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New Jersey's 21 counties would no longer have governments if a Bergen County lawmaker gets his way.
State Assemblyman Robert Auth, a freshman Republican, last Thursday introduced a measure (A4164) that would direct an obscure state commission to recommend to the Legislature how best to eliminate county government.
"I'm watching businesses leave our state. A lot of it is in the district I represent," said Auth. "I totaled up all the county budgets throughout the state. It's like $6.5 billion a year in New Jersey. That's a lot of money."
Auth said that he envisions saving as much as $2 billion a year by transferring the county government's functions to the states and municipalities. While that might require those other entities to hire more employees, Auth said it wouldn't require more high-paid managers.
"It's just duplicative services. The budget and the state's economy are in such a bad way at this point that one of these local forms of government has to go. And in our state it would be county government," he said, adding that the savings could be put towards funding the state's broke Transportation Trust Fund.
The language of the legislation notes that Connecticut and Rhode Island long ago abolished county government, while Massachusetts has eliminated most of its county governments.
Summit Mayor Ellen Dickson, a Republican, has been calling for county governments in the northern half of the state to be dissolved.
"There's just way too much government," Dickson said.
Assemblyman Robert Auth (R-Bergen)
Municipalities, Dickson said, "watch every item, they know how many police officers they have, they understand when there's duplication at city hall."
But Dickson said she wouldn't go as far as the bill does. She believes county governments serve a more vital function in south Jersey.
"They like the county government. The towns are smaller, they're more rural," Dickson said. "They need to combine services. Up here, we've got too many layers of government."
Supporters of county government say state lawmakers shouldn't be looking at them to cut waste.
"Quite frankly, I think you're seeing county governments playing a much greater and important role in government," said John Donnadio, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Counties. "And if anything, we should be looking at consolidating and dissolving municipalities as opposed to county government."
New Jersey has 565 municipalities.
"This state needs to move to look at a more regional form of government as opposed to such a parochial form of government, which is the main reason our property taxes are so high," Donnadio said. "County government is the perfect infrastructure for that."
Donnaddio said in 2010 - the most recent year his organization had compiled the data for - New Jersey's county governments had combined budgets of about $5.9 billion.
Auth's proposal is unlikely to advance.
"That bill won't be moving in the Senate," said state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), who spent 14 years as a Gloucester County freeholder - 13 of which he served as director. "As long as we work together, I think counties are a great benefit to local governments. My county is a great example with all the county-wide services we provide for the municipalities. "
But there has long been a movement to eliminate county government in New Jersey. Of all people, former Essex County Executive James Treffinger in 1997 penned an essay for the conservative Manhattan Institute in which he called for its end, saying it's "superfluous and an impediment." Treffinger mentioned in the essay that his immediate predecessor, Thomas D'Alessio, was "in jail for crimes he committed in office." Six years later, Treffinger himself pleaded guilty to several corruption charges and served time in federal prison.
Auth - who said he knows the bill's prospects are not great but felt the idea could eventually gain traction - said he came up with it while visiting family in Connecticut.
"I was sitting at the kitchen table with my brother-in-law," Auth said. "I was complaining about taxes. I asked him what his taxes were. He has a house that's twice my size and he's paying less in property taxes."
Freeholder David Ganz, who serves in Auth's native Bergen County, also spoke out against the bill, saying he can't imagine the state or the county's 70 municipalities would be more able to more efficiently manage manage its jail system and roads, among other things.
"I think it serves a very valid and very important function," said Ganz, a Democrat. "If you did not have county government, you would not be able to get local responsiveness to the problems that you have."