State and local revenues have cratered since New Jersey was slammed by the coronavirus, and the need to cut costs by sharing municipal services has taken on a greater meaning.
Data from the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) shows that Gov. Murphy is serious about shared services. … Murphy is hardly alone: In 2018, Senate President Steve Sweeney’s task force recommended a slate of policies that included the consolidation of smaller school districts and municipal courts.
But its report, known as the “Path To Progress,” did not address police consolidation “because it’s just so hard to do,” said one of the committee’s chairs, Marc Pfeiffer of the Bloustein Local Government Research Center at Rutgers. “It’s usually when smaller communities see an opportunity to save, but union-related problems (may arise), and integrating one department into another might affect promotions.”