Dear Mayor:

As they prepare to lead the Legislature into special session for property tax reform, we have asked Governor Corzine and the Legislative Leadership to carefully consider the impact of public employee salaries, pensions and benefits on local budgets.

In its recent series, "Runaway Pay," the Bergen Record rightly called public employee compensation "the biggest reason for our fiscal woes." The Record's focus on teachers and public safety officers sheds light on the major problem facing local elected officials and the property taxpaying citizens that they have sworn to serve.

We have urged State policy makers, as a starting point, to use our COPE Report. It was produced as a necessary supplement to the Benefits Review Task Force Report, which focused on the impact of public employee pensions and benefits on the State's Budget. Our COPE Report concentrates on the problem, as it hits local government and as it affects property taxes.

Regionalization and service sharing present excellent opportunities for local savings. That is why so many municipalities are already involved in so many such arrangements. Another good, hard look at how the State can remove impediments to, and encourage greater use of, such relationships can help.

A new look at the State's School Aid formula is also in order, as State level policy makers struggle with ways to help keep a lid on property taxes, while meeting their Constitutional obligation to ensure a thorough and efficient education for all of our children.

And, of course, movement towards a Citizens Convention for property tax reform is an absolute necessity, if we are ever to achieve a fairer and more equitable manner of raising needed revenues. No matter how much you think government should spend; no matter where you think money is needed or money is wasted; no matter what the appropriate level of revenue we need to meet our responsibilities to the people who elected us, the simple fact of the matter is that there has to be a fairer way of raising it. THAT is the crying need of the property taxpayers of our State.

The League of Municipalities stands ready to assist in this historic effort. Please feel free to contact Jon Moran at 609-695-3481, ext 21., on any aspect of property tax reform. At this point, nothing is more important to us, our members and our fellow citizens of this Garden State.