Dear Mayor:

The Joint Legislative Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services will hold a public hearing next Thursday, November 9, 2006 at 7:00 PM at Freehold Borough Council Chambers, 51 West Main Street, 2nd Floor, Freehold NJ.  This is an excellent opportunity to address your thoughts and comments to this Committee. 

The committee will hear testimony from the public on shared services and consolidation at the State, county, municipal and school district level.     Each witness is asked to speak for a maximum of 5 minutes in order to allow sufficient time for testimony. Witnesses may be allotted additional time at the discretion of the chair.

Additionally, the committee also is seeking comment on the following bills.  (The e-mail version of this letter and the webpage listing include links to the bill and our comments below.)

A50 (Roberts) - Creates Municipal Efficiency Promotion Aid Program in DCA.
The League has expressed concerns over how the formula aid would work under this bill. Please see the outline of our October 4 testimony.

A51 (Roberts) - "Uniform Shared Services and Consolidation Act."
The League has offered conceptual support for this bill.   Please see our letter of October 11.  

A52 (Roberts) - Moves fire district elections to November general election date; revises budget approval procedures and imposes spending cap.
The League supports A-52. 

A53 (Roberts) - Provides for the election of school board members at November general election and eliminates vote on school budgets except for separate proposals to spend above cap which will also occur at general election.
The League supports this bill.

A54 (Roberts) - Revises title and duties of county superintendent of schools.
The League has not taken a position on A-54.

A55 (Panter) - Requires increased public disclosure of certain local and school district budget information.
The League is requesting amendments to this bill.  With such amendments, we can support the bill.

A416 / S864 (Bodine / Chatzidakis / Bark / Allen) - Establishes program to promote consolidation of municipalities, regionalization of school districts and shared services through enhanced homeowners' rebates.

The League has not expressed a position on this bill.  However, we did note several concerns about the bill as introduced, outlined in our October 4 testimony.

AJR69 / SJR47 (O'Toole / Beck / Kyrillos / Sweeney) - Establishes "Municipal Alignment Reorganization and Consolidation Commission" to develop plan to consolidate pairs and groups of municipalities.
The League adamantly opposes this bill, as it not only violates the principles of home rule and self-determination, but also disenfranchises the public   Our position on this bill is outlined in our October 13 Dear Mayor letter.

S577 (Kyrillos) - Establishes County School Business Boards and Abbott Regional School Business Boards to assume certain school district business services and functions.
The League has not expressed a position on this bill.

S2244 (Smith, B.) - Requires holding of binding Statewide referendum by county on whether responsibility for certain municipal functions should be assumed by county government; repeals various sections of law concerning transfer or termination of employees of terminated local health agency.
The League highlighted several concerns regarding this bill in our October 11 letter to this Committee.  

S2266 (Smith, B.) - Provides for submission to voters in each county a binding referendum on the establishment of a county administrative school district to govern and operate all public schools in the county.
The League has not expressed a position on this bill. 

S2267 (Smith, B.) - Establishes governance structure for county administrative school districts.
The League has not expressed a position on this bill. 

Priority will be given to those who call in advance to register to testify. Those wishing to testify should register with committee staff by telephone at 609-292-1596 or e-mail at eroman@njleg.org. Individuals testifying should bring 20 copies of any written testimony and are advised that testimony will be publicly available on the Internet. Written and electronic comments, questions and testimony submitted to the committee by the public, as well as recordings and transcripts, if any, of oral testimony, are government records and will be available to the public upon request.