With 564 municipalities and close to 700 school districts, the idea of sharing services in New Jersey seems logical. But it’s been met with continued resistance over the years by those who defend the sanctity of home rule.
Marc Pfeifer, a senior policy fellow at Rutgers University, explains how consolidation is different than shared services. “Shared services are municipalities working together with other municipalities or their county government or their board of education to share the things they do in common,” Pfeifer said. Consolidation is “where two municipalities decide to basically merge together and become one municipality, one governing body and one organization providing government services.”