Star-Ledger: Corzine is “kicking the can down the road”

…by deferring $450 million in state aid payments, mostly for education, until July:

Taxpayers with long memories will recall that a governor by the name of Jim McGreevey used this trick in 2003. McGreevey freed up $296 million in his budget by simply delaying a school aid payment until after July 1.

Asbury Park Press Pokes Corzine’s Budget Magic:

“Governor Corzine keeps sticking his fingers in the dike as new leaks in the state’s revenue stream develop daily,” said Sen. Anthony Bucco, R-Morris. “It’s clear now that he’s running out of fingers.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer in Reductionist Mood:

New Jersey’s passion for quality education and lower property taxes clashed last week as towns worked to resolve school budgets that voters rejected in April.

Ah, if only it were that simple…

“Shot-gun” Town Mergers:

Here’s an Asbury Park Press piece on the need for consolidation in a state “where a whopping 566 municipalities vie for a shrinking pot of state aid and homeowners suffer property taxes that are double the national average.”

The paper editorializes on the the odds of a proposed merger of Chester Township and Chester Borough: “the weight of history is against them. There has been only one successful town merger in New Jersey since the 1950s, despite numerous attempts. That occurred in 1997 in Warren County when Hardwick Township absorbed Pohaquarry, population 7.”

Whenever we’ve tried to bring people to the altar it hasn’t worked; what we need is a few shotgun weddings,” said Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, D-Princeton, who wants “doughnut hole” towns — small boroughs surrounded by larger townships — to share services or merge within the next decade.

Winners of Dysfunctional School Boards of the Week Awards:

First Place goes to Roxbury Township, where, according to The Record,

School Board President John Moschella used his prerogative to prevent two board members from speaking at a public meeting about the defeated budget but both got their chance after the Township Council intervened.

Second Place goes to Greenwich Township Board of Education, which was unable to make quorum at its reorganization meeting after two member refused to show up to protest election results. (Gloucester County Times.)

And an Honorable Mention to Clifton Township, where, the Record reports, during a discussion of the town’s failed budget,

Board member Michael Paitchell responded that even though he has been on the board for three years, he does not know where the money goes and said he had not received answers to budget questions.