By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
PLAINSBORO — The township is ready to join Middlesex County in opposing Gov. Jon Corzine’s proposal to eliminate the Department of Agriculture, Mayor Cantu said Thursday.
”I am in the same corner as Middlesex County on this,” Mayor Cantu said, referring to a resolution that will be considered by the Township Committee.
The proposal to eliminate the department is one of the cost-saving measures included in Gov. Corzine’s proposed 2008-2009 budget, which was introduced in February. The governor has also proposed doing away with the Department of Personnel and the Department of Commerce.
The Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders passed its resolution opposing the elimination of the Department of Agriculture last week, citing the department’s importance to supporting New Jersey’s shrinking farming community.
”From everything I’ve read and in all the conversations I’ve had on the issue, I just can’t see how abolishing the Department of Agriculture will save any substantial amount of money,” said Freeholder Director David B. Crabiel.
The total annual savings gained by eliminating the department would be around $500,000 annually, according to Tom Vincz of the state’s Treasury Department. The entire value of this year’s proposed state budget is $33 billion.
Mayor Cantu said he had years of experience working with the Department of Agriculture while serving on a Middlesex County agriculture committee.
”I thought it was one of the more efficiently run departments in New Jersey,” Mayor Cantu said.
Plainsboro Township has preserved over 50 percent of its total land area for open space, and many of the larger properties in the township’s open space program are working, preserved farms.
Those properties and the farmers working them depend on support from the Department of Agriculture, township officials said.
”You preserve the land, but you want to preserve the farmer as well,” Mayor Cantu said.
The eventual resolution will likely urge the state to seriously consider if the elimination of the department is “not just elimination for the sake of elimination,” Mayor Cantu said.
”It’s a small department that provide a great deal of service,” he said.
The Township Committee’s next regular meeting is scheduled for April 9.
