Officials want answers before paying for police
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer
Local municipalities hit by new fees for New Jersey State Police services are not just going to roll over and pay them.

In late July, Gov. Jon Corzine's office sent letters to officials in 89 small and/or rural municipalities stating that they would have to start paying for the state police patrols they have had since the state police was chartered in the 1920s.

Along with the taxes residents already pay toward this service, Millstone Township would be charged an additional $348,152, Upper Freehold Township would be charged an additional $254,065 and Roosevelt would be charged an additional $33,823 for state police coverage.

Upper Freehold Mayor Steve Alexander said the governor's office sent the bill on July 28 and the township received it the following day.

"It takes effect July 1," Alexander said. "We got it 30 days late. If we don't come up with a plan by Dec. 15 it will be considered consent to the cost-share agreement with the treasurer's office."

Affected municipalities would not have to pay their bills with this year's budgets, but would have to put the six months of 2008 police service in their 2009 budget. Alexander said this would result in towns always having to look six months back to pay their bills.

Alexander said he attended several meetings in Trenton where the governor's office always presented the new cost of police coverage as a fee that it would phase in. He said the state claims the police patrols for the 89 small and rural towns that do not have their own police department cost $80 million.

He said state officials never provided any data regarding how they came up with the $80 million figure.

"If they don't come up with $80 million, will they lay off state troopers?" he asked.

Alexander said Upper Freehold would not just roll over and pay the new bill, which would result in a 2-cent per $100 of assessed value increase in residents' taxes ($80 on a home assessed at $400,000). He urged every town involved in the issue to question its bill and how the state arrived at the amount due.

The mayor also addressed how officials in some towns are complaining about having to pay for rural state police patrols they do not use. He said towns like Upper Freehold do not get enough state aid for their school districts, but noted that property owners here pay taxes to help fund some of New Jersey's poorest school districts.

Alexander said paying for state police coverage is cheaper than creating a police department, but he explained that the state police was created in the 1920s to serve as law enforcement for rural towns.

"I defy anybody to tell me Upper Freehold is not the quintessential rural town," he said.

Deputy Mayor Bob Faber said he wants to know if the state would give municipalities a larger percentage of court fees to pay the new state police bill.Upper Freehold had $624,000 in municipal court revenue last year. Of that amount, the township kept $111,000 and the state received $524,000, according to Alexander.

"We only keep 15 percent of violations [money]," Alexander said.

When Committeewoman Lori Horsnall Mount said the state apparently thought it would send the bill and municipalities would pay it, Alexander said Upper Freehold would not pay the bill until it got some answers.

"I can't imagine the Legislature will go into session and vote to remove the state police, which were created to patrol small towns," he said. "It's not going to happen."

Millstone Township has filed a complaint with the Council on Local Mandates pursuant to NJSA 52:13H-1 regarding the state police issue.

A resolution the Millstone Township Committee passed last month noted that the State Appropriations Act, effective July 1, would require municipalities served by the state police to enter into a cost-sharing agreement that will mandate an "additional direct expenditure" for budget implementation. The resolution states that the new requirement does not authorize a new revenue source beyond increasing local residents' real estate property taxes.

The resolution seeks to have the new portion of the State Appropriations Act determined to be an impermissible unfunded state mandate, and therefore of no force or effect.

Millstone Mayor Nancy Grbelja said the proposed bill for the state police services would increase the municipal portion of a resident's tax bill by about 50 percent. The 10-cents per $100 of assessed valuation tax rate for municipal purposes would increase to 15 cents with the new cost (i.e, from $400 in Millstone municipal taxes on a home assessed at $400,000 to $600 municipal taxes on the same home when including the payment for the state police).

Roosevelt officials did not respond to questions regarding the issue prior to press time.