The New Jersey Status Quo

Gov. Jon Corzine has gutted one of the pieces of legislation that might have gone a long way to reforming the state's fiscal picture and reduced property taxes going forward. He essentially took apart legislation that would have reformed the state pension legislation that the legislature proffered.

Lawmakers preparing a package of pension and benefits changes were asked by Corzine to strip out all provisions affecting unionized government workers, for the sake of current contract negotiations.

"Why did we go through this exercise and really foist this hoax and mirage on the people of New Jersey and say we're going to give property tax relief when we now know we're doing nothing?" Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) asked. "Charlie Brown, the football's being taken away by Lucy for the 15th time."

O'Toole, a member of the special committee set up to recommend changes in the state's pension and health benefits program, spoke at the end of a long day of backroom meetings and public displays of frustration at the Statehouse.

The four special legislative committees set up in August to tackle the property tax problem met yesterday to take another look at scores of proposals they had developed -- but left a tangle of unfinished business at the end of the day.

"We're playing games," said Sen. Joseph Doria (D-Hudson), a member of the special committee set up to consider school funding reforms. "We in the Legislature are more responsible for perpetrating frauds on the public on a continuing basis, because we pass these things because we've got to do it to make ourselves look good."

At the school funding committee hearing, co-chairs of the panel set up to retool the formula for dispensing more than $7 billion in annual school aid repeatedly chided witnesses for mentioning school funding in their testimony, saying they were off topic.

The new funding formula was a centerpiece of the special property tax reform effort, but it has been delayed and is not expected to be finished before the end of January.

"It gives us the impression that everything is preordained and this is all for show," said Julie Raskin, a Glen Ridge school board member and mother of two, after offering truncated testimony yesterday.

Her board president, Elizabeth Ginsburg, was equally critical, noting that three of the four special committees had their meetings scheduled at noon.

Budget reform and addressing the structural fiscal picture of the state are not going to change. Corzine is seeing to it that it doesn't happen. Why? Because state workers - union workers - might object to seeing their benefits packages scaled back to one that is more in line with the private sector.

The legislature isn't helping matters either, by scheduling conferences on budget reform package items simultaneously so that supporters and those critical of the proposals cannot comment on different parts of the packages (unless they want to violate the laws of physics).

The unions have taken to the airwaves, running advertisements on television that call for the state not to balance the budgets going forward by cutting the benefits packages of teachers and educators.

The net result is that the lame proposals offered just two weeks ago have been pared down to a handful that will have little effect on the overall budget if enacted:

Of the 98 reform measures lawmakers proposed just two weeks ago, only nine will be on the agendas of the Senate and Assembly when they meet Monday. Those bills include one to set up an independent commission to recommend town mergers, one to expand the powers of county school superintendents, and one to eliminate "inactive" state boards and councils.

Among the key reform measures missing are a new school funding formula, a proposal to extend 20 percent property tax credits to homeowners making less than $100,000, and dozens of measures aimed at reining in the soaring costs of retirement programs and health insurance for state and local governments.

Lawmakers, who had proposed 41 pension and benefits changes, on Monday proposed a pared-down package (S40) with 24 of those changes. But late yesterday, Corzine sent lawmakers a letter requesting that any provision affecting state or local public employees be stripped from the bill.

Pretty soon, there wont be anything left for Corzine and the legislature to vote on because the property tax reform will have gone by the boards with absolutely nothing to show for it.