Legislation to encourage shared services becomes law

Legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Parker Space and Senator Steve Oroho to encourage cost-saving shared services agreements between New Jersey’s military installations and neighboring governments was signed into law by Governor Chris Christie.
“We hope that this is the start of more legislation being passed to combat high property taxes,” said Space. ”We will do our share to fight for our taxpayers, like fighting for a special session of the Legislature for property tax relief and reform, and our fair school funding plan.”
The legislation revises The “Uniform Shared Services and Consolidation Act” so that federal military bases are able to participate in a shared services agreement with other local units of government. The act was put in place to provide greater flexibility to local governments to enter into these kinds of agreements as well as streamline municipal consolidation efforts.
“Forging a strong bond between municipalities and adjacent military bases is so important,” Oroho said. “With this measure, these entities can save significant resources by working together on things like redevelopment, brownfield remediation and infrastructure expansion.”
The recommendation to include military bases in this process came from the 2015 report issued by the NJ Military Installation Growth and Development Task Force. The task force was created in 2014 to explore ways to preserve, enhance and strengthen the state’s military bases. It is the intention of Space and Oroho that the County of Morris and local governments and school districts in the vicinity can also take advantage of this and work with Picatinny Arsenal on ideas for mutual cost sharing.
“There are already examples of this kind of agreement working in New Jersey,” Oroho said. “Rockaway Township and Picatinny Arsenal have a long-standing relationship to share police and fire protection as well as recreation space. Bases benefit from such relationships and this measure will help more communities and hopefully, save some money for the taxpayers.”
“Picatinny is a large employer in the district and has wide support from businesses here,” continued Space.