Public Safety - NJ State Police Funding
Lebanon Borough received their letter from the State Treasurer explaining that they would be required to pay $92,548 for police services the other day.
As we reported in an earlier post, Lebanon Borough will be required to pay $48.81 per capita - the HIGHEST per-capita cost in Hunterdon County for it’s 1,896 residents.
The letter states the recently adopted Fiscal Year 2009 State Budget requires municipalities that receive rural policing services provided by the NJ State Police to enter into a cost-sharing agreement with the State Treasurer, or provide the Treasurer information on how the municipality will provide police services to its residents. Municipalities will have until December 15, 2008 to make this decision.
The letter further states details on the program, explanation of the calculation used to determine the amount of cost sharing agreement and copy of the budget language that defines the program.
Lebanon Borough’s portion of the program is calculated as follows -
|
Lebanon Borough |
Hunterdon |
Full time |
|
|
Parcel Type |
# of Parcels |
Rate |
Cost |
|
Residential Parcels |
468 |
$178 |
$83,304 |
|
Non-Residential Parcels |
64 |
$534 |
$34,176 |
|
Reduction for Average Taxes Exceeding $100 |
$-24,932 |
||
|
Total |
$92,548 |
||
The letter further provides a background on Rural Policing Cost-Sharing Agreements. Presently, 89 towns receive free rural patrol services -
- Actually, we all pay for these services through our taxes. In the case of Lebanon Borough, we pay for these services through our taxes, we also have an agreement for added patrols at a OT rate when available and in 2003 we signed an agreement to provide the use of our former police headquarters to include electricity, water and heat. These agreements and partnerships have been a win-win for both the State Police and the Borough of Lebanon.
76 receive full-time services (such as Lebanon Borough) and 13 receive part-time services (such as Holland Township). Full-Time patrols consist of 24/7 patrols.
According to the letter - FY2007, it cost the State of NJ $80M to provide services to these towns. Costs consist of personnel salaries, overhead expenses to operate each station, routine patrols, report writing and indirect administrative costs.
The budget requires the Treasurer to calculate a local share that will result in the State receiving approximately $12.5M (a reduction from the proposed $20.5M) Municipalities receiving State Police coverage will provide approximately 15.6% of the costs of this service (based on the 2007 cost).
The formula also meets a requirement that limits the local cost share to an amount that will not result in an increase of more than $100 in property taxes on the average residential property (based on 2007 taxes).
We will be following this issue closely and provide as much information as possible on our options. I am sure many of you have seen the news articles providing some new legislation to help “soften” the blow of charging for rural police coverage. It will interesting to see where these ideas go.
There is a NJSP Forum being hosted in Hampton Borough for public officials on Tuesday, August 12 that I will be attending. I hope to have more info to share after.
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