In the News - Lebanon Borough

Posted by M Paradis

July 31, 2008

Rural Central Jersey towns among 89 told to start paying for state police patrol

By LISA G. RYAN
GANNETT STATE BUREAU

Towns that depend on the New Jersey State Police for all or part of their police protection received letters this week indicating how much they’ll have to pay the state if they want to keep the service.

The 89 towns affected - most of which are rural, lightly populated communities - now get the police service fee-free, as they have since the 1920s, when the state police agency was created primarily to patrol rural areas of New Jersey.

Under the state budget adopted last month, the towns must now contribute $12.6 million toward the overall $80 million it costs the state to provide the rural police patrols. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has described the fees as a way to ensure towns are equitably sharing costs for services provided.

Corzine’s originally proposed charging the towns $20 million, then trimmed it to ensure the bill towns pay for full-time service won’t result in more than a $100 increase per household over 2007 average residential property taxes. Residential property tax increases would be capped at $71 in towns getting part-time service.

Sgt. John Harris of the Holland Township Police Department said he contacted the state treasurer’s office to see how he could submit questions about the funding formula, which he found puzzling.

Harris said he questioned why a six-member department such as Holland’s, which he said uses state police coverage for “less than a quarter of the day,” would be told to pay only slightly less than a neighboring municipality that lacks a local force.

For example, he said, Alexandria, which relies on the state police for full-time coverage, has been instructed to pay $183,263 for the service while Holland’s tab is $150,196.

The state’s bill, which is broken down by the number of parcels within a municipality, puts Holland’s cost at $71 per residential parcel, Harris said. The price increases for other types of property.

“We’re paying $71, and another town may be paying $71 too, but they may be using the state police more than we are,” Harris said. “To us, I really don’t think it’s fair. It should be based on how much you use the state police, not how much land parcels or property you have in the township.”

Lebanon Borough’s rate for full-time New Jersey State Police coverage dropped from $117,480 to $92,548, but the borough is paying $48.81 per capita - the highest per-capita cost in Hunterdon County - for its 1,896 residents.

“Everything is up, so any decrease would be helpful,” Lebanon Borough Clerk Karen Romano said about the announcement.

Romano said the Lebanon Borough Council had not met since the cost information was released. It’s unclear whether the rates would change how the borough would handle police services in the future, she said.

In Somerset County, Millstone saw its initial charge of $32,574 nearly halved to $16,745. In Rocky Hill, the proposed charge of $54,112 dropped to $29,227.

The state Department of the Treasury posted a list on its Web site yesterday of all the municipalities affected and what they would be charged if they opt to keep the state police patrols. Towns have until Dec. 15 to decide whether to stay with the state police or find other police protection.

“One of the reasons these things were set up was so that people could plan ahead and also maybe take alternative routes,” Corzine said. “Maybe they don’t need to go that route, they want to go another.”

The cost figures surprised local elected officials, some state lawmakers and New Jersey State League of Municipalities officials who were under the assumption they would help develop the cost-sharing formula.

“Essentially, they sent these letters out even though we were supposed to have the opportunity to meet with state officials,” said Mayor Chuck Chiarello of Buena Vista Township in Atlantic County, which is looking at a $303,521 fee. “It’s kind of like putting the cart before the horse. It would have been nice to have had a discussion about these patrols before they came up with a cost-sharing formula.”

Mayor Nancy Grbelja of Millstone Township in Monmouth County said her community’s state police charge of $348,152 would have a “devastating impact” on the township’s tax rate.

“We would probably have to pass that on to our taxpayers,” she said.

Towns were charged $178 for every residential parcel and $534 for every nonresidential parcel. The state then reduced the total charge if average taxes exceeded $100 in the case of towns getting full-time state police protection and $71 in the case of communities receiving part-time service.

“They basically took a number and tried to make it work,” said Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow, R-Hunterdon, who represents a number of towns that rely on state police response.

Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, called the letters sent to towns disturbing and a failure on the part of the Corzine administration to involve the small towns in the decision-making process.

“The reason I’m so aggravated is our whole vision and focus is to supposedly minimize property taxes, and this isn’t accomplishing that,” Van Drew said.

Earlier this month, Buena Vista and six other towns filed complaints with the state Council on Local Mandates on the matter. Since then, other towns have followed suit. They claim the state police patrol fees violate the “state mandate, state pay” amendment to the state constitution. The League of Municipalities plans to file its own brief in support of the towns, said William Dressel Jr., the executive director.

Corzine said he is trying to be fair for all New Jersey residents.

“There are other people that are already paying for their law enforcement and public safety,” the governor said. “I’m pledged to make sure we work through these issues so that we’re sensitive to needs, but these charges have to be paid for, and somebody’s getting the benefit of those charges.”

Ninety-six percent of the state’s population pays for their own town’s police service as well as service for the state’s rural communities, said Tom Bell, a Treasury Department spokesman. Bell also noted the charges for state police patrol would average $39 per person in the rural towns, whereas people living in municipalities that have their own police department pay an average $328 per capita for police protection.

“We think the way we’ve gone about this is more than fair,” Bell said.

On the Web: tinyurl.com/NJSPrural

Courier News Staff Writers Brandon Lausch and Kara L. Richardson contributed to this story.