In The Lobby - OUTWIT. OUTPLAY. OUTLAST.

April 24, 2008

Well, that'll show us.

Three hundred show up to protest the closing of the parks. George Washington and Molly Pitcher were even there.

But no worries New Jersey. The governor is rethinking his plan to close nine state parks and reduce hours at others, including some historic sites.

His rethinking goes like this. Fine, if you people are so upset with my shutting the parks down, then you should have no problem paying a user fee to enter them.

Sigh.

All this, of course, if part of the annual horse trading that takes place in the spring between the governor's office and the Legislature over the state budget, where the two sides haggle over whose ox gets gored first.

And if it's a choice between the bureaucracy, and the taxpayer, well, you know who's going to win that round.

Hint: It's not the group that pays the bills.

They should just rename the entire state budget process what it is: "Survivor: Trenton," where public officials try to outwit, outplay and outlast the taxpayer out of their hard-earned tax dollars.

After all, in a contest between the two, Trenton's first instinct is to vote the taxpayer off the island. Somehow, the bureaucracy almost always wins the immunity challenge.

Still, we'd like to know: What is it about Gov. Corzine that his first reflex when it comes to solving a budget crisis is to hit the taxpayers up for more first?

Especially when there are so many other targets out there. To save the parks, and to keep fees as they are, the state needs to find $4.5 million. Rather than raise fees, and make the taxpayer pay more, why doesn't the administration consider one or more of these:

What about taking the $4.5 million from the $145.3 million in distressed cities aid that just goes to seven municipalities?

Why not take the money from the waste that was -- and likely, will be -- uncovered in the ongoing audits of school districts? Why not punish waste by reducing the amount that a school district -- municipality, state agency or authority, for that matter -- receives in state funds by the amount of waste?

Why not put an immediate freeze on state hiring, and state expenditures and put the savings toward keeping the parks open?

Why should the taxpayers have to pay one dime more?

There is no reason. It's just that Trenton tends to see us as an easy target.

Here's what's sadly funny about this, though. From Gannett:

"Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club questioned if vastly wealthy Corzine had ever been to a state park … other than on an official mission … or if he or his staffers knew that on typical summer weekends the parks fill up by 10 a.m., stranding legions of families at the gates.

"Neither Corzine press secretary Lilo Stainton nor her deputy, Jim Gardner, knew that. Nor did DEP's (Elaine) Makatura. "It differs park by park,'' she said, adding she had personally seen Island Beach close by 10 a.m."

We suppose we can understand Corzine not knowing about the popularity of the parks, given that he eschews spending summer weekends at the taxpayer-funded governor's beach house at Island Beach State Park, in favor of the tony climes of the Hamptons.

But seriously, shouldn't folks at the DEP know when the parks fill up? And if they don't, then how can they know if it makes sense to shut the parks, or to raise the fees?

It's not that the fees the DEP charges -- $1 per person at some historic sites, $5 for weekend parking and $45 per night for a four-person cabin -- are so outrageous. It's just that Trenton’s first instinct always seem to be to want to target the taxpayer first.

Occasionally, however, there is a glimmer of hope.

Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, D-Camden, has proposed that the 21 executive county superintendents (assuming, of course, that Corzine has gotten around to appointing all 21 -- he hadn't, as of a few weeks ago) be in charge of negotiating state teacher contracts for all the school districts in the county. In other words, teachers in all school districts in each county would be represented by the same union, and that union would negotiate the salary increases for the entire county with the executive county superintendent.

His proposal makes sense, because it is the state taxpayers who pick up the pension costs for all teachers -- not just the taxpayers of the school district. So it makes sense that the state -- through the executive county superintendents -- have some say over teacher salaries.

Of course, the downside would be if one of these superintendents agreed to an overly generous package, which would put pressure on the other 20 county superintendents to do the same thing. It would make sense, then, for the education commissioner -- or even the governor – to have the ultimate ability to step in and reduce the size of a pact.

The second piece of Roberts plan calls for county superintendents to look to reduce administrative waste in local school districts by 10 percent.

Another sound proposal. Now, let's see if the Legislature would combine Roberts' plan, with the proposal by Sen. Barbara Buono to reduce pension and benefit costs. And then combine those plans with mandatory routine audits for waste in state government.

If they do that, then taxpayers might eventually emerge victorious. But only if lawmakers agree to kick some of those special interests off the island first.