From Bloomberg:

L.A. Appraiser Accused of Cutting Home Values $172 Million

A former Los Angeles appraiser was charged with lowering the property values of wealthy home and business owners by $172 million in return for campaign contributions to County Assessor John Noguez.

Scott Schenter, 49, was arrested today in Beaverton, Oregon, and is being held on $1.5 million bail, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said in a statement. The arrest is part of an investigation into allegations that Noguez cut property values of wealthy clients of a tax consultant and campaign contributor, Cooley said.

“The magnitude of Schenter’s suspected betrayal of public trust is almost inconceivable,” Cooley said. “We believe his actions are not isolated.”

Schenter, who was an appraiser from 1988 to early last year, is accused of lowering the values of multimillion-dollar homes and businesses in Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. The unauthorized reductions were discovered by a supervisor in January of last year, according to the prosecutor.

The former appraiser faces 30 counts of falsifying accounts and 30 counts of falsifying records. If convicted, he faces as long as 33 years in state prison, Cooley said.

In Burlington County, a 458 percent tax hike with Christie’s blessing

When two New Jersey towns asked voters to approve a property-tax hike last month, Gov. Christie scorned them.

The state’s other 564 municipalities didn’t seek permission to exceed the 2 percent cap on tax increases. Didn’t Medford and Lawrence Townships know how to cut spending?

But Christie was mum a few days later when his administration quietly gave Chesterfield the go-ahead to raise municipal taxes a whopping 458 percent. The average tax bill in the tiny rural Burlington County community will jump nearly $1,000.

“Wow, whew,” Medford Mayor Randy Pace said last week, as budgets across the state were being finalized, when he learned about Chesterfield’s numbers. Medford voters agreed to a 30 percent tax increase after painful debate.

“We were vilified for what we did,” Pace said, referring to Christie’s lambasting town officials on radio broadcasts. But if Chesterfield needs to raise its tax that much, there must be a reason, Pace said.

Like Medford, there are special circumstances at work in Chesterfield. Neither town has raised taxes for about five years and both now face fiscal challenges. But unlike Medford, Chesterfield didn’t need voter approval to fix its finances.

Chesterfield is one of 18 municipalities statewide that enjoy a little-known exemption to the tax-hike cap. Towns and boroughs are exempted when they have a tax rate of less than 10 cents per $100 of assessed real estate value, according to the Division of Local Government Services, which approves municipal budgets.

Most are tiny and offer few services.

Chesterfield, whose population of 4,600 enjoys no municipal trash collection, adopted a $4 million municipal budget last month that called for the tax rate to jump to nearly 30 cents from 5 cents. For property assessed at the township average of $396,900, municipal taxes will go up $961, to $1,171. County and school taxes are still being calculated, but the average overall tax bill last year was $8,623.

Bill to stop ‘fake farmers’ from getting large property tax discounts passes N.J. Senate panel

A Senate panel has approved a bill to make it tougher for property owners to qualify for large property tax discounts if they use their land for farming.

Under the bill (S589), sponsored by state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth) and Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), those who claim a farmland tax exemption would have to sell at least $1,000 worth of products from five acres of land – up from $500.

The Senate Environment and Energy Committee approved the measure 4-0.
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New Jersey’s farmland tax exemption is intended to preserve open space and keep farmers in state. But it’s been controversial for decades. Environmentalists say real estate developers claim it for land they plan to develop later, and wealthy residents — including several high profile politicians — sometimes use it to pay lower taxes on their estates.

“There is nothing that really guides our tax assessors as to what is and isn’t a farm. So the result has been that we have a lot of fake farmers,” said Beck.

The state senator Beck defeated in 2007, Ellen Karcher (D-Monmouth), had some of her Marlboro property classified as a farm, saving her tens of thousands of dollars in property taxes because she sold about half a dozen Christmas trees.

Former Gov. Christie Whitman reduced taxes on her two estates by selling cords of firewood to relatives and friends. U.S. Reps. Scott Garrett (R-5th Dist.) and Jon Runyan (R-3rd Dist.) have also faced
criticism from political opponents for using the program.
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Sierra Club New Jersey Director Jeff Tittel opposed the bill because he did not think it went far enough.

“When land speculators and big corporations use farmland assessment to get around paying taxes, we have to make up the differences,” he said.

Added Tittel: “Raising it from $500 to $1,000 is 10 extra Christmas trees at someone’s house in Manalapan.”

Tax-Cut Pledge May Trap Christie as N.J. Revenue Misses

Governor Chris Christie, a Republican who has spent the past four months promising New Jersey income- tax cuts, now confronts the challenge of selling his plan’s feasibility against a backdrop of continuing revenue shortfalls.

April receipts fell 5.3 percent short of budget forecasts, after March collections missed by 2.5 percent, according to statements from Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff. So far for the fiscal year that ends in June, the state has brought in $230.3 million, or 1.2 percent, less than projected.

Christie, 49, didn’t remark on the latest figures during two public appearances in Atlantic City and Camden yesterday, when the April data was released. He will continue barnstorming the state with a public forum planned for today in East Hanover. He has regularly pitched the three-year, 10 percent tax cut at such meetings as a key to what he calls the “Jersey Comeback.”

“To back off now would smell of political weakness,” Brigid Harrison, who teaches law and politics at Montclair State University, said yesterday by telephone.

Christie’s $32.1 billion spending plan for fiscal 2013 counts on a 7.3 percent revenue gain, the most since before the recession that began in December 2007. Should revenue miss budgeted amounts for the current year, the state would start the next with less cash than estimated.
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New Jersey collected $3.26 billion last month, less than the $3.44 billion forecast. Income taxes trailed estimates by 2.8 percent and corporate levies fell 22 percent under budget, Sidamon-Eristoff said in a statement.

“This is one month’s worth of collections,” said Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for Christie. “We still have two months.”

So far in fiscal 2012, revenue is $500 million, or 2.7 percent, greater than for the first 10 months of the previous year, reflecting economic growth, Roberts said yesterday.
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“With revenue projections coming in much lower and the governor’s revenue estimates being ridiculously unreachable,

it would be irresponsible at this time to support any type of tax cut,” Senator Raymond Lesniak, an Elizabeth Democrat, said by telephone yesterday, before the April numbers were released. “I know that other members I’ve spoken to agree.”

Gordon MacInnes, president of New Jersey Public Policy Perspective, a Trenton nonprofit research group that focuses on social and political issues, said this is no time to cut taxes.

“New Jersey already has the third-lowest credit rating in the country, greatly increasing our borrowing costs,” MacInnes, a former Democratic state senator and assemblyman from Morristown, said in a statement. “Our leaders should concentrate first on putting the state’s fiscal house in order, not on politically appealing, but reckless, proposals to cut taxes. This is exactly how we got into this mess.”

N.J. Treasury delays release of April revenue figures without explanation

A joint news conference between Gov. Chris Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney wasn’t the only thing that didn’t go off as scheduled today in Trenton.

The state’s Treasury Department failed to release April revenue figures as expected. The department declined to explain the delay.

April is a critical month in the budget cycle where the state receives the bulk of its income tax collections.

A memo written earlier this month by the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services said business and income tax collections in April failed to meet expectations, but did not provide specifics. In March, OLS and the Christie administration were already $537 million apart on revenue projections through fiscal year 2013, with the OLS anticipating a slightly lower revenue rebound.

The slumping revenue figures cast doubt on Christie’s and Sweeney’s ability to deliver the tax cuts — and already have some Senate Democrats rethinking the wisdom of offering them while revenue is weakening.

Christie and Sweeney were poised today to announce a compromise on their competing tax cut proposals, but the surprise news conference was abruptly canceled. Sweeney cited “minor” health issues, but sources say he failed to notify key Democratic lawmakers of the compromise and was the target of some internal criticism that prompted him to delay the announcement.

Realtors’ group poll: Property taxes irk N.J. residents

If you want to rile a New Jersey resident, two words will do it: property taxes.

Most state residents — 89 percent of the 800 registered voters surveyed in early April by the state’s Realtors, according to the poll’s results — maintain that property taxes are too high, but they are less united about proposals to lower them.

“Property taxes continue to be a major concern, even ahead of the economy and jobs,” said Joe Goode, senior vice president of American Strategies, who has been conducting the poll for the New Jersey Association of Realtors for the last five years.

What changed this year is the mood of the voters polled, Goode said.

Forty-seven percent said the state was headed in the right direction, while 42 percent disagreed, he said. In 2009, just 19 percent said the state was on the correct path; in 2010, 31 percent said it was.

Gov. Christie’s proposal to cut the state’s income tax by 10 percent was supported by 63 percent of the voters the Realtors’ group polled this year.
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When asked why housing cost so much in their areas — 49 percent had complained about it — the largest percentage, 28 percent, blamed home sellers and builders trying to make too much profit.

Nearly half those polled said foreclosures remained a huge problem in the state. There was virtually unanimous support, Goode said, for a program that would renovate foreclosed properties into affordable housing.

Fifty-two percent of those polled said they want the state to abolish its real estate transfer tax, and they strongly opposed proposals to allow municipalities to levy their own transfer taxes and impose a sales levy on vacation rentals.

A small majority favored managed-growth policies as a way to combat sprawl, the poll results showed.

N.J. needs property-tax relief, not income

The one thing that seems to get otherwise rational New Jersey residents to foam at the mouth is the state’s punishing property-tax system.

Property owners spend an average of $7,759 a year to support schools and municipal services. Sometimes they get tax rebates to offset the pain. Sometimes they don’t.

Now there is a dispute between state Senate and Assembly leaders, who want to give residents a property-tax credit on their state income taxes, and Gov. Christie, who wants to cut the income tax by 10 percent.

The governor’s plan would mean a $7,000 tax cut for millionaires, but only an $80 reduction for families earning $50,000. If that sounds wrongly skewed, it’s because it is. That paltry sum won’t help poor and middle-class New Jerseyans struggling with higher prices for food, gasoline, and health care.

The Christie plan also rests on a very shaky projection that state revenues will increase 7.3 percent next year, a figure that only the governor’s office seems to think is realistic in this fragile economy. His plan should be dismissed out of hand, so legislators can concentrate on meaningful property-tax cuts.

The Assembly’s proposal would give property owners earning less than $250,000 annually a 20 percent credit on their income taxes for property taxes paid up to $10,000. That would be paid for, in part, by raising the income taxes of millionaires.

The Senate plan would grant a 10 percent credit for those earning $250,000 or less, but relies on the governor’s revenue figures to cover costs. That’s too big a gamble.

The Assembly plan makes more sense. Only about 16,000 of New Jersey’s 2.6 million income-tax filers would see their tax rate increase from 8.97 percent to 10.75 percent. They can well afford to sacrifice a bit more than others who have shouldered the most in this down economy, with its job losses, wage cuts, and higher gas prices.

Both legislative plans would fold the property-tax credits into the state’s tax code. That means governors would no longer be able to dangle property-tax rebates in election years and pull them back when revenues fall.
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The legislative leaders are not that far apart. It’s time for them to work out their differences and speak in one voice. Divided, they will be conquered. New Jersey property owners deserve to win this argument.

North Jersey homeowners seek lower tax assessments (Hat tip Gary)

Watching their property taxes rise as the value of their 82-year-old house dropped, Nora and Pat Sfarra of Teaneck decided to appeal their tax assessment last year. With the help of a tax-appeal company, they were able to get their home’s assessed value reduced from $351,000, to $310,000, knocking about $1,000 off an $8,000-plus annual tax bill.

“I’m satisfied that I got something off,” said Nora Sfarra.

The Sfarras are among the thousands of North Jersey homeowners who have challenged their tax assessments as home values eroded over the past several years. And with the April 2 deadline for filing this year’s tax appeals approaching fast, many homeowners are rushing to get their paperwork in.

The wave of appeals is having an impact on town budgets.

“It’s creating a major problem for communities up and down the state,” said William Dressel, executive director of the state League of Municipalities, which represents towns. “It’s reducing the amount of property taxes going into municipal coffers, which has a direct impact on the towns’ ability to be able to provide adequate services.” The result could be either service cuts or a higher tax rate, he said.

A number of towns have responded to the rise in appeals by conducting town-wide reassessments or revaluations, with the aim of getting valuations in line with actual market values, which makes it harder for homeowners to question their assessments.

And the first thing homeowners need to know is that you can’t appeal your tax bill, just your property’s assessment.

“A lot of people think if they pay too much in taxes, they have an appeal,” said Hackensack lawyer Martin Sharit, who has filed many tax appeals. “But we all pay too much in taxes.”
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Teaneck, for example, has a tax ratio of 104 percent — meaning that the town already knows that the properties’ assessments are greater than their actual value. By that formula, a property assessed at $350,000 may really be valued by the town at only about $336,500.

N.J. can’t afford tax cuts proposed by either party

It’s party time in Trenton, where we now have a menu of tax-cut plans to choose from — one from Gov. Chris Christie, one from the Senate and a third from the Assembly.

The proposals are different in big ways. Christie’s plan is tilted heavily in favor of the rich. The Assembly plan is the most progressive, but is politically a nonstarter. And the Senate plan, as usual, tells us where this is all going to land in the end.

But they have this in common: All of them would blow a $1.4 billion hole in the annual budget once they are phased in.

In other words, all these plans would force much deeper spending cuts than we have already seen, cuts that will sink deeply into the muscle and bone of what our state and local governments do.
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Hard realities like this do not sell on the campaign trail. To say we can’t afford a tax cut is like snapping on the lights at the drunken frat party. It’s no way to win friends. But this failure of leadership is striking and threatens to derail the modest progress that’s been made in the past few years.

The political blame belongs mostly to the governor, who started this arms race with his plan to cut income taxes by 10 percent. As state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) puts it: “We have the governor running around saying, ‘I want to cut your taxes and they want to spend your money.’ So there is some political realities on this.”

If you have to chose among the plans, the Assembly version is preferable. It offers a credit to cover 20 percent of property tax payments, financed partly by a tax increase on incomes greater than $1 million. The governor’s plan is the worst, because it reserves most benefits for the rich.

The Senate version, with a 10 percent cut and no tax hike, is the likely end point. But don’t celebrate this one. It will come back to haunt us.

At Caldwell town hall meeting, Christie calls on N.J. towns to share services

Gov. Chris Christie today told a hospitable audience at the Caldwell Community Center that after school funding, the duplication of municipal services is most responsible for high property tax bills.

Christie said he understands each town values its unique character, but pointed to Princeton Township and Princeton Borough’s recent decision to consolidate. The state will pick up the transition costs for the first year to encourage more towns to merge. “If you wonder why your property taxes are so high,” he said, “the next culprit after school funding is this proliferation of repetition, everybody having a CFO, everybody having a business administrator.”

Christie said New Jerseyans have a tough time choosing between forms of government and delivery of services, and that adds up across 566 municipalities: “Should we have civil service or collective bargaining? Yes. Should we have municipal government or county government? Yes, we’ll have both of them.”

The Republican governor said forthcoming legislation from Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) would call for shared services and in some cases implement penalties. “All the taxpayers in the state shouldn’t be subsidizing the fact that you just don’t feel like sharing the service of garbage collection with the neighboring town,” Christie said.

Turning to the highest drain on tax dollars, Christie said the state spends roughly $11 billion on education with 63 percent doing to 31 school districts and again took aim at the state Supreme Court. He said spending has little bearing on student achievement.“We spend more than a third of the state budget on aid to schools,” he said.

From the Star Ledger:

Lebanon Borough officials oppose plan for county-wide school district

An initiative to consider consolidating Hunterdon’s 28 school districts into one, K – 12 county-wide district, has run into opposition from Lebanon Borough Council.

The county-wide proposal originated with a resolution adopted by Raritan Township Committee, and supported by then-mayor John King and county Freeholder Rob Walton.

Lebanon Borough Council has responded with its own resolution and, as with Raritan Township, the borough seeks other municipalities and school boards to adopt similar ones.

“Lebanon Borough cannot support these efforts as currently articulated because they do not address the well-known and widely documented underlying causes of our high property tax burden, low state aid,” reads a letter addressed to mayors, freeholders and school boards and signed by the Mayor and Council of Lebanon Borough. “Further, it will impose a significant additional tax burden on thirteen of the twenty six municipalities in Hunterdon County,” the letter reads. It also says that the proposed plan would risk the quality of education.

Property taxes in N.J. rise 2.4 percent despite state-imposed cap

New Jersey’s highest-in-the-nation property taxes continued to rise in 2011, although at a slower rate than in previous years, according to figures released by the state Department of Community Affairs.

The average annual property tax bill was up $183 from 2010 to 2011, to $7,759. That’s an increase of 2.4 percent, slightly more than half the 4.1 percent increase seen between 2009 and 2010.
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In Monmouth County, the average property tax bill rose $248, to $8,040. That’s a 3.2 percent increase. Ocean County property owners saw their taxes jump an average of $618, to $5,434. That’s an increase of nearly 13 percent.
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Statewide, Paterson saw the highest property tax increase, at 17.3 percent to $8,829, for municipalities with more than 250 residents. Corbin City, in Atlantic County, had biggest drop, at 20.6 percent. The town has about 500 residents, and homeowners paid an average of $3,328 in property taxes.

Over the years the state has attempted to mitigate some of the rise in property taxes by distributing rebates to property owners. Rebate checks, previously mailed in October, averaged about $1,000 during Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s administration.

From the Courier Post:

Hey guv, it’s still property taxes

Gov. Chris Christie may not be the kind of leader who drifts whichever way the wind blows and changes his position based on polls.

But, if polls weren’t important to some degree as a barometer of voters’ opinions, then politicians wouldn’t rely so heavily upon them come campaign season.

An interesting new poll from Monmouth University/New Jersey Press Media finds that when it comes to lowering property taxes or lowering income taxes in the Garden State, a vast majority — 69 percent — think lowering property taxes should be the priority. Just 19 percent of poll respondents said reducing the state income tax should be the priority. Another 10 percent of those polled said both should be the priority.
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As Christie turns the corner on the halfway point of his first term and prepares for a potential re-election bid in 2013, or a bid to some national office later, it’s understandable why he wants to lower state income taxes by 10 percent. New Jerseyans are overburdened by taxes and, for the governor, one of the least complicated taxes to lower is the income tax because it is directly controlled by the state.
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The 2 percent cap on local government spending increases and property tax levy increases year-to-year was a great achievement. But, it has not lowered anyone’s property taxes. The cap has only slowed the pace of the tax increases.

Christie Pushes Income-Tax Cut as Democrats Eye Property Levies

Governor Chris Christie told a group of business leaders that Democrats in the Legislature may jeopardize New Jersey’s economic recovery by putting social issues ahead of job-creation and tax cuts.
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“They want to play around with social issues to try and make people look bad,” Christie said. “Here’s what the public is going to care about: Are they working? Are they working in a job that pays well and provides their family with health insurance?”

Christie’s remarks echoed his Jan. 17 State of the State speech to the Legislature and a subsequent series of public meetings in which he pressed his case for hastening what he calls “the Jersey comeback” by cutting taxes. The Washington- based Tax Foundation yesterday ranked New Jersey last among U.S. states in terms of business climate.
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Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald, a Cherry Hill Democrat, said his party is weighing “a couple of ideas” to lower pressure from New Jersey’s highest-in-the-nation property taxes. He declined to give specifics following Christie’s speech, while saying any relief would be both immediate and long-term.
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Christie took office in 2010 pledging to cut taxes as the state’s economic conditions improved. He said his proposed reduction would spur the state’s economy, which he added should be the top issue in Trenton.

“Do they care about the stuff we’ve been talking about for the past week?” Christie said, referring to state residents. “What they care about is whether their husband or wife will have a job, will they have money to put food on the table?”

The governor has so far declined to say how he’d make up for the revenue if taxes are cut. Democrats have said a 10 percent rollback may mean as much as a $1.1 billion decline in state receipts.
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“People care about civil rights, and they also care about the middle-class property tax relief and job creation plans this governor vetoed as he zealously protects and advocates for tax cuts for the rich,” Tom Hester, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, said last night. “His priorities are so out of step with working class New Jersey.”

Oliver, a Democrat from East Orange, has said that an analysis by her office showed a family with a $50,000 annual income would pay $80 less in taxes under Christie’s plan, while someone earning $1 million would save $7,200.

Special Report: Did N.J. property tax reform help most taxpayers?

New Jersey homeowners paid an average of 2.4 percent more for property taxes in 2011, the smallest increase in nearly two decades, showing Gov. Chris Christie’s push to restrain local levies might be working.

A Star-Ledger analysis of taxes in all 566 New Jersey towns shows the average property tax bill was $7,758 last year, an increase of about $182 from 2010.

Although more than 82 percent of the towns saw some increase in their average property tax bills last year, the 2.4 percent increase was a significantly slower rate of growth, the newspaper found. In 2010, property taxes rose 4.1 percent and year-over-year increases topped 7 percent for three consecutive years in the middle of the past decade.

The last time property taxes rose by such a small rate was 1992, when they went up 1.9 percent, according to state figures.

Christie has made reining in New Jersey’s highest-in-the-nation property taxes a big goal of his administration. Along with the Democrat-controlled Legislature, he limited property tax collections for towns, schools and counties at 2 percent, starting last January.

“Am I satisfied? Of course not. Unless you told me it was 2 percent, I wouldn’t be satisfied,” Christie said in an interview. “But we’re making great progress. When you think that in the 10 years before I became governor, property taxes went up 70 percent in 10 years and now people are talking about 2-and-change increase, that’s great progress and progress that nobody else before we got here created in this state.”
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The analysis found:

• In total, towns, counties and schools collected about $25.6 billion from taxpayers in 2011, a 2.5 percent increase from 2010.

• Loch Arbour Village in Monmouth County had the highest average property tax bill at $22,715. Tiny Tavistock Borough, Camden County, came in second with $22,297, followed by Millburn, where the average property taxpayer coughed up $19,989.

• The least expensive place to live in New Jersey was Walpack in Sussex County, where the average taxpayer paid about $514.

• Bergen, Morris and Union counties had the highest average property taxes in 2011. The average Bergen County taxpayer paid $10,317, a 2.6 percent jump from 2010. Morris County’s average bill was $9,644, while Union County overtook Essex for third place, at $9,493.

• The lowest county average was in Cumberland, where the average tax bill was about $3,419 in 2011, down 1 percent.

• Together, the three taxing authorities (towns, schools and counties) exceeded a 2 percent increase in collections in 312 towns, while 165 stayed within 2 percent and 89 saw the levy stay the same or decrease. In 2010, 529 towns saw an increase in their total tax levy, 425 of which went over 2 percent.

• Counties were more successful than towns and schools in keeping their tax levy below the cap.

From the Record:

‘Fake farmers’ get property tax break

Some New Jersey corporations, developers — and even a few politicians — get a tax break for growing as little as $500 worth of crops such as Christmas trees, using a law that critics say means higher property taxes for everyone else.

So-called “fake farmers” were faulted for taking advantage of a farmland tax break at a Senate Environment and Energy Committee hearing Thursday where lawmakers discussed doubling the minimum sales needed to qualify for the state’s farmland assessment.

“Time and again, we hear stories of this program being abused by owners of large, valuable residential properties to avoid paying their full property tax bill,” said Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth.
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The farmland assessment dates back to the 1960s, and was designed to help struggling farmers while also discouraging the development of open space in a state known for its high real estate prices.

But opponents now see the tax break as outdated, and something many wealthy landowners are abusing to avoid paying their full property tax bills. The average property tax bill in New Jersey averaged a record-high $7,576 last year, but bills easily top $25,000 on larger properties.

Beck is sponsoring legislation that would double to $1,000 the minimum gross sales required to qualify for the farmland assessment, which sharply reduces how much property taxes are due on the part of a property that is used for agriculture.

The bill would also compel landowners who claim their property as farmland to submit clear evidence of agricultural sales or income to the state Division of Taxation. And local tax assessors would have to receive training on farmland assessments.
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Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, cited an example of a 5-acre lot — the minimum allowed to qualify for the assessment — with an expensive home that uses only a fraction of the property to cultivate enough Christmas trees to qualify for the tax break.
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No votes were taken on Beck’s bill Thursday, and it may not make it out of the Legislature before the current lame duck session ends early next year. But Beck, who’s been pressing the issue since she took office in 2008, pledged to keep pushing.

“It is time to close this ‘fake farmer’ loophole and ensure that only true farmers who produce substantial agricultural output be eligible for the program,” she said.

Gov: Mergers can help towns save tax dollars

Gov. Chris Christie threw state support behind the successful effort to consolidate the Princetons into one town, but said he is not sure how many more town mergers are in the forecast.

“This has been an effort in the works since 1953,” Christie said of the merger of Princeton Township and Princeton Borough, which is expected to be complete within a year and will reduce the number of New Jersey municipalities to 565.

“In New Jersey, as you know, it’s slow and steady. We eventually got there,” he said.

Christie held a town hall meeting Tuesday at the Princeton Public Library, here in the borough, taking a victory lap two weeks after residents of the two towns approved a merger referendum.

A study commission said combining the governments would save more than $3.2 million mostly through elimination of redundant administration and services. Christie sweetened the pot with a proposal for the state to pay for first-year consolidation costs and allowing towns to spread other transition costs over five years.

There had been three failed previous efforts to consolidate the Princetons, most recently in 1996.

Christie, accompanied by Princeton Township Mayor Chad Goerner and Princeton Borough Council President Kevin Wilkes, told an audience of 150 people that merging towns is one way to achieve local government savings and “challenge the status quo.’’

But consolidation is not for everybody, Christie said, and added that it can be encouraged by the state, but should not be mandated.

“I think locally driven discussions are the only way to do it,” he said. “It’s a contentious and emotional issue for some and also a complicated one.”

Currently, there is little other formal movement toward connecting towns aside from proposed unions of tiny Merchantville and larger Cherry Hill, and of Scotch Plains and Fanwood.