taxhike

THE HUNTERDON COUNTY NEWS
Breaking News -
03/28/06
Frenchtown Mayor - Freeholder Candidate Ron Sworen Testifies about state budget today - this is
what he said
08:07:41
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Good afternoon Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Ron Sworen and I’m the Mayor of
the Borough of Frenchtown in Hunterdon County. I am here today in my capacity as Vice-President of the
New Jersey Conference of Mayors to comment on Governor Corzine’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2007.
I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to present this testimony on behalf of the more than 500 New Jersey
mayors we represent. I realize that you, your colleagues in the State Legislature and Governor Corzine are
dealing with an enormous budget deficit. To ignore it, or to attempt some kind of budget fix that further delays
confronting the problem, would be easy, and politically viable. To deal with it in a way that is fair to the
citizens of our state, both now and in the future, will require difficult choices. Among those difficult choices is
the issue of state aid, which of course directly impacts our property taxpayers.
Under Governor Corzine’s proposed budget, state aid to municipalities is not being cut. Some people—like
those, perhaps, who represent the institutions of higher education in our state—might say we ought to be
grateful for that. Given the dire financial situation in which the state is mired, maybe we ought to be. However,
as you all know, by the state maintaining the same level of funding to municipalities—yet again, for the sixth
year in a row—the rising costs of providing services at the municipal level means that—yet again—we mayors
will be faced with the reality of cutting services and raising property taxes. Mayors have appeared before this
committee for years, saying the same thing. I’m concerned that the repetition of this same point might
somehow lessen its seriousness. Therefore allow me to take a moment to tell you about the situation in my
town. Though in one sense unique among all the other municipalities in the state in terms of the specific
budgetary issues we have, we are also very typical in the fact that we have increasingly difficult, sometimes
insurmountable problems, when the state does not provide adequate assistance. During the five years while we
have been held to flat funding, Frenchtown has been forced to cut our police O/E budget by fifteen percent.
Our budget for this important service it is down to $25,000. This includes the leasing of police cars. If the
situation weren’t bad enough, we are furthermore required to incur the expense—thanks to an illegal action by
the former attorney general to be required to purchase an “alcholtest” machine for $13,000. Our Supreme
Court has opined that we will have to spend $5,000
to create a video studio for interviewing all suspected offenders. How can we be expected to do this? I don’t
know. Perhaps someone on this committee can make a suggestion. How about an additional $18,000
appropriation to pay for these state mandated expenses? We have also cut funding for streets and roads by
twenty percent in the last five years. Now, we can only afford to do basic repairs, unless we can get a grant.
This situation was made worse by two major floods we suffered, occurring six months apart. We received no
aid for the April 2005 flood, which was the worst, in terms of the damage incurred, in over a decade. We had
about half a million dollars in damage. Even though we only have a budget of $1.3 million, somehow the
$500,000 repair bill we are faced with does not seem to fall under any request for extraordinary aid. We have
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furthermore cut our buildings and grounds budget by thirty percent. We have cut our parks budget by seventyfive
percent. Three major parks improvements have been put on hold. We have applied for, and been denied, a
grant to complete these projects. As a mayor, it makes me feel as if our kids don’t count. These are but a few
examples of the reasons why, given five years of no additional financial help from the state, our local taxes
have increased twenty-two percent. This year, increased costs for insurances, fuel, utilities and salaries will
raise our local tax by over nine cents. These are costs over which we have no control. The only way to lower
this number is to cut back more from our base programs.
Typically we mayors hear—quite often, I might add—that there’s too many towns, providing too many
individualized services. This is not true in Frenchtown. We share our tax assessor, our tax collector, zoning
officer and our chief financial officer with other municipalities. We have only two full-time police officers,
three part-time police officers, and two full-time people in the office. We had to make our part time office
person full-time, to handle the increased workload requited by the state. In short, we are doing everything
humanly possible to keep costs down in Frenchtown. Cutting services any further is simply not an option. I
hope I have demonstrated, clearly, that without an increase in state aid, property taxes will go up. My
comments are no doubt echoed through the majority of municipalities in New Jersey. Most of us have been
cutting back for the past five years, and sharing as many services as possible. Our residents are asking us for
more services, and expecting more. That is why we need increased state aid, particularly in our non-Abbott
districts. A certain economic level was required to become an Abbott district, and now many of them
are well above that level—in some cases higher than non-Abbott towns. I believe it is time to provide the
many non-Abbott districts with a greater portion of whatever funding is available. In Frenchtown, school
funding has been flat for five years. In that time, our school taxes have increased by forty-three percent! Yet
another reason why the property tax problem in New Jersey has reached crisis proportions. Education of all of
our children should be a priority. There are many Abbott districts that are in desperate need of all the school
aid the state send them—no question about it. However, four Abbott districts have a family median income
greater than Frenchtown’s—one by $15,000 per household. They get sixty-five to eighty-five percent of their
school costs paid by the state. Frenchtown property taxpayers pay over sixty-five percent of our school costs.
Eight additional Abbott districts have income within ten percent of ours. They are getting $12,000 to $15,000
per student; we are getting $2,800. I believe these numbers indicate that non-Abbott districts are in need of,
and entitled to, additional financial assistance from the state. The mayors of this state need more help—not
only in the immediate future, with the FY 07 Budget, but in terms of a permanent, long-term solution to our
local budget problems.
Specifically, we need this legislature to finally address this state’s over-reliance on property taxes to fund local
services and schools. If it doesn’t happen, I can assure you that next year, and the year after that, mayors like
myself will be forced to continue to come to you, hat in hand, asking for help in the form of additional aid.
There is, in fact, agreement among the mayors of this state as to how to fix the property tax problem. The
proposal by Assembly Speaker Roberts, to have a constitutional convention for property tax reform, is one that
we believe will result in permanent and meaningful property tax relief. We have heard talk of a special session
of the legislature to address property tax reform, but with all due respect to the members of this committee, it
has not been explained how a special session will somehow motivate state legislators to fix a problem they
haven’t been able to fix for decades. We believe the less political forum of a constitutional convention is the
answer to fixing the property tax problem. You don’t need a degree in economics to know that property taxes
are regressive. They hurt most the people least able to afford them - senior citizens and families of low and
moderate income. This describes over fifty percent of Frenchtown’s property owners. For their sake, for the
sake of fairness to all the people who live or own a business in this state, we need to do something about the
problem, and we need to do it now. Every year that goes by in which the state fails to address our over reliance
on property taxes means
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hardship and, in many cases, displacement from their homes for too many New Jerseyeans. Without serious
reform, the problem is going to get a lot worse. We can do better. The people of this state deserve better. In
conclusion, our message to the legislature is this: Right now, we need help - more than is being offered in
Governor Corzine’s proposed budget. We don’t like to say it. I’m sure you don’t like to hear it. Maybe next
year we’ll be on our way to realizing permanent property tax reform in our state, and we’ll be able to come to
you a year or two later with the good news that you’ve given us all the help we need to serve our citizens. Until
that time, we come to you, hat in hand. Not for ourselves, but for the property taxpayers we’re elected to serve.
Thank you for your time. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.
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