TRENTON – Attending the second meeting as part of the Governor’s Red Tape Review Group, Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono today said that a thorough assessment of unfunded mandates will be key to easing some of the burdens on municipalities, in particular, trying to navigate the state’s labyrinth of red tape.
At the start of the meeting at Brookdale Community College, which drew testimony from local officials on the burdens of unfunded mandates, Sen. Buono (D-Middlesex) noted, “We need to dig deeper today into the issue of unfunded mandates to find workable solutions to the everyday problems that they pose. I hope that we will get to hear some specifics on the troubles that people have encountered in this area.
“In this dire economy, unfunded mandates can be particularly crippling for local governments struggling to avoid tax hikes. The overarching goal of this group is to create a more progressive and predictable set of rules and regulations to move our state forward. This course must strike a healthy balance between consumer protections and the needs of business and industry so that we can foster an environment of growth within our state.”
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