May 4, 2009
 | SPECIAL MUNICIPAL AID HAS |
Governor Jon Corzine’s latest budget proposal will unleash $1 billion more in additional taxes and fees on New Jersey’s middle class families. This latest round of impending unbearable financial suffering very likely will be the death knell for the state’s middle class taxpayers, hundreds of whom recently gathered in front of the State House to mourn their own death.
At the mock funeral, with two caskets filled with empty wallets and written lamentations to Governor Corzine, they seemed resigned to their fate under the regime of a multimillionaire governor who clearly is clueless to the fiscal carnage that surrounds him.
Their “bodies” were barely cold when a few days following the “funeral,” state Treasurer David Rousseau commented during a budget hearing that New Jerseyeans are not overtaxed. Shortly thereafter, the governor added insult to injury when Trenton began its annual ritual of handing out “Special Municipal Aid” to so called distressed municipalities.
The problem is, we would be hard pressed to find any town in this state that is not struggling. While most towns are being told to “sacrifice” and “share the pain” by cutting programs and services and furloughing and laying off employees, a privileged few continue to receive the handouts without conditions.
From 2007 to 2008, state aid to District 2 municipalities has decreased by an average of 8.2 percent, while property taxes have increased an average of 5.4 percent. Unfortunately, this is the rule and not the exception throughout the state’s suburbia. New Jersey taxpayers should be outraged. I know I am.
New Jersey is a state in crisis. Its 2010 Fiscal Year budget is facing a $7 billion deficit. State spending has increased 46 percent over the past seven years under Democrat control. State debt stands at an astounding $44.5 billion. The average property tax bill recently toppled the $7,000 mark. At $7,045, it remains the highest in the nation, up nearly 20 percent under the Corzine Administration and 55 percent since 2002.
The state lost nearly 100,000 jobs during the past year alone and, as of March, its unemployment rate stands at 8.3 percent, the 14th straight month it has increased.
As if that isn’t enough, state revenues continue to fall – by as much as 11 percent this current year. Yet despite this economic tsunami, the Local Finance Board will hand out $145 million in Special Municipal Aid to eight cities with long histories of fiscal mismanagement and wasteful spending practices, among them, Camden - $56 million, Paterson - $27 million, Jersey City - $5 million, and Bridgeton - $1.8 million. Others in line to receive funds include Asbury Park, Union City, Harrison and Newark.
The special aid program was established to provide short-term aid for municipalities with structural deficits, short-term being the operative word. Yet five of the eight cities that will receive the bailouts have been in the program for six years or more since 2000. Camden and Paterson have been in the program for 10 years.
No municipality should be granted extra funds for six years, much less 10, especially when its officials are content with maintaining the status quo.
Take Jersey City for example - it has 400 public employees on its payroll who make $100,000 or more annually; 23 of those workers have salaries that exceed $141,000. The Local Finance Board doled out the special aid without requiring the town to institute furloughs, layoffs or pay cuts as hundreds of suburban communities must this year and next.
In Camden, state auditors have been unable to assess the town’s financial condition for three consecutive years because it records were in such disorder, while in Paterson, overtime was paid to a private security company whose contract didn’t provide for overtime payments. These are merely drops in a very large bucket.
Certainly, the need for genuine responsibility, accountability and transparency couldn’t be greater, yet incredulously Governor Corzine recently proposed ending mandatory audits of towns receiving the extra aid. The last thing this program needs is less oversight, but rather a set of stringent requirements, including audits, that will be enforced and carry consequences for lack of adherence.
Whether good times or bad, suburban taxpayers should not be subsidizing urban municipalities who now view this annual additional aid as an entitlement program. It’s time to end this hemorrhaging of taxpayer money and stop making middle class families pay for the sins of these cities that have not taken any necessary steps to control costs and regain their fiscal footing.
Assemblyman John Amodeo represents the 2nd Legislative District
