The state needs to fix its broken tax system, replenish the Transportation Trust Fund, move quickly on the Thompson Park land-swap, and clean up the electoral process.
December is the month of wish lists. In that tradition, we offer the state a wish list of items we think can make New Jersey a better place to live:
1. The state needs to fix its broken tax system and it needs to do it quickly. Too much of the burden for education falls on local residents, which helps perpetuate inequities across the state and encourages a ratable chase that undermines the state’s efforts to control sprawl.
The state League of Municipalities has endorsed a constitutional convention hoping to bring everyone together under one roof to hammer out a compromise. We’re not opposed, though we would prefer that the state Legislature move ahead with a state income tax and find ways to encourage local districts to eradicate waste. Among the possibilities: offering incentives to towns like Monroe and Jamesburg to consolidate their school and/or municipal operations; giving more authority to county school superintendents while reducing the amount of administration at the local level; and negotiating county- or statewide teacher contracts.
2. The Transportation Trust Fund is nearly empty and needs to be replenished. Gov.-elect Jon Corzine has said he might consider a gas-tax hike to help generate the money and there are several bills that are expected to come up next year that would impose structural reform on a borrowing process that has been misused for too long to cover current operating expenses.
Traffic and transit issues are among the most pressing in the state and, without the trust fund, it becomes difficult at best to address these issues. Without the trust fund, there will be no state money to build, widen or repair highways, maintain bridges and tunnels, improve rail and bus service or make other transportation improvements and this includes improvements to county and local roads, as well.
3. Green Acres needs to move quickly on the Thompson Park land-swap proposal. We have endorsed the trade, which would allow Monroe to build a new high school on 35 acres of county parkland across School House Road from the current building in exchange for the township turning over 150 acres on the other side of Thompson Park to the county. However, we are concerned that the process is dragging on, pushing the date for opening a new building back to 2011 and driving up building costs. Either let the trade go through so the Monroe school district can begin construction, or force the district to focus on other alternatives. The longer this goes on, the worse it will be for Monroe taxpayers and students.
4. Clean up New Jersey’s electoral process. A statewide pay-to-play ban would be a good start but, as we’ve written before, it’s only a start. The state needs a public-financing program that will allow candidates to run for office without going hat-in-hand to the various interest groups that hang around Trenton (or the municipal building). To that end, we think the state’s pilot clean elections program should be renewed and repaired.
The program, which was tried in two legislative districts this year, did not function quite the way it should have. Just two of the eight candidates seeking office in districts 6 and 13 participated. Some might take this as a sign that the program should be scrapped. We don’t. Similar public-financing programs have been successful in Maine, Arizona and other states.
Instead, we think the program should be fixed contributions requirements were set too high and need to be lowered.
It is our belief that public financing offers the best approach to encourage candidates to eschew big-money fundraising and restore the public’s trust in its government.

