The spirit of giving
In the News • MARK ROSMAN

Ah, the holidays. They bring out the best in people. The spirit of giving. Goodwill toward men. All that jazz.

It is that holiday spirit that brings us to two members of the New Jersey Assembly — Democrat Reed Gusciora of Mercer County and Republican David Wolfe of Ocean County.

I must admit that on a Tuesday morning, after wrapping up my deadlines last week, a news release from the Assembly Republicans brought a smile to my face and gave me a good laugh for the day. And that, I suppose, is all you can ask from life.

It was a week or two ago when Gusciora — looking east from Mercer County — floated a proposal to take a couple of municipalities in Ocean County and combine them into one town.

This, of course, stems from the fact that New Jersey has hundreds of municipalities, some of which have fewer than 1,000 residents. Many people have been saying for years that some of these small towns should be eliminated and rolled into larger municipalities.

Alan Karcher, the late speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, addressed this in his well-regarded book "New Jersey's Multiple Municipal Madness."

Gusciora, Mr. Mercer County, suggested that the Ocean County towns of Mantoloking, Lavallette, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park be combined into one town and that six municipalities on Long Beach Island be merged into one.

That broadside from the capital county into the Jersey Shore did not go unnoticed by Wolfe, Mr. Ocean County, who then introduced legislation that would require towns in — surprise! — Mercer County to combine their governments in order to reduce taxes.

Under Wolfe's measure, Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township and Pennington Borough would become Pennington Township, and Princeton Borough would combine with Princeton Township.

"This is in the spirit of helping a colleague

realize that there is such a thing as legislative courtesy when you introduce legislation affecting a county you do not represent," Wolfe said. "If Assemblyman Gusciora can see the benefits of consolidating municipalities in Ocean County, perhaps he will see those same benefits in doing so in his own county."

You know, if politicians weren't so funny, they might be dangerous.

This kind of talk has been kicking around for years; make Farmingdale a part of Howell, make Englishtown a part of Manalapan, make Freehold Borough a part of Freehold Township, make Shrewsbury Township a part of Shrewsbury Borough, make Roosevelt a part of Millstone Township, make Oceanport a part of Eatontown and make Monmouth Beach a part of Long Branch, for starters, — but no town wants to be the first to kill itself off even if there might be positive benefits to residents by doing so.

Municipal madness, legislative madness — New Jersey madness: perfect together.

Mark Rosman is the managing editor of the News Transcript.