Governor 'confident' he will see tax reforms Corzine gives legislators an extra month to finish Tuesday, December 19, 2006 • BY DEBORAH HOWLETT • Star-Ledger Staff Gov. Jon Corzine said yesterday he is "confident" the Legislature will meet his revised deadline of Feb. 1 to finish property tax reform, and that the end product will provide "sustainable" relief for residents who pay the highest property taxes in the nation. "Would I have liked to have had this done by Jan. 1? Yes," Corzine told reporters during a news conference. "Do I think we can accomplish this in the next four to six weeks? I'm confident we can." In July, Corzine asked lawmakers to come up with a comprehensive property tax relief plan by the end of the year. Kicking off a special legislative session on the issue, the governor threatened to push for property tax reform through a citizens convention if lawmakers couldn't come up with solutions. After four months of hearings, legislative committees came up with 98 recommendations. However, most of the property tax reform bills stalled in floor votes last week because Democratic legislative leaders couldn't get enough support from their members. Legislative leaders attributed the delay to Democratic skittishness after Corzine intervened and demanded that many pension and benefit reform ideas be removed from one bill so he could deal with them in ongoing contract negotiations with state worker unions. Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts has scheduled a voting session Jan. 8, the day before Corzine delivers his State of the State message, in hopes that some of the difficulties can be ironed out during the break. "The governor's pushing for reforms to be finalized before he presents his budget, and we obviously agree with that timetable," Roberts said in a statement. "The people aren't obsessed with deadlines -- they just want us to get the job done right, and so do I." The Senate also will convene that day, Senate President Richard Codey said. "I'm not in the deadline business," Codey said. But he added, "I'm as optimistic as the governor in terms of getting substantial property tax reform." Corzine said yesterday he is willing to be patient because he believes progress is being made as lawmakers work through the difficult issues. "I think we are on a pattern to get results," he said. Corzine said he believes that "some elements" of a measure to encourage shared services between local government entities will survive, but much work remains on the issues of pension and health benefits as well as funding for a 20 percent property tax relief credit. "We're on the threshold of accomplishing this, but it won't be easy," Corzine said. "I would fully expect we'll be back to work on this in January with very disciplined and steady-paced movement." Deborah Howlett may be contacted at dhowlett@starledger.com or (609) 989-0273. © 2006 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.