Is our arbitration process for public employee union contracts driving up the cost of teacher salaries? William G. Dressel Jr., Executive Director of the N.J. League of Municipalities says in the Star-Ledger,

Arbitration awards routinely exceed the rate of inflation. The effects of these awards then ripple though local budgets, as public safety employees in neighboring jurisdictions, and other employees of the same municipality, push for greater wage increases. The ripples then gain in strength as pension liabilities expand. As public employee wage and benefit packages go up, they are inevitably accompanied by rising property-tax rates.

NJSBA agrees. In the Daily Journal, Frank Belluscio, Communications Director of NJSBA, says that “school boards need more power at the bargaining table to get a better grip on rising costs.” But NJEA begs to differ: says Steve Wollner of NJEA, “I don’t think the answer is to go back to the bad old days … where we had endless strife at the bargaining table, strikes, contract impasses, which only upset people. Nobody benefits from that.”

Where do our gubernatorial candidates stand on this? Jon Corzine seems to be targeting the police and fire workers unions (who come in at about 4% per year in annual increases) and Chris Christie says leave them alone but go after teachers (about 4.5% per year) and other governmental workers. (No connection to their respective constituencies, of course.) Chris Daggett would go after all public employees, tying property tax reductions to maintaining municipal costs at the Consumer Price Index.

Constitutional Convention, anyone?

Check out Gannett’s week-long series on why our property taxes are so high, mellifluously entitled “Tax Crush.” Here’s an interesting tidbit: “New Jersey’s crazy quilt of towns was created piecemeal over centuries, often inspired by efforts to exclude liquor, African-Americans and the poor.”

We’ve gotten over the aversion to liquor; the other two targets of prejudice may still be apt.

More on Municipal Madness:
The Courier Post cites Senator Steve Sweeney, who says that the “root of the problem is bloated, inefficient government.”

With 566 municipalities, most boasting their own police force, local court and town hall, and 605 school districts, the rising cost of running local government is a key reason New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation.

Newark and Camden Children’s Zone?:
New Jersey is making a bid to replicate Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone, a model that offers educational and social services to poor urban communities. The Star-Ledger reports that there’s a $24K state initiative to train two non-profit groups in Newark and Camden.