Community Corner

Local Forum Pushes for Town Consolidations

Courage to Connect New Jersey will hold a forum in Collingswood to tout the benefits of consolidating towns as a cost-savings move.

Courage to Connect New Jersey submitted the following press release to Haddonfield Patch:

With property taxes and the cost of government administration continuing to increase in Camden County, there has never been a better time to discuss solutions for municipal financial woes.

Courage to Connect New Jersey, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization, invites the public to attend a free forum at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 29 at the , 771 Haddon Ave. The forum will offer an enlightening look at why our state is teetering on bankruptcy and the only logical, long-term solution—consolidating towns.

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The discussion will feature Gina Genovese, a former mayor who serves as executive director of Courage to Connect New Jersey. She will discuss the planned merger of the Princetons, as well as many other efforts around the state to consolidate towns.

The Feb. 29 event is sponsored by local resident and organizer Daniel Gillin. Genovese called Gillin a “leader in the consolidation conversation in Camden County.”

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“As a young resident of Collingswood and longtime resident of New Jersey, I am deeply concerned about the economic situation of our state,” said Gillin. “Each year, property taxes increase, yet we keep having to do more with less. Sooner or later we are going to run out of creative options, and I think we need to step back and look at the big picture.” 

“Municipal consolidation is a movement that is gaining traction all over the state and I believe it’s time for residents of Camden County to join the discussion,” he added.

In her presentation, Genovese will stress the need for municipalities to maintain their own identity, yet become part of larger municipalities that share a police department, a public works department, a tax office and other government functions that are now being duplicated from one town to the next, wasting millions of dollars annually.

“There is so much duplication of municipal services from one end of the state to the other,” Genovese said. “New Jersey’s municipal framework must ultimately be reduced to 100 to 150 towns, or our state will become unaffordable for most of us to live here.”

Genovese will also present information from the “Courage to Connect New Jersey Guidebook: The Tools for Municipal Consolidation,” now in its second edition. It is a comprehensive manual that provides step-by step measures residents can take to form municipal consolidation study commissions and, ultimately, consolidate communities.

For a free copy of the guidebook, to donate to the cause or for more information, visit CourageToConnectNJ.org.

 

Do you have your own news to share about Haddonfield? Email the information to bill.duhart@patch.com.


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