SMALLER GOVERNMENT IS BETTER FOR N.J. By Joseph Scarpa Not too long ago, Governor Jon Corzine was crisscrossing the state to pitch his “asset monetization” plan that used the Turnpike and Parkway to pay off state debt. But the Governor’s attempt to raise tolls by billions of dollars and borrow that toll money to pay off state debt was soundly rejected as a fiscal shell game. It was simply like using one credit card to pay off another credit card. Now, Governor Corzine no longer talks of paying down the debt. Instead, he has decided to launch an all-out attack on municipal taxpayers in smaller communities throughout New Jersey to address the state’s budget problems. Governor Corzine, one week before state law requires towns to have completed their budgets for introduction to the public, proposed $189 million in local aid reductions. More than 350 small towns, the backbone of our state, were purposely targeted and the hardest hit. This $189 million really represents a tax increase, not a state spending cut, as Governor Corzine likes to claim. The Governor deliberately decided to slash money specifically approved and earmarked as property tax relief. And just as he had done his best to keep his toll hike plan a secret from the voters until after November 2007 so as not to hurt his party in that election, the Governor kept this plan a secret until the last minute in order to push the blame for his tax increases on small-town officials. Unfortunately, some in the media, including the editorial board of the Record, are buying the Governor’s talking points that smaller towns need to be “reigned in” and made more efficient by consolidating. Well, the facts show just the opposite. Smaller town governments are more cost-effective and responsive to the taxpayers than bigger ones. It is this Governor, and previous Governors, who have insatiable appetites for the taxpayers’ money and are the real root of all our fiscal problems. They are the ones who need to be reigned in. That is why fingers should be pointed at Trenton, rather than at towns with populations under 10,000. Who in their right mind would say that the State of New Jersey, with its $34 billion budget and $32 billion in bonded debt, is efficient? According to municipal records, the 15 towns with the lowest per capita spending are towns with populations under 10,000. 27 of the 30 lowest and 72 of the 100 lowest also have populations under 10,000. Yet the Governor wants to reward bigger cities like Newark and Camden and penalize small towns. Why? Because these larger areas of population deliver votes on Election Day for the Governor. It’s all political, not fiscal. Make the smaller towns bigger and you’ll get more patronage, more spending, higher taxes, and more corruption, but the Governor and company will get more votes. The Governor wants to destroy small towns under the guise of consolidation simply to cater to his constituencies. Governor Corzine was, is, and always will be a big-spending liberal. He is an out-of-touch multi-millionaire who doesn’t like or want smaller government…he wants bigger government. Look at his voting record when he was a U.S. Senator. In 2004, he received a 100% rating from the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), the premier liberal special interest group in the nation. As Governor, look at his actual record, not his rhetoric professing a love for fiscal responsibility. He has implemented a free needle program for illegal drug users, abolished the death penalty to keep murderers alive in prison longer, supported one of the few paid-leave programs for employees in the nation, and nearly doubled state-mandated low income housing (COAH) requirements in communities across New Jersey. He imposed unnecessary and unfunded state mandates that require towns to use local tax dollars to have a certified recycling coordinator, an indoor air quality officer, and soon a certified purchasing agent. He also increased funding last year for higher payouts on the Homestead Rebate when he knew the state couldn’t afford it, and expanded prevailing wage laws to increase construction costs on public projects. Furthermore, Governor Corzine has done nothing to reform costly binding arbitration that drives up police salaries, nothing to recover the millions of dollars unaccounted for in the school construction debacle, and nothing to stop the shady dealings of the EnCap fiasco. As for his demands for towns to share services, let me tell everyone, including Governor Corzine, that local officials in small towns have been doing that to keep taxes down long before 2008. And we never got any help or aid from the state to do it either. My town of Rochelle Park, with its population of about 6,000, has the fourth lowest average property tax bill in Bergen County, no thanks to Governor Corzine. For years, we have shared services with neighboring towns for traffic light repairs, a refueling station, 9-1-1 service, recycling pickups, liability insurance coverage, a DPW Superintendent, and emergency volunteer services. How did Governor Corzine reward us for promoting efficiency? He cut Rochelle Park’s tax relief funding by $359,000. That equates to about a $120 tax increase on every homeowner. That is not a “scare tactic,” as the Record likes to say, it is a fact. The Governor’s proposal is not only unfair to Rochelle Park, it is unfair to all towns with fewer than 10,000 citizens. If any tax relief money absolutely has to be cut, it should be done across the board by the same percentage for all towns regardless of size. Why should towns with fewer than 10,000 people receive a greater than 50% reduction in aid and towns with fewer than 5,000 people receive no aid at all -- when it’s already proven they are both more cost-effective than their larger counterparts? The Governor’s cuts should be phased in as well, and not sprung on us at the 11th hour as we are finalizing our municipal budgets. In addition, it would be fairer if the Governor helped the taxpayers by restoring some of his proposed tax relief funding cuts by using the $32 million he set aside to pay high-priced consultants to “study” sharing services and by using the other $32 million he set aside for wasteful “Christmas tree” spending programs. Right there is $64 million in tax relief aid Governor Corzine can restore to small towns. You know, if Governor Corzine is truly a proponent of consolidation, perhaps his next move should be to merge New Jersey with a bigger state like Pennsylvania (though scandalous New York now appears more compatible). Then we could get rid of him before the next election and before he does anymore damage to our state, our communities, and our taxpayers.
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