Dear Mayor:

According to recent press reports, the only thing stopping Senate President and Acting Governor Codey from advancing the bills that would allow the people to decide whether or not they want to authorize a special citizens' convention for property tax reform is the lack of support in the Senate Democratic Caucus.

It appears that the defenders of the status quo have effectively convinced a number of Senators that they should oppose this effort to, once and for all, address New Jersey's chronic over-reliance on regressive property taxes.

Now is the time for all who support the convention approach to property tax reform to contact their State Senators and to impress upon them the facts about the property tax crisis and about these bills.

Please see our three page position statement, which should answer most questions about the convention approach and why we support it. It is available on our website at http://www.njslom.org/constitutional_convention_main.html. The online version of this letter will include a link to that statement.

We have heard some argue that a convention will take too long to deliver reform. If enough Legislators had ignored that argument when a similar bill was first advanced, through the Senate Judiciary Committee, in 2002, the people could have authorized the convention in November, 2003, and they could have approved its recommendations last November, so that today, the people wouldn't have to be out there still waiting for property tax reform.

Also, please make every effort to have your municipality well represented at our June 16 Statehouse Rally for Property Tax Reform. Details on this were included in our letters of May 25 and June 3.

For further information, contact Jon Moran at 609-695-3481, ext. 21.