Sweeney still opposes allowing towns to opt out of civil service system
Governor Chris Christie, and Senator Stephen M. Sweeney (D), shake hands after a press conference where it was announced that they have reached a deal on a key part of Christie's "tool kit," earlier this month.TRENTON — Senate President Stephen Sweeney today unveiled a new weapon in his war on home rule: withholding state aid for local governments that refuse to share services.
Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said he is drafting legislation that would give a state commission the authority to advise towns and counties on how they could combine services to save money. If they don’t act on the recommendations, their state aid would be cut by the amount they would have saved.
"When it comes to towns giving up certain things, like taking their names off a truck, there’s an enormous amount of resistance ... It has to do with home rule," Sweeney said. "The carrot doesn’t work, so now it’s the stick."
Sweeney first brought up the idea during an early morning interview Wednesday on 101.5 FM, and expanded on it in a later interview with The Star-Ledger.
Last month, Sweeney announced a push for shared services, saying combining major services such as police departments would do more to help towns save money and keep property taxes in check than Gov. Chris Christie’s 33-measure "tool kit."
Under Sweeney’s proposal, the Local Unit Alignment, Reorganization and Consolidation Commission, which studies the structure and function of county and municipal governments, would make the recommendations.
Sweeney said the commission’s funding was eliminated in this year’s state budget, but he hopes to provide it with $150,000.
Bill Dressel, executive director of the League of Municipalities, said many towns are already sharing services or examining ways to do so. But, he said, the state should focus on eliminating obstacles to cooperation, not force towns to work together. For instance, towns whose employees are in the civil service system find it impossible to merge services with neighboring towns whose workers are not.
Gov. Chris Christie has proposed allowing towns to opt out of the civil service system, but Sweeney opposes that.
"The Legislature’s role ... should be to try to remove the impediments like civil service regulations," said Dressel, who added that towns themselves, not the state, need to judge what could save them money. "The mayors and governing body officials, in conference with their citizens and taxpayers, in a transparent way, have to decide if this is going to reduce taxes."
Senate Republicans on Monday were rebuffed in attempts to vote on additional "tool kit" bills, including measures to allow towns to opt out of civil service, allow civil service towns that combine services to lay off employees who are no longer needed, and to require executive county superintendents to force school districts to share more services.
Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the governor, said Sweeney’s proposal ignores those bills.
"We’ll hear the Senate president out, and we’ll be happy to look at his bill when he actually produces one, but right now, his proposal is theoretical," he said.
Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr said the "home rule" mentality that once existed in many towns has deteriorated as they’ve been forced to come up with ways to reduce property taxes.
"The pride of ownership takes a back seat if you can actually reduce the local property taxes," she said.
Fanwood, for instance, has completed a study on sharing police, public works and building departments with neighboring Scotch Plains.
"It is becoming a real habit for the state to constantly be biting at our state aid, money that should really be coming back to us ... At some point they should take their hands off our money," Mahr said. "We know our communities the best, and to have another agency tell us we should be doing something, I just take a little pause at that."