Balking at consolidation

From the Asbury Park Press:

Push for town mergers faces uphill battle

One of lawmakers’ key ideas to lower New Jersey’s property taxes calls for asking voters to approve merging their towns in a bid to cut the cost of services their local governments provide.

But recent history shows that voters in the Garden State — which has more municipalities per square mile than any other — often balk at that approach.

Voters in South Orange and Maplewood two weeks ago rejected studying whether the two Essex County municipalities should merge.

Princeton Borough and Princeton Township voters rejected a merger three times, most recently in 1996.

Marvin Reed, a former Princeton Borough mayor, has doubts voters can be swayed to eliminate their communities — and the familiar trappings of some small-town life — to try to cut the nation’s highest property taxes.

But legislators who have supported a proposal to create an independent commission to annually recommend town mergers to voters contend their plan will change the public’s mind-set. The plan, which needs legislative approval, hasn’t been completed, but state Sen. Bob Smith said it would ensure no municipality sees a property tax increase through consolidation. “There are no losers,” said Smith, D-Middlesex, co-chairman of a special committee that spent four months debating whether New Jersey needs all of its 1,389 county and municipal governments, school boards and fire districts. “That’s the difference and now merger votes will pass.”

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