Another spate of bomb threats and hoaxes last week and another several days of education lost responding to this thoughtless routine. When you consider the time and effort that is expended by emergency responders and school officials, you understand that this is a colossal waste of money. Add to that the aftershocks that often accompany hoaxes, the result of miscommunication or misguided fear, and it becomes clear that more must be done to react properly and maximize the consequences of these actions.
In August, I was joined by the Department of Education in the Freehold Regional School District to discuss with nearly all of the school districts and law enforcement branches in the 12th Legislative District best practices regarding threats to schools, real or fake. Knowing that the first priority is to protect students and staff, Scott Kisch, Chief of Staff for the Office of Homeland Security, was also on hand to provide insight for the group.
In immediate response to some of the concerns that were discussed, I am drafting legislation to maximize the potential use of drills in schools. This legislation will alter the current codes which require two fire drills a month, instead calling for one fire drill and one school security drill a month. While the thought of conducting active shooter, reverse evacuation, shelter in place and other exercises may be daunting, recent events (like the lockdown at St. Johns this week) and the annual rash of false threats tells us more must be done to prepare and prevent.
Parents, teachers and others must regularly emphasize the harm and the consequences of such negligence. I support legislation that will increase the potential penalties for individuals who cause false alarms. This, along with preparation and education will help educators and administrators focus on the task at hand, teaching.

The Star Ledger reported today on Assemblyman Pat Diegnan’s idea to have Rutgers feature a reference to NJ in its logo. I’ve got many friends out of state who never knew Rutgers was our state university. I like Pat’s idea and many other state universities use their state logo, except those where the state is part of the name (Florida, Ohio, i.e.). Unfortunately, Rutgers spent almost $600,000 in December for marketing experts to create a new logo? $600,000 to come up with a red “R” at a time when the university is struggling to keep tuition in check and keep sports programs active?!? We make things too complex today. A contest for students and residents to come up with the logo could have been just as easy and generated some great attention. I know marketing gurus will tell us that polling, focus groups and teams of creative artists were required, but this was not a mapping of the human genome – they created a red “R”.

The NJ Dept of Military & Veteran’s Affairs held a nice ceremony for NJ’s Vietnam vets Monday at the memorial – about 55 soldiers or their family members were there. One thing that struck me was when the Colonel who served as the MC said that many of these soldiers were never properly recognized until NJ re-instituted the NJ Vietnam Distinguished Service Medal in the late 80s. I see a lot of parallels between Vietnam and the Iraq War. Each started with greater public support, and each then divided our country. But I think the shameful (or non) reception soldiers in Vietnam received when they returned home have taught us something. Soldiers only implement our foreign policy, as the Colonel said. They don’t make it. Whether Iraq is popular or not, they should be welcomed home as heroes. Too often the word “heroes” is used to label millionaires who play a children’s game for a living. The real heroes are the folks that were there this morning, and those etched on the wall behind them.

I attended the Governor’s budget town hall in the Borough of Red Bank this week, which continued the Governor’s efforts to bring transparency to the budget process – something that my colleagues in Trenton have also promised to do since too often there is little time to get our arms around everything in the budget as the deadline looms. The Governor could not attend as he recovers from his injuries, but the State Treasurer and various cabinet secretaries did an admirable job. I was particularly encouraged to see a large group of Freehold Boro residents in attendance since their school faces financial challenges unlike any other in Monmouth County (and perhaps all of New Jersey).

They don’t qualify for Abbott funding as other lower-income districts do, but they don’t have a local tax base that is even close to sufficient to fund their schools. It reminds me of my experience in attending college . . . my family wasn’t “poor” enough to qualify for enough aid for me to attend, but we didn’t have the money to do it on our own either. Freehold is stuck in the middle, and programs are being cut that puts these kids at a severe disadvantage in life. Commissioner Davy from the Dept of Education told them the new school funding formula would do a lot to alleviate inequities in funding, and that can’t come soon enough. The kids in 31 Abbott districts receive nearly 60% of the state’s educational funding, while the other 500+, which educate 4 out of 5 of New Jersey’s kids, have to live with what’s left. The Abotts need extra help, without question. The long-term price of those kids falling through the cracks would be much greater and we have a moral obligation to help them.

But the pendulum has swung too far and I hope the new formula will be fair to all of New Jersey. It was great to see so many people in the community come out for this meeting since family life and work schedules make it tough on everyone. Elected officials don’t have all of the answers, and this sort of guidance from our fellow citizens is essential.

Since my first campaign in 2003, I have called for an outright ban of dual office holding in the state. While I am encouraged by Governor Corzine’s statement in his recent budget address that ‘we need to end this now’, I am disappointed that the actions of the state legislature neither reflect the Governor’s conviction, or my repeated calls for this abuse to be eradicated from New Jersey.
As a member of the state Legislature, I am regularly asked to act in the best interest and represent the needs of all communities in my district. I am perplexed at the conflict of interests for officials who serve as mayors or council members in a municipality, and also state legislators representing that municipality and others. The best case scenario is a lawmaker is representing every town in their district with equal zeal, and therefore the town they represent at the local level is lacking representation. Worst case scenario, the town they serve in is being given unfair consideration, and numerous towns are lacking full representation. We have seen this situation first hand throughout our state. I currently have legislation which would ban this practice statewide.
Dual office holding is an egregious abuse of the public’s trust and must be forbidden in order to truly restore the public’s confidence in officials at every level of government. The officials who have successfully stalled this legislation for personal benefit need to be held accountable by the constituents which they serve.

Reaction to Governor Jon Corzine's State of the State speech, 1/9/07:

I pledge to work with Governor Corzine to continue the momentum of his first year in office. Special sessions on property taxes have been held and suggestions debated, and now it is time to fix a broken system. Short term relief with long term consequences is no longer an option, and the true policy makers will rise above those who have offered criticism, but no solutions. I am committed to delivering property tax relief and reform. By passing legislation to create a state comptroller and ease consolidations and shared services by local governments, my colleagues have shown that they share this commitment.

I am encouraged to see the Governor embracing reforms aimed at pension abuses, which I have pushed for since 2003. Senator Ellen Karcher and I were among the first to demand a ban on dual office holding and the forfeiture of pensions by corrupt public officials. This should send a clear message that self service will not be tolerated. Perhaps hitting these individuals in their wallets and retirement savings will reinforce the message.

Any viable property tax solutions will involve tough decisions that must be supported by the public. If the public cannot trust the integrity and honesty of elected officials, tax relief efforts will face an uphill battle. For this reason, ironclad ethics reforms must be put in place before we ask the public to buy into our property tax efforts. If a single dollar of taxpayer money is being wasted on pension abuses, or being paid out to officials who have disgraced their office, we can not ask for public support of our tax relief measures. I am volunteering to Governor Corzine and Speaker Roberts that I will carry forward my bills to implement the ethics reforms measures that were outlined today. They have been completed for several years, and I am eager to dust them off and move ahead with the support of the Governor.

I am especially focused on revising our educational funding system here in the Garden State, which is directly linked to our failed property tax system. Coming changes to our educational funding system must be fair to both urban and suburban students. The current system provides inadequate state funding to suburban schools, but still demands oversight and mandates. Frankly, if the state is only picking up 5% to 10% of a local school budget, it has not earned a seat at the table in making educational decisions.

The Governor in his State of the State speech showed leadership by promising not to approve something just because it looks good at face value. In an election year it will take true courage to bring about sustainable financial health, and I am committed to that goal.

Partisanship can't be allowed to slow tax reform

The state Legislature’s bi-partisan joint committees recently released 98 recommendations to address New Jersey’s increasing property tax crisis. I applaud my colleagues from both parties for devoting time and energy to produce potential solutions. In just three months, these committees have developed proposals designed to address problems that have existed for nearly three decades.

As has unfortunately been the case in years past, there was no shortage of knee-jerk objections to any potential reforms. After reading through the first 100 pages of the nearly 600 released by these committees, I was surprised to read a biting criticism had already been issued by the Assembly Minority Leader which made me marvel at his speed reading skills. It reminded me of the Marx Brothers movie “Horse Feathers” in which Groucho sang “I don't know what they have to say, it makes no difference anyway - whatever it is, I'm against it!”

Another community leader notified parents that she would have to lay off dozens of teachers as a result of the recommendations, and issued this dire news well before the recommendations were even released – prompting parents to call my office to express their concerns.

It would also be naïve to think that there will not be valid objections to certain of the recommendations which were issued. We must all be involved in separating the wheat from the chaff – and from the political rhetoric aimed more at Election Day success rather than making New Jersey more affordable.

The recommendations explore cost savings in all areas of public service in the state, and suggest a potential 20% reduction in property taxes, which is essential to ensuring that New Jersey’s middle class is not forced to live in Pennsylvania zip codes.

While it is impossible to address each recommendation here, there were certain ideas which should garner wide support and require little debate.

I was encouraged by recommendations to end abuses in the pension system, and to banning dual office holding – two issues I have focused on for nearly 3 years. Ending these abuses through the elimination of multiple pensions for individuals, as well as banning pension “spiking” which artificially inflates pension payments could save considerable taxpayer funds. Other common sense measures such as allowing teachers to waive their health care coverage when they are covered under their spouses’ policies should be incorporated into our initiatives, and myself and others have already written legislation to enact these measures.

In addition, the committees’ decision to support my legislation implementing SCI recommendations to curb school administrative pay abuses will ensure that millions of tax dollars meant to educate our children actually reach the classroom.

The Legislature can not avoid difficult issues for fear of political consequences, which include updating Abbott school district criteria and funding in a way that is fair to suburban New Jersey communities. Monmouth County schools can not stand idly by while nearly 60% of our state government’s education dollars are sent to districts educating only 1 in 5 of New Jersey’s children. While we must invest in kids in lower income areas to ensure that they have opportunities to excel, we must be mindful of the effects our policies have on all of our children and insistent upon greater accountability for these funds and their results.

The potential benefits of consolidation and shared services in our towns must also be pursued diligently. Based upon my experiences in business, I can state with certainty that there is no company in the world which could remain competitive with over 1,300 individual payroll, legal, purchasing and accounting offices in a state the size of New Jersey – exactly what New Jersey is doing with our vast number of school districts and municipalities.

I support the notion that municipalities and school districts of particularly small size (perhaps those with less than 1,000 in total population, or with less than 50 total students) be merged with their neighbors. While many will sound the alarms that this will hurt their “local identity,” we are all paying for the budgets of these entities which are no larger than single neighborhoods. Local identity is of no use if nobody can afford to live locally.

While some of the proposals put forward may not ultimately be effective, we must all work to find solutions to this complex problem, rather than searching for problems with any and all solutions. As certain legislators in Trenton continue to discount our colleagues’ efforts, they should be reminded that the property tax crisis has been nurtured by this type of rhetorical divisiveness.

Over the coming weeks, I will review all pertinent information and will take the lead on many of the issues highlighted in these reports. I will likely oppose other initiatives if they will adversely affect our communities and schools in Monmouth County. I also welcome any guidance readers can offer, which can be sent to me at AsmPanter@njleg.org.

This is a tremendous opportunity for New Jersey to change its direction and I am encouraged by the recent actions of the Legislature and, more importantly, what we can accomplish by working together in the coming months. There will be tough and unpopular choices we must all consider, but the alternative of doing nothing is simply no longer acceptable.