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There's different ways to do the merge. I'm in Essex County obviously nobody in my area will want to be merged with eastern part of the county. You could merge similar communities service's together and then there wouldn't be as much uproar. Technically creating countywide services and governments isn't merging places like Millburn and Newark it would be different branches. Places like Newark are to big to be merged anyway, Im talking about all these small towns.
There's different ways to do the merge. I'm in Essex County obviously nobody in my area will want to be merged with eastern part of the county. You could merge similar communities service's together and then there wouldn't be as much uproar. Technically creating countywide services and governments isn't merging places like Millburn and Newark it would be different branches. Places like Newark are to big to be merged anyway, Im talking about all these small towns.
It could definitely happen but the idea would and does see a lot of resistance. Hundreds of years of all of these little towns has made people protective and territorial. Despite being small, many of these towns have their own identities.
I say all the time that a great start for reducing cost/expense in this state would be to combine PDs and FDs for some of the smaller towns. Don't have to officially merge the town themselves, not at this point at least, but cut their services so they can be combined. My town has so many fire trucks and police cars, we even have those military police vehicles. IMHO unnecessary. If we can split our resources with other towns so we see cuts across the board - though people won't be happy because jobs and positions would be lost - that could be a good start. The counties that have countywide PDs - Union, Bergen, Essex - can get rid of those. I'm not talking Sheriff's Offices, these 3 counties have local police in probably every town or nearly every town (even Union County's TINY Winfield Park has its own PD ), Sheriff's Office, AND the countywide PD. We can easily cut the county police because it's just not necessary. This kind of stuff can happen and it would be a good start IMO.
So ridiculous to even bring up a consolidation like that. I think there is a balance to be struck, and we don't need to swing to the other extreme and have way too large municipalities. However I do think that there should be consolidation. There should be no municipalities in this state with less than 10,000 residents. Adjacent municipalities under that population must consolidate together or join a larger one. A standard like that would do wonders for consolidation of services and cutting out waste. Also, there should be no more "doughnut hole" municipalities. Like Princeton did, there should be be consolidation for places like Morristown/Morris Twp., Burlington, Freehold, Pilesgrove/Woodstown, Chester, Metuchen/Edison, Bordentown, Monroe/Jamesburg, etc. And Bergen County needs to clean up their ness.
No. The main reason there's a push for consolidation is because some people WANT places like Millburn to be governed from places like Newark; they'd like to see all the rich people's money going into Newark politician's pockets.
This is why they wanted to secede from the county.
The bulk of my tax payments goes to the schools. If not for that, my taxes would be low. Don't forget how many are attending those school that aren't taxpayers or even here legally. Yet the courts say the town must educate them (as well as feed and house). My town will be forced to build a new school to accommodate all the new arrivals.
Schools in NJ are funded in a large part by property taxes. Unless someone is living someplace totally rent free they are contributing to the tax payment through rent payments. Even if they are here illegally.
So ridiculous to even bring up a consolidation like that. I think there is a balance to be struck, and we don't need to swing to the other extreme and have way too large municipalities. However I do think that there should be consolidation. There should be no municipalities in this state with less than 10,000 residents. Adjacent municipalities under that population must consolidate together or join a larger one. A standard like that would do wonders for consolidation of services and cutting out waste. Also, there should be no more "doughnut hole" municipalities. Like Princeton did, there should be be consolidation for places like Morristown/Morris Twp., Burlington, Freehold, Pilesgrove/Woodstown, Chester, Metuchen/Edison, Bordentown, Monroe/Jamesburg, etc. And Bergen County needs to clean up their ness.
That's about 5 times as big as Guttenberg, NJ which comes in at just under .25 square mile. But somehow, they cram over 11,000 people in there.
Well, the northern end of Hudson County does have the highest population density in the entire US, so it shouldn't be too surprising that there are that many people in Guttenberg.
On a related note, many years ago, the Superintendent of Schools for North Bergen was also a NJ State Senator, and he held an additional governmental post whose exact details--unfortunately--I don't recall. I'm sure that he dedicated the necessary hours to each of those three posts, and I am also sure that he richly deserved the incredible salary and the inflated pension payments that he received as a result of those 3 positions. <extreme...sarcasm...>
It is really unfortunate that the public tends to focus on a few well-connected multiple job holders who feed at the governmental teat, and somehow translate that into misfeasance on the part of the rank-and-file staffers who held one job, gave a credible (or better) performance in that position, and simply expect to receive the benefits that were contractually promised to them.
Well, the northern end of Hudson County does have the highest population density in the entire US, so it shouldn't be too surprising that there are that many people in Guttenberg.
On a related note, many years ago, the Superintendent of Schools for North Bergen was also a NJ State Senator, and he held an additional governmental post whose exact details--unfortunately--I don't recall. I'm sure that he dedicated the necessary hours to each of those three posts, and I am also sure that he richly deserved the incredible salary and the inflated pension payments that he received as a result of those 3 positions. <extreme...sarcasm...>
It is really unfortunate that the public tends to focus on a few well-connected multiple job holders who feed at the governmental teat, and somehow translate that into misfeasance on the part of the rank-and-file staffers who held one job, gave a credible (or better) performance in that position, and simply expect to receive the benefits that were contractually promised to them.
I think you're referring to current Mayor Nick Sacco, who is also a NJ State Senator and was at one point also an elementary school principal.
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), Sheriff's Office, AND the countywide PD. We can easily cut the county police because it's just not necessary. This kind of stuff can happen and it would be a good start IMO.
