TRENTON – Legislation sponsored by Senators Shirley K. Turner (D-Mercer) and Bob Gordon (D-Bergen) that would help promote cost-savings between local governments by holding the line on the annual fees charged for shared service agreements was approved today by the full Senate.
“While we want to encourage local governments to share services, we do not want any of them put at a disadvantage by having to pay excessive annual fee increases to a local unit they are now dependent on for a specific service,” said Senator Turner. “That can lead to either an increase in taxes for their residents, or to a termination of the sharing agreement. We do not wish to see either of those happening. Hopefully, this bill will increase the reliability of shared service agreements and provide more incentives for local officials to consider this measure as a way to streamline costs.”
“Everyone agrees that shared services is a way to reduce the tax burden on New Jersey residents, yet often too many obstacles are in place to prevent towns from taking these kinds of measures,” said Senator Gordon. “Placing a cap on annual fee increases is just one measure we can take to get more local governments thinking about merging and consolidating services.”