support policies that will permit communities to create flexible solutions to site remediation problems.
Champion efforts to maintain, for future generations, the natural diversity which draws millions of visitors to our State, and to bequeath to our children a healthier and cleaner environment.

TAXATION & FINANCE

Continue to evaluate the outcome of the Special Legislative Session for Property Tax to determine its impact on New Jersey’s regressive and anachronistic over-reliance on property taxes to fund essential public services and programs.
Determine the need for further reforms, which could be effected by a special citizens’ property tax reform convention.
Support, at minimum, statutory levels of property tax relief funding, which must be adjusted to account for inflation, so as not to further exacerbate the burden borne by New Jersey’s families and small businesses.
Oppose further Administration and Legislative Budget proposals that would shift costs from the State to local governments, on the basis of their contributions to the property tax crisis.
Champion policies that will permit local governments to jointly negotiate and enter into contracts so as to provide, for our citizens, the best possible supplies and services at the lowest possible rates.
Support fair and reasonable public pension and benefit reforms that appropriately reward current and retired public servants for their service without inappropriately burdening their fellow citizens.
Continue to advocate for statutory and regulatory changes to address soaring healthcare costs that cause a significant burden on local property taxes.

INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS

Promote and participate in discussions among public servants representing their fellow citizens at the local, state and federal level, in order to best meet the challenges and respond to the opportunities emerging from developments in our state’s and nation’s capital.
Tackle existing mandates by supporting legislative review and repeal or relaxation of unnecessary, unfunded requirements imposed on municipalities in the past and remaining in effect today.
Review, with the intent to repeal, statutory impediments to greater intergovernmental cooperation.
Promote the continuing dialogue between and among neighboring municipalities and school districts in order to find creative and cooperative solutions to existing and emerging problems.