The state of the state

Perhaps a new governor can solve New Jersey’s fiscal, municipal, and educational woes

April 13, 2010

I am quite happy Jon Corzine is no longer governor of New Jersey. For those of you who have read my articles over the past few years, that should be obvious. For those of you who are new to me, here’s a disclaimer: I am unabashedly conservative in my political beliefs, and I am very vocal about it.

I am quite glad Chris Christie is the new governor, and I am quite happy the balance of Democrat to Republican in the Statehouse has become more even (it’s not 50-50, but there’s no supermajority).

Our state has a lot of problems; as Bruce Springsteen once sang, “Somewhere along the line [we] slipped off track / [we’re] caught movin’ one step up and two steps back.”

In order to get us back on track, here are three initiatives I believe Christie should take during his term, and the steps he has taken.

1. Balance the budget

As of February, the state has a multibillion dollar budget deficit. Within the first 23 days of taking office, Christie took the following steps via executive order: (a) declared a fiscal emergency, froze state spending, and cut funding to 500 school districts and the Council on Affordable Housing; (b) ordered Department of the Treasury to publish quarterly reports on all state expenditures; and (c) established a Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors.

These are all great and important steps. New Jersey is notorious for having a huge government and a crushing addiction to spending.

I know Christie accomplished these things via executive order (he signed 14 in his first 23 days). I’ve been critical of President Barack Obama’s executive orders because making law is the function of the legislature.

Christie might have gained tremendous credibility for himself and his party if he had been able to achieve this spending freeze through the legislative process. However, having worked for a state Assemblyman, I know it can be lengthy, combative, and sometimes futile.

Our state’s budget is in dire straits, and something dramatic needed to be done immediately to get it under control.

2. Restructure command

New Jersey is organized in a very serpentine manner with perhaps the most complex organization of government in the entire country.

Like other states, there are three branches of government; executive, legislative, and judicial. There are 21 counties with their own county governments run by a Board of Chosen Freeholders, and in some cases, a County Executive; then there are 566 municipalities.

It gets even weirder: There are six structures for municipal governments. Every single one of the 566 municipalities gets to choose which it wants, and of course, each sets up its own bureaucracy of school administrators, police, fire, sanitation, and other costly services.

Governor Corzine actually began a program in 2008 to analyze municipalities with fewer than 10,000 residents. .

In spite of its large population, in a state that is small enough to drive from tip to tip in 4 hours, there is no need to break it up in such a silly and wasteful manner. Other states have a dramatically simpler system of government and, consequently, fewer problems with spending, as well as corruption.

3. Reorganize schools

One word on how to do this effectively: consolidate.

To cut costs and taxes, and increase efficiencies, many towns are teaming up to consolidate services. Obvious departments to merge are police and fire. But consolidating school districts would be effective too.

In recent years, bills have been proposed to force every school district to go K-12 (many only go K-6 or K-8). This would force towns to join together to provide educational services. It would also lessen the burden on counties and the state. If two or three towns combined their districts, municipal and state taxes would go down.

There are two classic arguments why consolidation is a bad idea: It increases class sizes and teachers will get fired.

Here are my counter-arguments: Many New Jersey schools are over-crowded. My hometown of East Brunswick has between 600 and 1,000 kids in each grade at the high school. Obviously no one wants to make class sizes any bigger.

Consolidation wouldn’t affect towns like East Brunswick. In an ideal situation, the consolidation of school districts, of which there are more than 600 in New Jersey, would affect undersized schools; schools where a full grade is 70 or even 100 kids.

As for jobs, when municipalities consolidate services, they wind up saving a lot of money. In some municipalities, savings from consolidated services are applied to severance for employees who lose jobs. These packages are often lucrative, and many fired employees find new jobs.

Unions hate to lose members, but unions are at the root of the state’s problems (but that’s a topic for another day!).

I know this is all an incredibly tall order, but I hope someone in Governor Christie’s administration tackles these challenges. That would be “change I can believe in.”

Cory Nagelberg, 17, attends Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union and is a member of Nu’s teen board.