NEW JERSEY STATE
LEGISLATURE
9th Legislative District
(Representing parts of Ocean,
Burlington and Atlantic counties)
Connors, Rumpf & Van Pelt Want Towns Reimbursed By
The State For Municipal Police and Emergency
Services Performed on State Roads
Forked River:
The 9th District Delegation announced
today it will be introducing legislation that would
require the state to reimburse municipalities for
the cost of municipal police protection and
emergency services performed by a municipality on
State roads that run through the municipality. The
amount of reimbursement provided under the
legislation would be based on a formula which
considers the total number of miles of State roads
contained in the municipality.
Senator Christopher J. Connors, Assemblyman Brian E.
Rumpf and Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt are in the
process of drafting the legislation in response to
several towns within their District being notified
by the State that rural municipalities will begin to
be charged for State Police services. Letters sent
by the State Treasurer’s Office to affected towns
included the amounts that must be paid for the
continuation of such services. Towns within the 9th
Legislative District that will be impacted include
Eagleswood Township in Ocean County, Folsom Borough
in Atlantic County and Bass River Township in
Burlington County. Under the recently adopted FY
2009 State Budget, $12.5 million was cut from State
Police for patrolling services.
“Forcing rural and suburban municipalities which
rely on State police patrols to begin paying for
these services is an outrageous and unfair attempt
to skim money from the property taxpayers of those
communities while the same services are being
provided to other communities, such as Camden and
Irvington, for free,” said Senator Connors. “To be
fair, the State should be reimbursing municipalities
for the police and emergency services they provide
on State roads that run through their borders. We
fear the State Police issue is just the beginning
and is yet another example of poorly conceived
policies that adversely impact residents of rural
and suburban areas. There is a common thread
whereby services directly benefiting rural and
suburban towns are being put on the chopping block
or deliberately underfunded. This includes the
recent attempt to eliminate the Department of
Agriculture, the proposed reduction of aid for small
municipalities and insufficient school aid for
growing rural and suburban school districts that
unjustifiably continues to be sent up north and to
Abbott districts.”
Assemblyman Rumpf went on to say, “Mayor Ballistreri
of Folsom has been out in front on this issue from
the start and has provided our Delegation with
information as to the impact on small municipalities
such as Folsom. In fact, the Borough of Folsom has
already received notification from the State that it
will be assessed more than $88,000 for State Police
patrol services. This comes at the same time that,
according to the Mayor, there has been a serious
decline in the services provided which has resulted
in diminished revenue for his town. It is our
understanding that there was supposed to be a
dialogue between the State and affected
municipalities.& nbsp; Instead, notices of payments
due were issued without any such promised dialogue
and these towns ended up being
blindsided.”
Assemblyman Van Pelt said, “Since time and memorial
these municipalities were provided State Police
services. Conveniently, the State seems to have
turned a blind eye to the fact that in 1921 the
State Police was created to patrol rural areas
because of the lack of existing local police
departments in these areas. If the State refuses to
recognize this and continues to abide by changes
made to this policy, which has been in place since
before the Great Depression, then it should be the
right of municipalities to be reimbursed for
identical services provided on State roadways.”
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