In the News - NJSP Funding

Posted by M Paradis

August 7, 2008

Charge may pay for state patrols
Thursday, August 07, 2008
By Trish G. Graber tgraber@sjnewsco.com

BUENA VISTA TWP. - South Jersey legislators and elected officials across the state are pushing back against charges for state police coverage imposed on rural municipalities with part-time or no police forces of their own.

About 40 locally elected officials from Cumberland to Hunterdon counties attended a news conference here Wednesday backing a plan to place a $40 surcharge on moving violations to offset the combined $12.6 million cost rural towns are required to pay for state police patrols under Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s budget.

Sen. Jeff Van Drew, the bill sponsor, said the measure would create a fund to defray the police costs in rural municipalities and provide grants to non-rural towns for property tax relief.

Without it, he said, small towns will suffer.

“We’re going to create a property tax increase in dozens and dozens of municipalities,” said Van Drew, D-1, of Dennis Township.

Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney, D-3, of West Deptford, and Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, attended the news conference in support of the measure.

Van Drew acknowledged that even with their backing, approval of the measure would be a heavy lift.

“We are the underdogs in this fight,” he said. “The only way to do this is to get support throughout the state.”

Local officials, however, say that the payments should not even be up for discussion. They argue the New Jersey State Police was formed in 1921 for the very purpose of patrolling rural communities.

“It’s one of the few things we get from the money we send to Trenton,” said Mannington Mayor Donald Asay, whose rural township depends on state police patrols. “We think this fits under the umbrella of what the state should be providing.”

Paying for state police coverage is a major issue in Salem County where eight of the 15 municipalities depend on state troopers. Those municipalities include Alloway, Elmer, Mannington, Oldmans, Pilesgrove, Pittsgrove, Quinton and Upper Pittsgrove. Other towns have their own municipal police force except Elsinboro which contracts with neighboring Lower Alloways Creek Township for police coverage.

The state recently sent bills to 89 municipalities with charges that they are required to begin paying in January if they want to continue the state police service.

This will be the first year towns that have long received the service will pay. The charges were added as a way to help close the state budget gap.

Corzine initially proposed requiring towns to pay a combined $20.5 million of the $80 million cost.

He later agreed to ensure that the average property tax bill in the affected municipalities did not increase by more than $100, reducing the total bill to $12.6 million.

Still local officials say they don’t have the ability to pay without raising taxes.

In Elmer, the state is asking for $47,000.

Council President Ben Laury said while the amount is small, it comes on top of a cut in municipal aid and other rising costs the town is facing, as well as the cost of their two full-time officers and four part-timers. Of the towns in Salem County that have state police coverage, Elmer is the only one that uses the state patrols part time.

“It’s putting a hurting on towns,” Laury said.

Cumberland County municipalities that receive state police coverage will see the tax rates rise from seven to 22 cents as a result of the payments, according to Cumberland County Freeholder Doug Rainear.

“It just seems like another day and another battle for South Jersey,” Rainear said. “These are literally budget breaking costs.”

A spokesman for Corzine said the decision to impose the charges was a difficult one but said the administration does not support legislation to create additional surcharges on motor vehicle tickets.

“As an issue of fairness, we don’t intend to balance the payment for these services on the backs of taxpayers throughout the state,” said Sean Darcy, a spokesman for the governor.

A dozen rural municipalities have filed complaints with the state Council on Local Mandates, an entity with the ability to overturn the charges, calling the police payments an unconstitutional “unfunded mandate.”

New Jersey League of Municipalities Executive Director Bill Dressel said the association is still attempting to work on a fair formula for payment with the administration. Some mayors have suggested basing the cost on the amount of time officers spend in the respective municipalities.

Dressel said if all else fails, the association will lobby for restoration of the $12.6 million.

In the meantime, Sweeney is drafting legislation that would allow county sheriff’s departments to cover areas without full-time police departments with the help of grant money from the state. He said he supports the concept of shared services and consolidation, but said many towns need help from the state to get started.

“We’ve got to do more than send a bill,” Sweeney said.