More than 160 NJ Mayors, Activists, Teachers Seek to Testify During Assembly Budget Hearing

Star-Ledger
By Chris Megerian
April 19, 2010

Mayors, education officials and activists sat side by side in hard wooden chairs for their chance to testify about how looming budget cuts will damage their town, their classroom or their cause.

"It's the largest single turnout we've ever had," Committee Chairman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden) said.

Four sessions were scheduled, stretching from 9:30 p.m. until after 6:30 p.m. Although most budget hearings involve specific state departments, a few like today's allow various interest groups and members of the public to address lawmakers.

The Legislature will be debating and parsing Gov. Chris Christie's $29.3 billion budget proposal for the next two months.

Early in today's hearing, a group of mayors complained about how policy mandates were requiring more local spending even as the state cuts aid payments to municipalities.

John Bencivengo, mayor of Hamilton Township in Mercer County, said the Department of Environmental Protections is making him buy $300,000 of equipment to clean the undercarriage of town trucks.

"That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life," he said. "Let's look through the mandates. Let's take a look at what we're burdening the people of New Jersey with."

Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr said property taxes in her borough average $9,000 per homeowner and are poised to go up at least $650. But she said she can control only about one-sixth of that -- the rest is controlled by the county and school district.

"It's a raging ocean out there," she said. "What we're doing is throwing a pebble into that ocean."

Greenwald said residents are just beginning to understand how Christie's proposed cuts could affect them.

"What you're hearing today is sound bites don't make a difference in people's lives," he said. "These people have nowhere else to go."

Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R-Burlington), the ranking Republican on the budget committee, said Democrats are becoming the "party of the absurd" by using theatricality like today's hearing to obscure the necessity of spending cuts.

"We're playing musical chairs and the music has stopped," he said. "People don't have chairs to sit in."