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Not sure where you are,but I presonally think real estate here is too much.
We should do what Texas and a few other states do and subsidize some businesses AND get rid of the state income tax.
I am pretty sre those 2 things alone would solve 60% of our problems.
We do subsidize businesses. Panasonic got a 10 year tax deal. Revel got a nice deal for state bonds (and still failed). The mall project at the meadowlands got a nice tax deal.
Eliminate state income taxes - ok. Now what state programs are you also eliminating? Or you just hoping to create a larger budget gap?
We'll stop funding the Abbott districts entirely. It could hardly make them worse.
i'd be all for some drastic reforms with the Abbott districts. But that requires a change to the state constitution. How Hoboken is still an Abbott district baffles me. But i never fully understood the ins and outs of the legalize of that crap.
The NJ political machine is too big to ever think that taxes can be reduced by any significant amount.
The only way you can ever get out from under NJ taxes is to leave NJ.
But you better do it soon because in some other states the politicians are catching on to what NJ politicians have know for years, build a bigger machine and get lost in the mechanism.
You can bite the bullet and get out now or you can continue to ***** and complain until the cows come home. Oh wait a minute, are there any cows left in NJ?
I like to remind NJ people of what it used to be in the good ole days.
well, personally i think the main issue with the concept is the potential savings are often grossly overstated. i'm not opposed to seeing some towns try it though. but generally speaking, i don't think we have a huge glut of labor in teaching. and if you have larger schools, the principal of that larger school will be paid a higher salary. i just think it's not as black and white as often presented.
The districts I would target would not necessarily consolidate schools or result in larger individual schools but merely eliminate overlap administration. Some salaries would need to increase, namely the superintendent of the larger district, but now all superintendent salaries are more or less capped at $175,000 if I am not mistaken so the cost increase is limited on the upside. I think net net, a well run and managed district consolidation plan would save millions or even tens of millions yearly across the state
Consolidation seems like a good idea on paper. But in reality, it is not. One of the greatest aspects of public schools is that it brings a community together. And each of these communities are different, with different parents and different children. I can't imagine one superintendent managing multiple districts. And what about school boards? Just do away with those? Take away the power the public has over schools? How about we just privatize all schools, this way people with money will be the only ones educated.
New Jersey has some of the best schools in the world. Why mess with it? There are many, many other places to cut the state budget. I would start with taking away the golden benefits our politicians enjoy, both at the state and federal level. And if you want to consolidate, consolidate our government. There is much more waste in government than in education. And at least people in education are sincere about their goals, helping and inspiring kids. Our politicians, on the other hand, are greedy, selfish, leeches.
Shared services and schools sounds great to reduce taxes but it won't. The wealthier towns will just end up subsidizing the towns with less money. It will dilute the quality of services and schools and I doubt that a single tax will be reduced long term as a result. At best, people will end up paying the same amount for fewer services.
Mandatory consolidation of all services - public works, fire, police, schools - should be required for any adjoining towns with less than 15,000 in population. Right there we'd consolidate 1/2 of Bergen County's services. We'll be nice by allowing people to keep their town names & zip codes.
Which adjoining towns though? The result would be years to decades of lawsuits with towns trying to force or avoid certain combinations. Like the whole Englewood Cliffs school sending arrangement lawsuit a few decades back except across the entire state. Even not considering the desirability or lack thereof of such combinations, the legal costs alone would eat up the administrative savings.
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