State aid requires checklist
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
South Orange and Maplewood officials have until the end of the month to fill out an 88-question checklist that would determine how much of their final 2010 state aid payment they will receive.
Municipalities around New Jersey are doing the same thing, a requirement the Legislature approved as part of the state budget. The Christie administration has said the “best practices initiative” is aimed at bringing “greater accountability, responsible budgeting and management and cost controls to local governments.”
Officials must answer questions covering seven categories: general management, public safety, public works, health, energy and utilities, fiscal management and municipal and school relations.
Up to 5 percent of the final payment is at stake. The checklist is due back to the state by Oct. 1. Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Lori Grifa, writing to the state’s mayors in August, advised that “each municipality will need to meet an established percentage of the checklist items in order for all or part of your last state aid payment to be released.”
To get the full amount, towns must answer yes to 76 of the 88 questions. Fewer yes answers mean less state aid.
“I expect we’re going to do very well,” village administrator John O. Gross said.
“We’re going over it,” said Maplewood administrator Joseph F. Manning.
In South Orange, for example, the final payment is $64,158 according to Gross. Five percent of that would be $3,207.
Still, officials have criticized parts of the checklist. They said the yes-or-no format does not take into account the range of different things municipalities are doing to be efficient and contain costs.
“Local governments in New Jersey are so diverse,” said William G. Dressell Jr., executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities. He said Friday that intended to meet this week with Grifa to raise some of the concerns of local officials.
According to the state, towns will be required to participate in
the initiative again next year and in later years, said DCA spokeswoman Lisa Ryan in an e-mail on Sept. 2. State aid, coming from two sources, will total about $42 million for December. Amounts differ by municipality.
Ryan said money that gets withheld “would go into the property tax relief fund and be reallocated for tax relief purposes.”
New Jersey has never tied state aid payments to municipalities filling out a checklist. Dressell said he was not aware of other states doing something similar.
South Orange Trustee Howard Levison faulted the state for not consulting with towns first.
Philip Sean Curran can be reached at 908-686-7700, ext. 116, or at newsrecord@thelocalsource.com.
South Orange and Maplewood officials have until the end of the month to fill out an 88-question checklist that would determine how much of their final 2010 state aid payment they will receive.
Municipalities around New Jersey are doing the same thing, a requirement the Legislature approved as part of the state budget. The Christie administration has said the “best practices initiative” is aimed at bringing “greater accountability, responsible budgeting and management and cost controls to local governments.”
Officials must answer questions covering seven categories: general management, public safety, public works, health, energy and utilities, fiscal management and municipal and school relations.
Up to 5 percent of the final payment is at stake. The checklist is due back to the state by Oct. 1. Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Lori Grifa, writing to the state’s mayors in August, advised that “each municipality will need to meet an established percentage of the checklist items in order for all or part of your last state aid payment to be released.”
To get the full amount, towns must answer yes to 76 of the 88 questions. Fewer yes answers mean less state aid.
“I expect we’re going to do very well,” village administrator John O. Gross said.
“We’re going over it,” said Maplewood administrator Joseph F. Manning.
In South Orange, for example, the final payment is $64,158 according to Gross. Five percent of that would be $3,207.
Still, officials have criticized parts of the checklist. They said the yes-or-no format does not take into account the range of different things municipalities are doing to be efficient and contain costs.
“Local governments in New Jersey are so diverse,” said William G. Dressell Jr., executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities. He said Friday that intended to meet this week with Grifa to raise some of the concerns of local officials.
According to the state, towns will be required to participate in
the initiative again next year and in later years, said DCA spokeswoman Lisa Ryan in an e-mail on Sept. 2. State aid, coming from two sources, will total about $42 million for December. Amounts differ by municipality.
Ryan said money that gets withheld “would go into the property tax relief fund and be reallocated for tax relief purposes.”
New Jersey has never tied state aid payments to municipalities filling out a checklist. Dressell said he was not aware of other states doing something similar.
South Orange Trustee Howard Levison faulted the state for not consulting with towns first.
Philip Sean Curran can be reached at 908-686-7700, ext. 116, or at newsrecord@thelocalsource.com.
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