Small N.J. towns see big threat

Bordentown City, a 325-year-old riverfront town of about 3,900 that was once home to Clara Barton and Thomas Paine, fears it would lose its cherished small-town identity.

Merchantville, a town of about 3,800 surrounded by Camden, Pennsauken and Cherry Hill, worries that without its 14-member police force it would have to rely on its more-urban neighbors to patrol its leafy streets.

Woodlynne, a Camden County borough of about 2,800 tucked between Camden and Collingswood, expects property taxes would have to rise by several hundred dollars for each of its 900 homeowners.

Throughout New Jersey, small towns - and there are 330 with populations under 10,000 - feel threatened by Gov. Corzine's new effort to force them to merge or consolidate services.

"It will mean drastic reductions in services, or layoffs of police and firefighters, or increases in taxes," said William G. Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities.

The governor's proposed budget would take away all property-tax-relief payments for towns smaller than 5,000 people and half the property-tax-relief payments for towns with populations between 5,000 and 10,000. It would also cut other state aid to municipalities, for a total of $190 million in reductions.

To offset those cuts, Corzine proposes a $32 million fund to reward towns that merge or share services.

New Jersey, the nation's fourth-smallest state, is crowded with little governments: There are 566 municipalities, 616 school districts, 486 local authorities and 792 fire companies.

So many governments, with their own police and public works departments and school superintendents and court buildings, are expensive and help make property taxes the nation's highest, state officials say.

"You can have whatever you want if you're willing to pay for it," Assembly Budget Chairman Louis Greenwald (D., Camden) said. "The municipalities said, 'Don't force consolidation on us.' And we didn't. But people are tightening their belts at home, and governments need to do it, too. I think the residents are saying, 'Merge.' "

Twenty-six municipalities in New Jersey have fewer than 1,000 residents, and an additional 49 have fewer than 2,000 residents, according to the 2000 census.

The two smallest municipalities in the state are in Camden County: Tavistock (population 8) and Pine Valley (population 19), golf clubs posing as towns. Each has a mayor and borough commissioners, a clerk, a solicitor, a tax assessor, a tax collector and a school district, though neither has any schools. Pine Valley even has a police force of seven.

In South Jersey, some of the other smallest municipalities are Cape May Point (241 residents in the 2000 census) and West Wildwood (448) in Cape May County; Fieldsboro (522), Washington Township (621) and Wrightstown (748) in Burlington County; Hi-Nella (1,029) and Audubon Park (1,102) in Camden County; and Newfield (1,616) in Gloucester County.

The towns are so small they often have trouble finding enough candidates to run for the school board or council, and most of their school districts exist only to send students out of town. But they are as protective of their domains as any metropolis.

Efforts at consolidation have been a tough sell because communities of any size are loath to lose their control, independence or identity. Only one merger of two municipalities has succeeded in New Jersey since 1952.

"This town has been around a long time. Why would we want to merge into a bigger community and be swallowed up?" asked John W. Collom III, mayor of Bordentown City, a Delaware River community nearly surrounded by Bordentown Township in northern Burlington County. "It would be like dissolving an aspirin in a bucket of water."

Collom ticked off some famous residents: Francis Hopkinson, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his son Joseph Hopkinson, who wrote the lyrics of "Hail, Columbia," long the unofficial national anthem. There were Paine and Revolution-era sculptor Patience Wright.

Bordentown's $4 million annual budget stands to lose nearly $500,000 in state aid, Collom said.

"We'd have to lay off just about everybody, unless folks in town are willing to make up a half-million dollars. And I don't know how we could ask them to do that."

In Camden County, Woodlynne faces the loss of $139,000 in state aid and the addition of $165,000 in costs because of more expensive utilities, trash collection and pensions. That $300,000 hit to a $2 million budget would likely mean higher property taxes for its 900 homeowners, said Regina Burke, borough administrator and chief financial officer.

"That's the only place to turn," Burke said, noting that the borough recently merged its police force and courts with those in neighboring Collingswood.

"I'm a proponent of merging, let me say that," she said, "but you need to give towns two years' warning. If you say that in 2010 small towns are not getting state aid, you can turn to your residents and say, 'Do you want to merge, or do you want to take on the extra costs?' But without warning, what are we supposed to do?"

Nearby Merchantville, which occupies about half a square mile in northern Camden County, would lose about $433,000 from a budget of just under $4 million.

"That's a major, major hit for us," said Mayor Frank North, who said his borough might confer with other small towns about taking legal action against the state.

"People live here because it's a small town," he said. "That's what people want. They like to be able to walk to school. They like living in a small community."

Previous discussions about sharing police duties with neighboring towns have not been well received by Merchantville townspeople, North said.

"The residents are adamant: They want to maintain the Police Department," he said. "If we went with another town, it would affect the patrolling of our town. We butt up against Camden, and we feel secure with our Police Department."

In nearby Oaklyn, with a population of about 4,200, Mayor Michael LaMaina is more sanguine.

"Consolidating services has been in the forefront of everyone's mind," he said. "It's probably the wave of the future."

Oaklyn stands to lose about $190,000 in property-tax aid.

LaMaina said Oaklyn had already consolidated some services, such as courts (with Mount Ephraim) and public works (with the school district).

"Everything is open for consideration; we can't shut the door on anything," LaMaina said. "We are willing to look into merging police or fire or public works with one of our neighboring towns, maybe Haddon Township or Collingswood.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow sometimes. But let's face it: That's where the state is right now. We're either going to get gobbled up or get much more efficient."

Nearby Audubon and Audubon Park merged police departments recently, LaMaina noted. He said he hoped Oaklyn would be able to get some of the state money set aside for municipalities that consolidate services.

Towns are anxiously seeking information about how to get some of the $32 million that Corzine said would be available to aid consolidation.

"There's an incredible lack of information from the Department of Community Affairs and the governor's office," Dressel said.

"That's still being worked out," state Treasury spokesman Mark Perkiss said of details on disbursing the money.

Dressel said the proposed cuts "are going to have a devastating impact on municipalities that have already been preparing their budgets for submission in the next couple of weeks."