State Aid Cuts “Cripple” Small Towns
On Feb. 26, Gov. Jon S. Corzine presented his fiscal year 2008-2009 budget proposal. This proposal now goes to the Legislature, whose members must pass a balanced budget by July 1.
We appreciate the state’s annual fiscal crisis and agree that the current state of affairs cannot be blamed on any one individual, party, branch or level of government. In no way can the blame be placed on our long-suffering property taxpayers. Accordingly, we object to those aspects of the governor’s proposed budget, which asks those taxpayers to bear an inordinate share of the burden caused by past state policy mistakes.
Mayors across the state feel that the rug has been pulled out from underneath us. We, the taxpayers, will be asked to shoulder more than our fair share of the funding burden.
In his budget address to the Legislature, among the many proposed cuts, the governor mentioned three funding areas he was forced to short change: hospitals, higher education and municipal property tax relief. Guess which one of those faces the deepest dollar cuts.
Higher education will be cut by $75.6 million; hospitals will lose $143.5 million; and municipal property tax relief will be slashed by $189.6 million. This proposal will eliminate Consolidated Municipal Property Tax Relief Aid (CMPTRA) for any municipality with a population of less than 5,000. South Hackensack stands to lose a total of $366,000 in aid, which ironically includes Regional Efficiency Aid Program (REAP).
The REAP was aid given to towns based on shared services implemented. Here they are wanting communities to share services yet they are eliminating programs for the same purpose?
On my trip down to Trenton on March 6, along with 400 other mayors and representatives of municipalities of under 5,000 residents, we all expressed our concerns, comments, questions and frustrations. Many expressed to Corzine’s representatives that our smaller town governments are more cost-effective and responsive to the taxpayers than bigger towns.
Many small towns were implementing shared services way before being told by county and state government in order to control our taxes. South Hackensack shares services with neighboring towns and the county for salt shed storage, tax assessments, recreation, sports, library services, emergency services, road resurfacing, street repairs, 9-1-1 service and liability insurance to name a few.
Towns such as South Hackensack will always try to fi nd ways to work together with neighboring communities to save money and improve our residents’ quality of life. But to cripple towns to this magnitude is wrong.
We urge the state to refocus on our mutual responsibility to relieve the burden of regressive and excessive property taxes. If there needs to be discussion about phasing in property tax relief funding cuts to address the state’s budget problems, we want to have a seat at the table. If there is to be a serious discussion about the way municipal property tax relief funding is distributed, we want to have a seat at the table. We know that if you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu. This budget proposal seems to make us small communities and our property taxpayers the main course.
Rosina Romano
Mayor of South Hackensack