"...You don't have to be a genius or a rocket scientist to understand that all the proliferation of services isn't the most efficient way...," Corzine said.... (Senate President) Codey pointed out that municipalities have been sharing services going back 15 years, and said the real future savings are to be found in school districts... ...The governor said he was prepared to endure the political fallout from opening up the discussion, because the special session presented such a rare chance to affect change...."

Corzine lays out agenda on property tax reform

Governor targets revamping of local services and state school aid

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

BY DEBORAH HOWLETT

Star-Ledger Staff

Gov. Jon Corzine sketched out an ambitious agenda yesterday for the upcoming special legislative session on property tax reform, saying he wants it to take up such hot-button issues as consolidating local government services and changing the formula for state aid to schools.

"If we're serious about property tax reform, then we have to have a serious agenda," Corzine said.

He found strong support from Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), just days after their battle over the state budget.

"The governor and I are very much on the same page," Roberts said. "What we've done in the past is to tackle the property tax problem with quick fixes and temporary patches. It bought us some time. Now it's time to tackle these problems once and for all."

Corzine made himself widely available yesterday before departing in the afternoon for a three-day vacation in Colorado. He signed legislation creating the Department of Children and Families, announced two other Cabinet appointments, spent an hour on a morning radio show and fielded Statehouse reporters' questions at an impromptu news conference.

It was clear that the governor could use a rest. Asked if he had caught up on his sleep after pulling a triple all-nighter to get the state budget signed Saturday and end the eight-day shutdown of state government, he gave a tired grin. "We had a good night's sleep last night," he said.

Once he's back from his trip, the governor will dive into preparations for the special session. He will kick it off with a speech to lawmakers July 28.

While he has not yet drawn up specific goals, the governor offered a sense of what he was thinking in the news conference and in a live interview on New Jersey 101.5 FM.

One goal of the special session will be a reassessment of the way the state provides aid to school districts, including the sticky issue of how to create parity between wealthier suburban districts and the 31 predominantly urban areas that the courts have identified as "special needs" districts.

"Nobody thinks we're allocating money to our school systems appropriately," Corzine said in the radio interview.

Ethics reforms also will be integral to property tax relief, Corzine said, including more scrutiny of state money going to municipalities and other local government agencies and whether the aid is based on need or doled out as political patronage.

"With regard to property tax reform, it's not enough just to offer government aid to municipalities or counties if we are spending money we don't need to be spending because there's a corruption tax out there," Corzine said on New Jersey 101.5.

The thorniest issue of all might be consolidating services provided by the myriad of local government across the state.

New Jersey has 566 municipalities, 616 school districts and 186 fire districts. All of those, plus 21 counties, use property taxes to pay for operations.

As an example of the cost of such duplication, Corzine offered up Bergen County. With 800,000 residents, Bergen has twice as much firefighting equipment in its local fire departments combined than in all of New York city, with 8 million residents, Corzine said.

"You don't have to be a genius or a rocket scientist to understand that all the proliferation of services isn't the most efficient way to pay for delivery of fire, police, education -- all of the services government is about," Corzine said.

It was unclear to what extent the governor was advocating the consolidation of local governments. However, he was adamant that he would like the approximately $600 million set aside from the sales tax increase for property tax relief to be used to encourage consolidation.

His intent, aides later said, was not to limit discussion or to demand a particular solution, but to offer up all possibilities.

"The only problem with putting everything on the table," said Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), "is that it would be pretty radical. There would be big winners and big losers, and, believe me, the big losers would not be happy."

Codey pointed out that municipalities have been sharing services going back 15 years, and said the real future savings are to be found in school districts.

The governor said he was prepared to endure the political fallout from opening up the discussion, because the special session presented such a rare chance to affect change.

"I hope we use this opportunity to really go at trying to get a more efficient way, a more productive way, to deliver the fundamental services that people want from government," Corzine said.

Asked if he realized that by taking on consolidation, he was taking on the idea of "home rule," a tradition as enduring as the myth of the Jersey Devil, Corzine joked: "I haven't met that Jersey Devil, although I thought I was meeting him a couple times last week."

Deborah Howlett covers politics. She may be reached at (609) 989-0273 or dhowlett@starledger.com.