Dear Mayor:

Yesterday, I was joined by the League Shared and Interlocal Services Consultant, Gregory Fehrenbach, in presenting testimony before the Joint Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services. 

Specifically, the League discussed its thoughts and concerns on:

The e-mail version of this letter as well as the copy posted on our website includes links to each of the bills that were discussed yesterday. We urge to review all of the bills and forward your own comments to the Joint Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services.  This Committee’s contact information is online at http://www.njslom.org/specialsession--sharedservicescommittee.html

We suggest that you pay particular attention to SJR-47 and AJR-69, which many committee members expressed support for conceptually.  Chairman Bob Smith stated that he hoped that this Committee would release a modified version of the bill at some future date.   

The League expressed serious concerns with this bill, which we believe minimizes public input in the process.    Senator Smith issued a press advisory after the meeting stating that, “Today's testimony regarding consolidation proposals of municipalities illustrated one basic truth -- local officials are for consolidation, as long as you don't ask them to consolidate…. We need an independent overseer, and approval at the ballot box, before real consolidation can take place in the Garden State.”

We fail to see the need for yet another study Commission to review this issue, and to make their recommendations.    We believe this Committee would be better served by giving local officials better tools to employ shared services, encourage consolidation and achieve better economies of scale.

In fairness, the Chairs of the Committee and other members have stated they would amend this legislation to assure voter final approval. At this point, no draft language has been presented for consideration. Again, we urge you to review this bill and relay your thoughts and comments to the members of the Committee.

Senator Smith also unveiled a draft of a bill he intends to introduce, S-2244 that would require the holding of binding Statewide referendum on whether responsibility for certain municipal functions should be assumed by county government. We were asked to provide comments on this bill, but we chose not to since the bill had just been made available to the public and any comments we would offer would be premature. We are currently reviewing this bill and will advise you and the Committee of our analysis. A copy of this bill is not available online at this point, but we will advise when it is.

You should also know that this Committee will be holding a series of public meetings in the near future, which offers all members of the public the opportunity to be heard.  We will advise you of those meetings when they are announced.

Further, we urged the Legislature not to diminish state aid that has failed to match inflationary increases in governmental goods and services for the past decade. We asked that they respect the constitutional rights of the state’s citizens to choose the local government in which they wish to live.  We suggested that they clearly and honestly examine the true costs of government and reasons therefore, so as  not to increase the cost of government services because of preconceived solutions that are not supported by research or educated experience.

We advised the Committee Members that municipalities have been engaged in interlocal services for decades, and the research clearly shows that shared services offer an opportunity for modest savings and should be encouraged.   Shared services and consolidation, however, are not the solution to the property tax dilemma.  It can be a part of the solution, but much more must be done.

Much has been said about the reluctance of local governments to embrace shared services. Perhaps this reluctance is because of the first-hand experiences. The reluctance is not the cause, but the effect. 

Furthermore, we called their attention to Speaker Roberts A-51, the “Uniform Shared Services and Consolidation Act."   The League has worked with the sponsor and staff and refining what we can be a landmark piece of legislation.  We believe that the very best intentions of some of the bills on the agenda today will be better addressed by A-51.  We look forward to the opportunity to present our thoughts on A-51 to this committee at a future date.

Copies of the above referenced bills can also be obtained from Donna Baltz at 609-695-3481 x14.  Questions on yesterday’s deliberations or on this Committee in general can be directed to Mike Cerra at mcerra@njslom.com or at 609-695-3481 x20.

Thank you.