Legislative tax reform effort fizzles Lawmakers break for holidays with most major proposals stalled Friday, December 15, 2006 • BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL AND DEBORAH HOWLETT • Star-Ledger Staff Falling far short of their promise to deliver comprehensive property tax reform by year's end, state lawmakers yesterday shied away from voting on controversial bills to spur mergers of towns and school districts and trim public officials' pensions. After a day of backroom debates and intense lobbying, the Legislature recessed for the year, leaving its most significant reform ideas on the shelf. "We got all dressed up for nothing," said Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester). Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) said he joined other legislative leaders in holding out hope that the reforms will fare better Jan. 8, when lawmakers plan to take them up again, but conceded that hope is "waning." In two sessions this week, the Assembly and Senate gave final approval to just five minor bills out of a package of legislation aimed at trimming the government costs that drive up property taxes. Meanwhile, most of the nearly 100 recommendations of four special committees that studied property tax reform have been sidetracked by objections from labor unions and local government officials. "This is what property tax reform looks like when the Democrats are in charge," said Sen. Minority Leader Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon). "The taxpaying public continues to suffer. Relief and reform cannot come quickly enough." Leaders of the Legislature's Democratic majority insisted that the effort has not come to an end. "There's still more that's going to go forward," said Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex). "We'll get there." "There's going to be more work done by staff over the next week to further address some of the issues that members are concerned about," said Sen. Bernard F. Kenny Jr. (D-Hudson). "There's no time limit on any of this stuff." The Senate and Assembly are scheduled to return to Trenton a week after New Year's Day, one day before Gov. Jon Corzine delivers his annual State of the State message. Yesterday's session saw final passage of a bill (A17) to relieve school districts of certain mandates, such as the requirement to observe Commodore Barry Day, and another (A13) to wipe out inactive and outmoded public boards and commissions. Three other minor bills had been approved Monday. Another bill (S7), which would have allowed freeholders in one of the state's less populous counties to volunteer to replace local school districts with a county-wide administration, drew opposition from the powerful New Jersey Education Association. It was presented for a vote but withdrawn when it failed to get the 21 votes needed for passage. More onerous initiatives never mustered enough support for a vote yesterday. They included one that would set up a special commission to target particular local governments for elimination (S1); another that would have created a comptroller's office to monitor public spending (S2), and a third that included plans for county school superintendents with veto power over local school spending (S10). Bob Master, a member of the lobbying team from the state's largest public employees union, the Communications Workers of America, said he was pleased that lawmakers decided to hold off voting on a modest pension and health benefits reform bill -- a measure that had already been stripped down from two earlier proposals. "I think they overextended," he said. "They got the property tax debate tied up in a lot of issues that were appropriately on the bargaining table." Lawmakers, too, said their colleagues in leadership had served up an array of reforms that were too complex and too fluid to win passage in the single day allotted to them. "I honestly think we have to go back and get it right," Sweeney said. "Better to do it Jan. 8 and get it right than to do it Dec. 14 and get it wrong." Yesterday's public stumbles left some observers questioning whether lawmakers will ever have the stomach for the tough political decisions that await on contentious matters like retooling state school aid and imposing limits on the growth of local government spending. "I'm a little frustrated at the whole process," said Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, who lobbied against late changes to a government consolidation measure yesterday. "Over the long Christmas break, we might want to give consideration to reviving the idea of a citizens' constitutional convention," said Dressel. "I believe the public can do a better job of identifying the problems and coming up with solutions than what I'm witnessing here today." Corzine as well said he would push for a convention to take over the Legislature's work if lawmakers fail to deliver in a reasonable time frame. But he said it is too early to declare the Legislature's effort a failure. "We're taking on something that's gone on for 20 years, and I'm not going to let a month stand in the way of getting to a quality outcome," he said. "That's not being practical." Even before this week's voting sessions, many major elements of the planned property tax reform package had been put on hold. A proposal to offer most homeowners state subsidies to offset 20 percent of their property tax bills was announced in November, but details -- such as exactly who would qualify and where all the money would come from -- are still being negotiated between legislative leaders and the governor. A sweeping proposal to cut pension benefits for future state workers and teachers and to boost employee co-payments for health insurance suffered a blow this month when Corzine insisted that lawmakers should reserve those issues for negotiators working on new state employee contracts. "This is the legislative process," said Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex). "This actually shows there's a robust debate, and there's actually thought going into this." © 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.