Dear Mayor:

The Office of Legislative Services recently published the schedule for upcoming meetings of the four Special Legislative committees meeting as part of the special session on property taxes. 

The next meetings for the individual committees are as follows:

Joint Legislative Committee on Constitutional Reform and Citizen’s Property Tax Constitutional Convention, Today, 1:00 PM, Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ;

Joint Legislative Committee on Public School Funding Reform, Tuesday, August 22, 2006 ,

 1:00 PM, Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ;

Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform, Wednesday, August 23, 2006  10:00 AM, Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ;

Joint Legislative Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services, Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 10:00 AM, Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ;

The full schedule is available on the Legislature’s website (http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/) as well as the League’s (http://www.njslom.org/tax_sessions.html) website.  

The League is closely monitoring each of these committees, will attend each meeting and provide testimony as needed.    We will continue to provide you with periodic updates as the Special Session progresses.   We would encourage all local officials to also monitor developments and actively participate.  

We are, however, concerned over some of the rhetoric that has been used in recent weeks, indicating that some legislators are looking for quick fixes (e.g., “we must attack home rule”) for these very complicated issues.      It would be a sad loss of opportunity if the Legislature sought to erode home rule and ignored what really drives the property tax crisis in this State, such as the state mandates that inexorably drive up labor costs for local governments. 

The League has challenged the simple solution approach in the media.   Our opinion column (http://www.nj.com/opinion/ledger/perspective/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1154408067172560.xml&coll=1) ran in the August 1 edition of the Newark Star-Ledger.  

A second opinion column (http://www.njslom.org/property_tax_080306.html) was forwarded to newspapers across the State, and an edited version has appeared in the Asbury Park Press and some local weeklies.  

It is of the utmost importance that local officials actively participate in this vital public policy debate.     We suggest writing your own opinion columns and letters to the editor (feel free to copy liberally from ours if you wish) and forwarding them to your local papers.

We also strongly encourage you to reach out to your State Senator and Assembly representatives.  There is a cadre of powerful special interests hovering over the State Legislature, and we must be sure that the voice of the taxpayers, and those whom they have elected to serve locally, are heard. 

The League’s website includes a page on the special session (http://www.njslom.org/tax_sessions.html) which links to many resources on the Special session.  In addition to our correspondence, we provide a listing and contact information (http://www.njslom.org/taxes-4-committees.html) for each of the four committees.    We are updating that page on a near-daily basis. 

Jon Moran is coordinating the League’s efforts, and can be reached at jmoran@njslom.com or at 609-695-3481 x21.   Questions and comments can also be directed to me (bdressel@njslom.com, x22), Mike Cerra (mcerra@njslom.com, x20) or Helen Yeldell (hyeldell@njslom.com, x12).