Small Municipalities Told They Must Pay for State Police Services
Senator Phil Haines, Assemblywoman Dawn Marie Addiego and Assemblyman Scott Rudder expressed their exasperation today with the insensitivity of the Corzine administration in giving no warning before sending out hefty bills to municipalities for state police services.
“This is absolutely ridiculous, ” Senator Haines said. “Every community in New Jersey, large and small, benefits from state police activities. Yet small towns are the only ones being double-taxed for the services they receive. Property taxes in some communities will soar. This is nothing more than a regressive tax increase aimed at citizens who the Democrats believe don’t have the power to resist. The Corzine administration could have at least offered to discuss the bills with town officials to explain how the cost estimates were determined.”
New Jersey’s fiscal year 2009 state budget requires municipalities who don’t have their own police forces to pay the costs of the State Police assigned to patrol their communities. The law requires those communities to accept cost-sharing agreements with the State Treasurer in order to continue to receive those services. The bills received by cities this week reflect the administration’s estimate of the value of police service.
“There was no open discussion about this, ” Assemblywoman Addiego said. “The administration simply mailed out a bill demanding payment, or police protection will cease.”
“This is a safety and quality of life issue, not just an argument about who should pay, ” Assemblyman Rudder said. “The fact that the Corzine administration just mailed out bills without bringing the affected communities to the table for a discussion was insensitive and unnecessarily alarming to citizens who count on State Police to prevent crime and handle emergencies.”
The costs will not be imposed until January, when many municipalities begin their calendar year budgets.
“If rural communities must pay for state police services, then so too should large cities, ” Senator Haines said. “Rural residents already subsidize the schools, courts and municipal governments of urban areas with their income and sales taxes. They pay plenty of state taxes to support the State Police as well. It is wrong to ask them to boost local property taxes to provide even more money for a service they already pay handsomely for. Double taxation has never been acceptable.”
“These bills are being received by municipalities that already pay the State for policing through the administration of court fines,” said Assemblywoman Addiego.
“In the original proposal, Camden would have contributed $800,000 for its State Police service and Irvington roughly the same amount. The Democrats in Trenton decided to remove the two cities from the list of communities that would be required to pay a bill for State Police service,” continued Assemblywoman Addiego. “This plan guarantees property tax increases for suburban homeowners.”
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March 11, 2008
