Reduction in public-sector costs should start with school districts
State Senate President Richard Codey (D-27) has said that the Gov. Jon Corzine "monetization" plan must be approved as there is no other plan available and that he, personally, has no ideas as to how to improve the state's financial picture. Codey needs to try a little harder.

What he needs to do is to get out of Trenton and ask the citizens of New Jersey what can work. The first thing that the citizens will say is that public-sector costs must be reduced.

Many local school districts have already begun to reduce costs by outsourcing nonteaching functions, some of these being transportation, food services and maintenance. These districts have been financially responsible, even in the face of New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) opposition when the loss of NJEA-union jobs will happen. In these cases the districts have operated alone, as the thought of a unified approach exists in theory but rarely in practice. Any first-year business major knows that there are discounts to be had with volume purchases. An individual school district contracting for food services might pay, for example, $3 per meal. However, when districts combine this function, the larger population group would demand a discount to $2.50 per meal, an 18- percent savings. The same could be done for other support services. The trick is to get districts to work together.

The new county superintendent may be the person to do this. If he has the type of power that has been advertised, then he could order that the 24 districts in Middlesex band together for one food-service contract. This would be a matter of modifying existing contracts or bidding out a new master contract with a new lower per-meal cost.

Maintenance/janitorial services and transportation could be next. This all can be done. It is just a matter of finding the necessary willpower to make it happen.

The governor could then offer to pay for these support services through the superintendent's office as a form of property-tax relief. This recommendation is a modified form of the movement of the county courts to the state judiciary in 1994. This was done as a form of property-tax reduction. The savings estimate in 1994 was $400 million statewide. According to an article in a state newspaper, this change was a smashing success. If we did it once, successfully, then we can do it again.

I'm sure that the 6,200 nonprofessional employees of boards of education in Middlesex County would not be overly happy working in the private sector, but they'll adapt.

The reduction in New Jersey's public sector has to start somewhere. Why not here?

Harold Kane

Monroe