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Regionalization agreements endangered under Corzine plan
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AP Photo/Mike Derer
There was a time when New Jersey governors advocated for municipalities to regionalize services to save money. Those days could be long gone, if a controversial school funding formula pushed by Governor Jon Corzine survives a test in court. Loch Arbour, a tiny hamlet in Monmouth County is suing to prevent a law that would force the cancellation of the town's school and police services contract with neighboring Ocean Township from taking effect.
The provision canceling Loch Arbour's contract was part of the governor's School Funding Reform Act, signed into law last year. Paul Mulshine writes in the Star-Ledger that a similar bill canceling 23 other shared services agreements has been approved by the Democratic controlled state legislature. The bill would give Corzine the authority to impose a rateables-based funding system on towns like Loch Arbour that contract with other municipalities for school services, canceling the per pupil arrangements of most existing contracts. For Loch Arbour, that could mean that the annual amount it pays to Ocean Township could increase more than five fold.
That means higher property taxes for residents of Loch Arbour and at least 23 other towns who thought they were doing the right thing for their communities and for their children when they decided to regionalize years ago. Mulshine correctly points out that the bill could spell the end of shared services agreements if the courts do not intervene.
Taxes are one of the biggest issues in the governor's race, with Republicans pounding on the Corzine Administration for its reliance on tax increases and stop-gap measures to plug holes in the state's budget. Not a single Republican voted for the governor's $29 billion spending plan this year. Corzine called that "unfortunate." But if the school funding plan the governor and legislature are pushing makes it through the courts, it will be unsuspecting residents in towns like Loch Arbour all over New Jersey whose luck will have run out.
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