Funding Alert - Governor Calls Upon Legislature to Make History.

Governor Corzine addressed a joint session of the legislature on Friday July 28, 2006 to open the special legislative session on property tax relief. The governor’s speech was well received, interrupted by applause from the floor at least nine times. The governor offered a five point "blueprint for tax reform" as follows:

Offer immediate relief.

Control spending at all levels of government.

End the over-reliance on property taxes to fund government and school costs.

Have long-term, sustainable reforms.

Have sound state finances, and fair aid formulas.

See detailed blueprint.

In various informal settings since his speech to the legislature, the governor has indicated that he would be willing to consider allowing municipalities to levy their own sales taxes but that he was not inclined to support an increase in income taxes.

The legislature immediately created four special joint legislative committees, as promised by Senate President Codey and Assembly Speaker Roberts to focus on four specific areas of reform:

Public School Funding Reform

Government Consolidation and Shared Services

Public Employee Benefits Reform

Constitutional Reform and Citizens Property Tax Constitutional Convention

Each of the committees has begun to meet and has published a schedule for additional meetings. Schedules, background information, the list of members and other information can be found on the legislature’s website. There is also a form for citizens to supply comments, suggestions or ask questions to each committee.

Education Law Center, advocates and parents remain deeply concerned about the decision to include school funding in a special legislative session designed to deliver property tax relief. The primary purpose of reforming our school funding formula must be to ensure adequate resources to all New Jersey public school children, and not to cut education spending to save money and provide tax relief.

The special session is extremely short, which does not allow for the deliberative and data-driven process necessary to determine the educational needs for New Jersey's diverse student population, and to build consensus on a new funding formula to meet those needs, as is required by the NJ Supreme Court's numerous school funding decisions.