August 8, 2006 Re: Consolidation and Shared Services

 

This letter went to All Members of the Joint Legislative Committee on Government Consolidation & Shared Services

 

1. Supports the rights of all New Jersey citizens to self-determination, to choose the type, form and size of their government, as set forth in the 1947 State Constitution; as a result, the League strongly opposes any efforts to mandate consolidation;
2. Recognizes individual idiosyncratic choices by municipal residents and their duly elected representatives for varying services and levels of service;
3. Seeks clear and accurate fiscal analyses that truthfully and forthrightly estimate real costs and benefits of municipal consolidation so voters fully understand the consequences of their choices;
4. Understands from the experience in the Princetons that residents periodically value other things as much  or more than the reduction of the cost of municipal services and property taxes;
5. Supports DCA’s technical assistance role in the consolidation process and providing the department with the support to perform this function; and,
6. Encourages legislation that will simplify and enable voluntary mergers or consolidations as embodied in Assembly Bill 51 and League’s proposed modifications.

1. Recognizes that in a number of circumstances growth, merger, joint services and other actions that appear in a vacuum; i.e., economies of scale; to save tax dollars actually cost more than current operating procedures;
2. Supports the former REDI and REAP grant programs to encourage joint municipal services and supports the current SHARE program;
3. Supports the provision of significant financial and other incentives to municipalities and other units of local government to strongly encourage joint services (e.g., North Hudson Regional Fire Service) but recognizes that it is vitally necessary to assure that the outcomes will be worth the considerable State investment required to effect these changes;
4. Supports DCA’s expedited review process of SHARE grant applications;
5. Supports DCA’s emphasis on implementation grants over feasibility studies and other grant categories;
6. Recognizes the real value of shared municipal services is achieved on a multi-jurisdictional scale with a positive cost benefit ratio without losing the customer service connection to individual municipal needs;
7. Supports providing counties with initial financial support to fund county or regional joint service coordinators to encourage similar efforts to those extant in Somerset County;
8. Supports provisions contained in Assembly Bill 51 and the League proposed modifications to remove impediments present in current statutes and simplify the statutory requirements and processes, including eliminating NJDOP jurisdiction in non-NJDOP municipalities and requiring the hiring of all existing health agency personnel when merging agencies;
9. Encourages removal of limitations on a governing body’s or school board’s ability to outsource, privatize, lay-off or in other ways reduce the cost of services which adversely affect government’s ability to respond to local citizen demands;
10. Recognizes that many joint services have failed to materialize due to perceived and/or real initial increased costs for one or more of the municipalities included in the intended joint service;
11. Recognizes the unwillingness of municipal officials to accept additional mandated costs to effect a joint service as was contained in the original version of  Assembly Bill 51, e.g. added benefits for police and police chiefs in a shared services or joint meeting venture;
12. Recognizes that on average personnel and related (health insurance, unemployment insurance, workers compensation insurance, pension, FICA, Medicare, etc.) costs compose more than 70% of municipal budgets and that in order to achieve any real savings all decision makers must recognize that reductions in force including attrition, resignations and layoffs will be very undesirable, yet necessary, outcomes;

1. Recognizes the primary driver of increased municipal personnel costs are found in the collective bargaining environment designed by the Legislature of this State over the past 38 years;

2. Recognizes that the reason that New Jersey pays the highest amount per police officer in the United States is not primarily due to the generosity of local elected officials;
3. Recognizes that at the local level public safety employees with the benefit of mandatory interest arbitration and school district employees are typically the highest paid employees; and
4. Recognizes that no property tax relief or reform will be sustainable until and unless these salaries can be contained; and
5. Recognizes that all other municipal salary increases derive their increases from these.

13. Hopes that through voluntary shared services joint use of personnel might reduce the current costs associated with providing basic services.