Paramus & Bergen County Should Consolidate, One Group Says

Paramus has a lot of pride in its local services, government and way of life. But someday those services could be consolidated with other towns in Bergen County to reduce costs, a non-profit government reform group hopes.

Courage to Connect NJ made its pitch to Paramus and Bergen County residents on Friday morning at , arguing consolidating local government would be a way to save significant money for taxpayers, as it has for one New Jersey township.

“Bergen County has the highest property taxes in the sate,” said executive director of Courage to Connect, Gina Genovese.

“Local governments have become too costly to maintain. Since local governments provide 80 percent of the same services, we must eliminate these redundancies,” Genovese said.

“All we need is five to seven towns to do the study to see if they want to become consolidated. If a town wants to consolidate, they can look at a neighboring town to become a partner,” Genovese added.

The model for this change is Woodbridge Township, which comprises ten distinct communities run by one mayor, John E. McCormac.

“I’m mayor of ten towns at once,” McCormac said. “I have made every parade, every little league game, I know everyone.”

Regan Burkholder, a consultant who studies the needs of local municipalities, calculated that running the current township of Woodbrige costs 40 percent less than it would if the towns were separate. Woodbridge Township's residents pay roughly $60 million in average tax levy, which is $20 million less than it would be if all the towns were separate, Burkholder said. Burkholder believes Bergen County, which pays $105 million in average tax levy, could see similar savings if it consolidates.

Andrew Bruck, a member of CTCNJs’ board of directors, believes towns that wish to consolidate should follow a simple six-step plan that could take only 18 months to complete.

“All people have to do is organize, meet with us to set up a study commission to go over the needs of the new municipality. Once we recommend consolidation, people can vote on it via referendum.”

However, there is a dark side to consolidation.

If a group of towns in Bergen County agree to consolidate, it would mean only one person could be mayor, one person could be fire chief, and one person could be police chief. Jobs are certain to be lost.

“Stop talking about who will lose their mayor,” McCormac said. “Nobody cares who fills the pot holes, nobody cares who cleans the streets full of snow, as long as everything is fixed that is all people care about.”

McCormac added that fire and police chiefs involved in any consolidation would have to accept either lower positions like lieutenant or captain, or else take an early retirement.

Genovese would not say if CTCNJ has met with Paramus officials to discuss a move, but they have talked to several mayors and councils in the area, and will continue to do so.