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On January 8th, upon the swearing in of the
213th Legislature, 2682 bills were
pre-filed for introduction in the Assembly. The
legislation covered everything from giving former
Mayors the right to perform marriages to new COAH
formulas to Impact Fees to Time-Growth Ordinances and
everything else in between. Much is expected of our
Mayors at the local level and you are on call 24 hours
a day seven days a week. You are called upon for the
serious and mundane, but nothing affects and impacts
your residents more than legislation passed by the
State Legislature.
This is why it is absolutely important that NJCM once
again become actively engaged in the legislative
process. Additionally, NJCM needs to consider having a
grassroots program effectively utilizing its Board of
Directors and its members. Why? No one is more
important to State Legislators than Mayors for access
to the public. You as Mayors have the most important
resource and that is the voters in numbers. Your
residents elect them to office. You are the
cornerstone that very legislator relies on.
The State of New Jersey
is in an economic and administrative crisis with the
DEP completely out of control and preventing many of
you from being to develop additionally ratables. The
reality is that only you can help with providing the
solutions through the necessary and proper legislation
and making the State and the legislature more
affectively respond to the needs of your residents.
NJCM was one of the original leaders in the fight to
successfully have the Constitutional Convention
legislation. This came about several years ago when
NJCM held at its Annual Spring Conference a major
seminar on the Constitutional Convention. The Speaker
of the Assembly
Joseph Roberts
was a guest speaker for the Seminar. It was at that
point when three Mayors and yours truly, in a meeting,
convinced the Speaker that NJCM would provide him with
the necessary support across the state he needed. It
was at this point that he made a herculean effort to
move the legislation and pass it in the Assembly. It
should be noted that the League of Municipalities
partnered with us and had joint meetings to plan for
the successful passage of the legislation in the
Assembly. Unfortunately, the NJEA was able to prevent
the passage of the legislation in the Senate at the
time. Since than, the legislative efforts in Trenton
have only provided a temporary solution to the
property tax dilemma. We are almost back to square one
with having a resolution for having the highest
property tax in the country.
The citizens of
New Jersey
need both NJCM and the league of Municipalities to be
lobbying together (most of the time) on their behalf
in order to ensure that legislation affecting their
municipalities has been properly vetted and had the
input of their elected officials. Why is that the
National Conference of Mayors and League of Cities,
similar in structure to NJCM and the League of
Municipalities, often work together on common
interests and utilize the resources of both groups to
pave the way for successful efforts. Why is the
business community in
New Jersey
represented by two state groups; NJ Business and
Industry Association and the New Jersey State Chamber
of Commerce? They have similarities and also have
issues that are strictly germane to the make up of
their groups and yet both of their legislative
programs are very active and on many occasions they
cooperate legislatively. This needs to be the
situation today with NJCM and the League. The stakes
are extremely high and the future of
New Jersey
is on the line.
When Don Fauerbach first became Executive Director for
NJCM there was no legislative program in place and
people looked at NJCM as a social club rather than a
vehicle for change. Under Don’s leadership, we
developed NJCM into a potent political force to
provide a legitimate voice for Mayors and their
interests and that of their constituents. Mayors were
testifying on measures such as Mandatory Budgets to
Binding Arbitration and Constitutional Conventions.
This was a positive role for NJCM and helped in
maintaining its image as an organization speaking and
standing up for its residents.
The last piece of the “buck stops with Mayors” is to
develop a broader public relations and media program
with the “Press House Corp” at the State House so that
residents of
New Jersey
are more cognizant of the major role that Mayors are
playing in participating in the legislative process on
their behalf.
The “Buck truly Stops with Mayor.” |
