Corzine plan on state police assailed
The governor wants rural areas without police to pay for patrols. Some lawmakers remain unpersuaded.
TRENTON - New Jersey State Police have patrolled rural areas for 87 years at no extra cost to smaller towns that have no police departments.
In fact, the law that created the state police agency stated it would "primarily" be used to protect rural areas.
But times have changed, and free rural state police patrols may soon end.
As the Garden State grapples with chronic state budget woes, Gov. Corzine has proposed requiring municipalities that get free state police patrols to pay a quarter of the estimated patrol cost to raise $20.5 million for the cash-strapped state.
"These are difficult times, and the decisions and choices we must make are difficult," state Attorney General Anne Milgram said.
Some lawmakers aren't convinced of the need, including Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), who noted that Corzine's plan comes with the Democratic governor also seeking to slice state aid for towns and cities.
Corzine is seeking $2.7 billion in budget cuts to try to fix finances plagued by deficits, high debt and taxes.
"We're reducing their municipal aid, and on top of that now we're going to say, 'Oh, by the way, you start your own police department, or you're going to start paying for state police,' " Sweeney said.
Milgram said charging municipalities is simply equitable.
"There is no plan afoot to remove state police protection from any town now utilizing it," she said. "The plan is simply to require reimbursement for that coverage, which is only fair."
New Jersey has the nation's highest property taxes, at an average of $6,800 per homeowner. The property taxes pay for most county, municipal and school operations, and police are among the most expensive local services for most of the state's 566 municipalities.
Yet 76 municipalities get full-time state police patrols and 13 get part-time. They now get those patrols free regardless of size, population, taxes and wealth.
Communities getting full-time patrols range from 45,765-home Oxford in Warren County to 34-home Walpack in Sussex County.
New Jersey isn't alone is using state police to patrol rural areas.
Oregon established its state police in 1931 to serve as a rural patrol force, while nearly one-half of Pennsylvania's municipalities have no police department, with many getting services from the Pennsylvania State Police.
But New Jersey state police don't only patrol rural areas. They also help patrol Camden, Irvington and Newark. All three cities are plagued by violent crime, but legislators question why Corzine isn't looking to charge them for state police patrols.
Milgram said the state has 55 troopers patrolling those cities, compared with 777 that patrol rural areas. She also noted those cities account for 20 percent of violent crime and for 38 percent of homicides in the state.
"So there's the critical public safety issue that goes with our work there," Milgram said.
Sweeney said he has no qualms with the city patrols, but wants the same rules applied.
"If we're going to charge one area then we charge all, or we don't charge any," he said.