From the Daily Record:

Getting together in the Chesters?

A bit of New Jersey history has a chance to be made in Chester Borough and Chester Township. If all goes according to plan, residents in both towns will vote next November on becoming one. Both tonws would have to approve for a merger to take place. Meetings of a consolidation committee began earlier this year and the next one is set for Nov. 24 at Chester Borough Hall.

New Jersey has 566 municipalities, all with their own set of professionals and employees. The thinking is that one way to reduce property taxes is to reduce government. Incoming governor Chris Christie correctly has spoken of the need for towns to share services and to explore consolidation. But he stops short of threatening to mandate consolidations, which is something Trenton has had little appetite to do.

Some may wonder why merging two small towns would be considered historical, as opposed to a no-brainer. The answer is that this is New Jersey, a place where so-called home rule is prized. Some voters have an emotional attachment to their town that is hard to dislodge.

Recent proof of that comes from Sussex County. Voters in Wantage and Sussex Borough were asked in this month’s election if the towns should become one. Sussex voters said yes, but Wantage residents were overwhelmingly opposed.

From the APP:

Forum to give status on potential consolidation of six school districts

Possible scenarios of what might happen if the neighboring school districts of Green Brook, Long Hill, North Plainfield, Warren, Watchung and Watchung Hills Regional High School consolidated will be the focus of a public meeting here Thursday.

The forum will be hosted by the township and presided over by Trudy Doyle, who as executive county superintendent established an advisory committee to study the issue as part of a state directive for municipalities to look at cutting school costs.

Gwen Thornton, a field representative from the New Jersey School Boards Association, will provide an overview of the cost-cutting initiative and an update.

From the Star Ledger:

Sussex Borough and Wantage: A tough sell on N.J. town mergers

In a leafy corner of the state, far from the epicenter of a nasty gubernatorial election, voters from the Sussex County towns of Sussex Borough and Wantage quietly mulled a merger of the two municipalities. And on Tuesday, by nearly a 3-to-1 margin, they said, “No thanks.”

The consolidation seemed to make sense: The towns already share three regional schools, a construction department and a court system and, served by the State Police, wouldn’t have to quibble over police. Plus, the towns had assets (land and utilities) to share. In an unsettling economy, when cutting property taxes is the driving political issue, this one seemed like a rural no-brainer.

“If it wasn’t going to happen here, I wonder if it’s going to happen anywhere,” said Sal Lagattuta, one of the proponents.

According to the Consolidation Study Commission report, the towns — if they merged — could have saved $585,000 in the first year. Future savings could have been greater with even more cost-cutting. That’s a nice chunk of change, but it wasn’t enough to persuade residents to erase a border — especially those in Sussex Borough, population 2,000.

The average municipal tax bill in Wantage — home to 11,000 — would have shrunk only $57, business administrator James Doherty said. The average savings in Sussex Borough would have been approximately $400. Still not enough, it seems.