I think legislation should pass law that a municipality should have a certain amount of residents or be a certain size or be consolidated.

Theres not reason why Guttenberg should exist. Merge it West New York or North Bergen. Hoboken a one sq. mile city should be with Weehawken. Cliffside park is also useless.

I have to commend Corizine for putting this up. It is pretty ridiculous that we have towns of < 6,000 as a separate municipality immediately adjacent (sometimes completely surrounded ) to other cities.

It make sense in Texas where a town of 6,000 could be 100 miles apart from the next largest city.

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Try getting that bill through a legislature packed with people placed there by the special interests and local machines.

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Not a newsflash to anyone who has been in Hudson County more than a month. Power and money corrupts, whether we're talking about defense contracts for Halliburton, or a local repaving job. They're all fighting for control of where to point the firehose of public money.

Maybe there should be some type of state mechanism that forces small municipalities to merge, or forfeit state funding.

Oh, Democratic states can be just as corrupt as Republican ones.

However right Corzine may be, there's simply no chance of getting traction for this agenda. Why? The usual answer: money. The money controlled and doled out by city councils to cronies and patrons. There's no way to get town leaders to walk away from that trough.

Because a friend was running, I paid pretty close attention to Hoboken's last council election. Hoboken has nearly as many council members as JC, with 1/6 the population. Chris Campos spent over $100k donated by non Hobokeners trying to win another council term. Why was this that important to anyone? The control of millions in contracts and zoning approvals. Don't even think about taking that away, or you'll be politically kneecapped.

I agree that there are too many small towns in Nj that could benefit from consolidation. why do small places like Hoboken, weehawken, Cliffside Park even exist. - they could all fit into a space smaller than manhattan which is the smallest boro in new york city. People - it's time to get real. And if people don't want to consolidate, then stop complaining about high property taxes.

Corzine Presses Towns to Combine Services

New York Times
By ELIZABETH DWOSKIN
Published: March 16, 2008

MUNICIPAL leaders in New Jersey?s smaller communities say they are being forced to shoulder the burden for a state that can?t manage its own affairs.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine?s latest budget proposes cutting $190 million in aid to municipalities, with the sharpest reductions aimed at towns with fewer than 10,000 people, an effort to get some of them to consider consolidation.

About 180 of those small towns stand to lose all their aid, while others will see their funding slashed by half. More than 300 mayors and other local leaders gathered in Trenton recently to complain loudly and passionately about the cuts, in what is most likely the opening act of a months-long battle with the governor, who told them the idea of small-town governments may soon be a thing of the past.

In a video message to the mayors, the governor said New Jersey?s 566 municipalities, 616 school districts, 486 local authorities and 186 fire districts or companies are too expensive in today?s grim budget reality.

?The size of government, and often home rule, is hurting taxpayers and raising their cost of living,? Mr. Corzine said.

Last week, there were already signs that the governor?s grand plan to nudge the small towns toward consolidation by penalizing them may not be acceptable to legislators, who must vote on the final budget by June 30. At a hearing in New Brunswick on Wednesday, several senators vowed to give New Jersey?s small towns as much as $168 million more in state aid.

But municipal leaders are still nervous.

?The people on State Street are out of step with the people on Main Street,? William Dressel Jr., executive director of the State League of Municipalities, said recently. In his 34 years as an advocate, Mr. Dressel said he had never seen so much frustration over budget issues or such a cookie-cutter approach to policy.

?I haven?t heard anything that gives me comfort as to how these cuts are going to address real quality-of-life issues in our communities,? he added.

At the March 6 meeting in Trenton, their anger and frustration spilled out. Hundreds of local officials, from the economically depressed municipalities in Camden County to the tourist-filled boroughs along the Jersey Shore, used words like ?injustice? and ?disrespect? to tell the governor?s representative that they have already slashed their budgets to the bone and consolidated many services.

Joseph V. Doria Jr., the newly appointed commissioner of the state?s community affairs office ? and a former mayor of Bayonne ? told the local leaders that the ?state cannot keep on spoon-feeding? towns. But mayor after mayor said they had already made many of the changes the governor is seeking.

?It feels as though the legislative decisions have been made based on a pseudo-belief that municipal governments have a money tree in our backyard,? said Marianne Smith, manager of Hardyston Township in Sussex County. Hardyston already has more than a dozen shared-services agreements with neighboring towns, Ms. Smith said. With just over 8,000 residents, the town stands to lose half its aid.

?It wasn?t really fair because here we are, trying to do the right thing, and we?re still put on the chopping block, just based on population,? she said.

The state has not conducted a study to measure the effects of consolidating services. But after the meeting, Javier E. Inclan, the governor?s deputy chief of staff, said the state would consider providing grants to towns that have already taken those steps. Municipal leaders are now gearing up for a series of public hearings over the coming months in the assembly and senate budget committees before the final budget vote.

?You?re cutting us by 68 percent,? Mayor Vincent Barrella, from the shore town of Point Pleasant Beach, announced at the meeting. ?Why don?t you tell me how to cut my number of tourists by 68 percent then??

?I?m a first-time mayor, so I apologize if I?m a little irreverent,? he added before taking his seat.
More Articles in New York Region ?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/nyr ... html?ref=nyregionspecial2
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http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/146/story/104481.html

Little-town blues: Corzine right on merging
Press of Atlantic City
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

New Jersey has been using the "all-carrot, no-stick" approach to municipal consolidation for years, offering incentive after incentive in an effort to nudge its 566 municipalities and 611 school districts to merge and share services.

Progress has been appallingly slow. Egos get in the way, politics get involved, and fears surface that one town or the other will come out behind. Sometimes there are racial and class overtones when a tonier town hesitates to merge with a less-affluent one.

But Gov. Jon S. Corzine has made it clear that in this tough budget year, scarce state resources are not going to go toward propping up an inefficient system of municipal governments. There are still "carrots" available, but Corzine is adding a punitive "stick" approach to encouraging consolidation.

He's got the right idea. The only question is whether he's going too fast, whether that "stick" is more of a club.

Corzine has proposed a 10 percent reduction in state aid to most municipalities this year. But small towns - those with fewer than 5,000 residents - would get nothing. And towns of between 5,000 and 10,000 residents would get their state aid slashed in half.

On top of that, some small towns that rely on State Police would have to pay for the service - a sensible measure that comes up time and again, only to die in the Legislature.

Small towns are understandably feeling pressured. But Corzine has not forgotten the "carrots": The amount of state aid those towns are losing, $37 million, could be nearly offset by tapping into a $32 million fund to encourage consolidation and shared services.

Small towns should have seen this one coming. And they should be scrambling now to find ways to tap into the consolidation fund.

The state is giving small towns top priority for those funds. It should give an even higher priority for aid to towns that rely on the State Police but are willing to band together to form a regional police department. One example: Upper Township, Woodbine and Dennis Township.

Upper Township is a growing, well-off community with no municipal tax rate that relies instead on state taxpayers to provide it with police protection. And State Police have candidly said they can't provide good coverage to Strathmere, an island community that is now trying to secede from Upper Township. Upper needs its own police. And a shared force with Woodbine and Dennis Township would be more economical and sensible.

Given the clamor, we suspect that some of that aid to small towns will be restored this year. But Corzine's overall plan is sound, and lawmakers should make sure that in the final budget, small towns feel a greater pinch - making consolidation more attractive. If people in small towns want to keep the status quo, fine. But residents, not state taxpayers, should pay for the inefficiency.

Consolidation and sharing are not a panacea for costly government in New Jersey. But every little bit helps. Corzine's get-tough approach is long overdue.