A proposal to close the Jamesburg Public Library shows the need for streamlining of government, including municipal shared services and consolidation.
By: Hank Kalet
The Jamesburg Borough Council is making a strong case for streamlining government in New Jersey though, I doubt that was the plan when it began exploring ways to cut back on its funding for its public library.
Borough officials say that mandated increases in library spending and a new state tax-levy cap that limits what towns can spend have created an untenable situation, forcing the council to consider cutting other programs and services.
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So the council is considering placing a referendum on the November ballot that would ask voters whether the library should be closed. The idea is that eliminating the library and its mandated increases will give the borough more flexibility in crafting a budget.
I think Mayor Tony LaMantia and the Borough Council are fooling themselves. Eliminating the library may offer some short-term tax relief and make it easier to craft a budget, but it will not address the underlying issues causing the borough’s budget difficulties the proliferation of towns and governments in New Jersey.
There are more than 1,400 separate taxing entities in New Jersey. Of them, there are 566 municipal governments representing about 8 million people or about one municipal governing body for every 15,000 residents.
The myriad layers of government in the state create a patchwork of municipal and school services while burdening smaller towns with higher tax bills.
The impact can be seen locally. The average municipal tax bill in Jamesburg was $1,368 in 2006 compared with $981 in Monroe and $1,083 in South Brunswick. At the same time, however, Jamesburg spends far less than its neighbors per person $795 compared with $1,161 in Monroe and $1,103 in South Brunswick.
That spending allows Monroe and South Brunswick to offer extensive recreational programs, full-service senior centers and two of the better libraries in the county. Jamesburg, on the other hand, has to rely on volunteers to run its Recreation Department and has perhaps the most underfunded library in the county.
Don’t believe me? Here are the numbers: Jamesburg spends just $22 per resident on its library less than half the $48-per-person county average and just a third of the $65 spent in Monroe and $63 in South Brunswick.
And yet, it is in Jamesburg and not in Monroe and South Brunswick that the library is breaking the budget.
This is not meant as an implied criticism of Mayor Tony LaMantia or the Borough Council. The budget constraints they face are very real.
The issue, as I said, is a common one in New Jersey. Helmetta is struggling with police manpower issues it has three officers and pays Jamesburg to provide night patrols. Hightstown residents are facing a potential 14 percent tax hike to fund what borough officials are calling a maintenance budget, while Stockton Borough in Hunterdon County is seeking a neighboring community to provide police coverage at a rate it can afford.
And these are just random examples. There are literally dozens of similar cases around the state, situations in which cities and towns with stagnant tax bases are forced to choose between massive tax hikes or service cuts that neighboring communities with growing tax bases rarely have to consider.
The solution, according to Jamesburg officials, is to end unfunded state mandates and for the state to provide more aid to financially strapped towns.
While I can agree that the state needs to take on more of the burden of paying for government (especially on the school side), I find the whole "unfunded mandate" argument dubious. (There is nothing wrong with the state setting a baseline that towns and school districts must follow.)
The problem is not mandates, but the entire structure of government in the state. The sheer number of governing entities guarantees duplication and an overabundance of high-level administrators 611 superintendents and school business administrators, each with similar responsibilities; 566 municipal administrators/managers, finance officers and clerks, nearly as many police chiefs and so on. It is a recipe for high taxes and inconsistent services that tend to hit the poor and middle class especially hard.
The answer, one that is not very popular, is to reduce the number of governing entities or, to put it more bluntly, to merge towns to eliminate those that because of their size just cannot provide an adequate level of service.
The state has created a commission to study consolidation and shared services, with the goal of cutting costs. The commission will be studying towns across the state and recommend to the state Legislature which should be merged and, short of that, which would benefit from the sharing of services. The Legislature would then vote on the report and voters in the affected towns would get final say on the recommendations.
While officials in Jamesburg like effected and appointed officials throughout the state believe their proximity to their towns gives them the best sense of what is best, the need for an independent review of municipal services in Jamesburg, Monroe, South Brunswick and elsewhere is long overdue.
New Jersey taxpayers can no longer afford the layers of government its elected and officials say residents want.
Hank Kalet is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post and The Cranbury Press. His e-mail is [email protected] and his blog, Channel Surfing, can be found at www.kaletblog.com.