From the Herald/Record:
Towns protest change in state’s dead-deer policy
Municipalities up in arms over a new mandate requiring them to collect dead deer from their own roads tried Tuesday to stop the state from passing the buck, calling the move unconstitutional.
Municipal and county officials say the change is illegal because the state is requiring they spend money, but not helping pay the bills.
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For 26 years, the state coordinated the carcass collection. But, starting this weekend, the Department of Transportation will collect deer only on state roads and highways — a move designed to save the cash-strapped state $734,000 a year.Morris, Monmouth, Middlesex and Warren counties are expected to see the worst effects of the change, said Doug Cabana, president of the county association.
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Last year, the state spent $1 million to hire a contractor to collect more than 15,000 dead deer from all roads; 10,700 deer were collected from county and municipal roads, according to the Transportation Department.
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Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, has said the program will burden municipalities and drive up property taxes, which already are the highest in the nation.
Seems that just about everything is pointed to as the reason for high property taxes these days…
From the Star Ledger
Morris freeholders won’t pay state’s interest charge
The Morris County freeholders voted today to withhold interest payments on millions of dollars in state pension obligations, contending the state’s 8.25 percent charge is improper, especially since pension debt being paid by towns and counties was caused by the state, the board unanimously decided.
County officials said they hope to start a statewide protest against the interest payments, calling them “outrageous,” and contending the state’s is “scamming the taxpayers of New Jersey.”
Veteran Freeholder Frank Druetzler noted Morris County, with a Triple A bond rating, got an interest rate of 3.58 percent on its most recent bond sale, or a rate some 5 percent less than the state is charging in interest on the pension dollars.
He said the county was unaware of the interest charge until recently. Calls to the state Treasury Department generated a denial of such charges, he said. But when Druetzler personally confronted state Treasurer Bradley Abelow about it at a civic function last week, he confirmed the interest charge.
Or they can just leave the deer carcasses on the side of the road to rot; that already seems to be what they’ve been doing near me. One of my visiting relatives was disgusted every time we passed it; this lasted for several days.
How about welfare people who suck from the state everyday? Why not cut some of those people off? INstead of focusing on deer?
Welfare, get rid of it and put that money back into your wallet.
SAS
Talk about passing the ‘buck’.. ha ha ha..
Would SOMEBODY please pick up all the dead deer, for God’s sake! I’ve been watching this ridiculous situation for years now in New Jersey. When a deer is hit on the highway, it sits there rotting for weeks, as if the highway dept. somehow just hadn’t noticed it. What are these guys doing, sitting on their butts back at the station house watching Oprah? Get out there and pick up the dead deer, you idiots!! It’s part of maintaining the state roadways!!
First off, Richie beat me to that line fair and square.
But this is an awesome display of chicanery by the municipalities. Even assuming the cost would quintuple by having each town (or better yet the county) provide the service you would see virtually no effect on the property tax rate.
Wait a second though, if a town hires the mayor’s idiot nephew at 50 times what the state was paying, that might actually affect taxes.
“Lindsey Says:
September 27th, 2006 at 11:15 pm
Wait a second though, if a town hires the mayor’s idiot nephew at 50 times what the state was paying, that might actually affect taxes.”
Then the nephew is no idiot….. LOL
If all the deer are moved over to PA, will that lower NJ property taxes?
The NJ deer are too savvy and streetwise to get hit. These are all illegal border crossing Pennsylvania deer. Make PA pay.
See, this is precisely why we need better border security. More guards and more fences.
The river is no longer enough, they can swim. Our only hope is to construct a fence high enough so that they may not leap over it.
…until they learn to tunnel..
jb
Up here in glorious Sussex County we have a “zoo”. I use the term quite loosely. They will pick up the carcass to feed to the residents of the zoo. This public service is free – with one catch – the kill must be fresh! Oh well. It is free!
Yes, Space Farms!
Nothing like watching the hyenas chow down on fresh road kill!
For the record, they don’t just throw road kill carcasses in with the animals –the deer are processed first, and they don’t use anything old or too badly damaged.
The carnivores sure seem to love it.