Governor Christie Agrees With Democrats On Shared Services [AUDIO]

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about Governor Christie’s proposal to cut the state income tax 10 percent over 3 years – in order to save everybody some money.

Now another money-saving idea is being floated.

During the Governor’s latest town hall meeting in Caldwell, he was asked if he thought it would make sense to either slash Municipal or County governments in Jersey – to eliminate the duplication of services.

Christie said in Camden County there is growing discussion about creating a County police force- to replace municipal police forces – and it’s definitely something to look at – however “the problem with New Jersey always is, that when we have a choice between having one level of government or the other, we say – we’ll take both…like should we have civil service or collective bargaining? Yes- we’ll take both – we have both – should we have municipal government or County government? Yes!”

He also said it’s clear that either Municipal or County government could be disbanded…because right across the border:

“The predominant delivery of services in Pennsylvania is at the County level – the County provides most of the services there, and municipal government is very, very small, inexpensive, with the exception of the big cities…I think what we need to do in New Jersey is make a choice – and we haven’t been forced to make a choice before, and I think we need to make a choice…one or the other is exactly my point – like what do we need to do in having both at the size that they’re at?”

Christie also pointed out “we already have regional governments – they’re called Counties- so it’s not like we have to create something here…the debate we should be having is – which level of government do you think is the most efficient and effective way to deliver the services that we want delivered outside of schooling? If we were willing to cede some of the programs that we do here at the municipal level – health, and EMS and other things – to the County basis – you know maybe that would help to save a lot of money- I suspect it would – but it means we would have to change the way we do things, and we’d have to swallow hard and change some things.”