State Treasurer fondly recalls his ‘small-town New Jersey’
By Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
When New Jersey state Treasurer David Rousseau was riding his bike around the streets of Hightstown as a child in the 1960s and 1970s, he had no idea his path would ultimately take him to a powerful position in Trenton.
”It has been an interesting journey,” he said in a recent interview.
A 1978 Hightstown High School graduate, Mr. Rousseau has served in various positions in state government for more than 20 years, beginning with an internship in his senior year of college. Mr. Rousseau, who lives with his wife of 25 years and two children in Hamilton, recently attended his 30-year high school reunion.
A small-town guy with a big job today, he said he looks back fondly on his days growing up in the borough.
”It was small-town New Jersey, which I don’t think there is a lot left of,” he said. “The pace of life was different then. I don’t think that the town has changed much since then, but society has.”
He described scenes straight out of Mayberry as the reality of growing up in Hightstown 40 years ago.
”I grew up on Greeley Street, near Grant Park,” he said. “It was a period in time when kids could just ride their bikes around without parents having to worry. We would fish in Peddie Lake, play pickup baseball on the school fields. In the summer, I would make extra money washing milk trucks at Decker’s Dairy on Monmouth Street.”
He said his mother was a homemaker, and his father had different jobs around town, including at a newspaper stand. His parents remained in Hightstown until 2002.
Mr. Rousseau said that while the borough has maintained an historic feel over the years, much of the change he saw while growing up took place in the surrounding areas.
”Hightstown wasn’t really changing that much, but East Windsor was,” he said. “The development has really been on the outside.”
Mr. Rousseau said that while his boss, Gov. Jon Corzine, has supported consolidating so-called “doughnut-hole” communities like Hightstown with their surrounding towns, he hopes that other cost-saving measures are taken before such a merger happens.
”Obviously, I have a professional opinion that we need to bring property taxes under control, but as someone who grew up in Hightstown I want to make sure it keeps its identity,” he said. “If there is a way that we can maintain the borough and save by sharing more services, that is what I would like to see before we get to the point of abolishing my hometown.”
Mr. Rousseau said his path toward the state Treasury Department was not something he had planned from a young age.
”When I graduated from Hightstown High School, I doubt I even knew what the state treasurer did,” he said.
He began his higher education at Mercer County Community College, spending a year there before transferring to Temple University in Philadelphia. He earned a bachelor’s degree there in political science, and landed an internship in his final year that would start him off in state government. He later earned a master’s degree in business administration from Rider University.
”Like all people in their senior year, I wanted an internship, and I just so happened to get one with the Election Law Enforcement Commission,” he said. “That turned into a full-time job, and five years later I joined the Senate Democratic staff, where I began working on the budget.”
He said over the years he developed an expertise on the budget that eventually led Gov. Jim McGreevy to appoint him as deputy treasurer during his administration. He stayed on in that position under Gov. Richard Codey, and became a policy advisor to Gov. Corzine before he was named treasurer in January 2008.
Mr. Rousseau said the current fiscal crisis has made the 2009 budget the most difficult he has ever worked on.
”I have now worked on 24 different budgets in some capacity, and every year someone says, ‘This is the most difficult one ever.’ This year it really was, though.”
He said he worked seven-day weeks from Jan. 1 though March 10, and described the experience as both physically and emotionally grueling. Even so, he said it was all worth it.
”We don’t get to pick the circumstances we serve under,” he said. “But it is an honor to serve.”