SMITH - 'TOUGH WORK CAN NOW BEGIN ON SHARED SERVICES'

TRENTON - Senator Bob Smith, co-Chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Government Consolidation and Shared Services, issued the following statement today on the unanimous approval of the Committee's final report of recommendations at a meeting of the panel today:

"Today, after 13 meetings, exhaustive research and hours of public and expert testimony, the Consolidation and Shared Services Joint Committee has unanimously approved our final report.
"I want to thanks the legislators, on both sides of the aisle and from both Houses of the Legislature, for working tirelessly to provide fair, reasonable solutions to New Jersey's property tax crisis and the overabundance of bureaucracy in the State.

"I also want to thank the experts who provided essential research and a basis for our final recommendations, and the members of the public, who made their voices heard, and who, through their testimony, underscored the need to reduce government in the Garden State to a manageable size.

"Now, as we take our recommendations and craft legislation to codify these proposals into law, the really tough work on advancing regionalization and shared services in New Jersey can begin."

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Jason Butkowski
New Jersey Senate Democratic Office
Tel: (609) 292-5215
E-Mail: jbutkowski@njleg.org
Web: www.njsendems.com