| Publications |
| To order the following publications and presentations, 2006 New Jersey Legislative District Data Book This thirty-first edition presents a detailed statistical description of the state's legislative and congressional districts and provides statistical and directory information on the communities of which they are composed, including population, fiscal resources, governmental expenditures, tax rates, voter registrations, election results, and form of municipal and school government. (LDDB06) 2006 New Jersey Legislative District Data Book (2006) - $63.00 Click here for additional information and an order form. Land Use Administration for New Jersey Municipalities (2007) This illustrated, 151-page publication offers an overview of New Jersey’s planning system, checklists for subdivision and site plan reviews, tips on site visits and managing public meetings, and analyses of variance criteria. It also gives guidance on master plan updates and board governance, summaries of state ethics and open public meetings laws, and an introduction to smart growth principles and redevelopment. (PZNJ07) Planning and Zoning in New Jersey (2007): $25.00 2005 New Jersey Legislative District Data Book This thirtieth publication presents a detailed statistical description of the state's legislative and congressional districts and provides statistical and directory information on the communities of which they are composed, including population, fiscal resources, governmental expenditures, tax rates, voter registrations, election results, and form of municipal and school government. (LDDB05) 2004 New Jersey Legislative District Data Book (2005) - $60.00 2005 New Jersey Legislative District Data Book on Disk File Set 1 contains all of the municipal data in Tables A, B, C and 6 of the 2004 New Jersey Legislative District Data Book. The data items are stored in four separate files which are organized by legislative district and can be sorted alphabetically by municipality or county. (LDDB05) 2005 N.J. Legislative District Data Book - $55.00 The Municipal Budget Process (2002) This manual provides a broad background of local government budgeting as it is practiced in New Jersey and deals with a budget as a document that is a plan of action, expressed in financial terms. Legal requirements concerning the adoption and executing of the official budget are examined, as well as the roles of various municipal officials through the budget circle. Powers and Duties of the This new edition provides a basic review of municipal government for the newly elected official, as well as a general review for those currently in office. The test includes information on:
(P&D02) Powers and Duties of the Municipal Governing Body (2002) - $30.00 New Jersey's Public Schools: Public Education is one of the biggest and most important enterprises in New Jersey, yet useful information about it is often scattered and hard to interpret. The Public Education Institute publication pulls together all of the latest state-level data from hundreds of sources and presents it - along with helpful, unbiased commentary - in a handy, well-organized format for experts and interested citizens alike. The book will be updated every other year to provide a yardstick for measuring progress in public school effectiveness. Hardcopy: Inventory of Municipal Forms of Government The inventory shows for each New Jersey municipality the type, county, 1998 estimated population, area, density, form of government, number of elected officials, elections from wards or at-large, governing body terms of office, whether the elections are partisan or nonpartisan, and whether the voters have the power of initiative or referendum. Implementing Whole School Reform This report presents findings from the second year of implementation of whole school reform and school-based budgeting in New Jersey. The authors draw upon visits to 57 separate schools in six Abbott school districts that were implementing one of six different models (Success For All, Community for Learning, Comer, Accelerated Schools, Co-nect, and America's Choice). Additionally, the results of the author's interviews with district, state department and model developers are presented. Results from a teacher survey of nearly 900 respondents detail the teacher's perspective during this time of school reform. An analysis of the school-based budgeting process and resource allocation patterns is also included. Municipal Finance Administration This manual provides an introduction to local government finance in New Jersey. It is used as the basic text in the course of the same name. The publication has been prepared for the Center of Government Services of Rutgers University and authored by Robert Benecke. Principles of Municipal Tax Collection I This text provides an introduction to the primary and secondary duties of the municipal tax collector and an overview of general taxation law. This publication has been written for the Center of Government Services of Rutgers University by Alice Anne Paretti, CTC/CFO/CTA. It is used as the basic text in Principles of Municipal Tax Collection I, which is one of three courses required to sit for the State Certification Exam. Principles of Municipal Tax Collection II This text provides the reader with an understanding in narrative form, of New Jersey's Tax Sale Laws and the tax sale process. It is used as the basic text in Principles of Municipal Tax Collection II, which is one of three courses required to sit for the State Certification Exam. This manual contains the text of New Jersey statutes pertaining to the tax sale process. Principles of Municipal This text is the fourth edition and is intended to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of Tax Office operations. Some topics include: security of the tax office, office procedures, records management, interest on delinquencies, calculations, tax appeal refunds, reports, ethics, and audit reports. Cooperative Purchasing in New Jersey: Cooperative purchasing was initiated in New Jersey with the passage of legislation in 1979. The types of cooperative purchasing agreements include Cooperative Pricing, Commodity Resale and Joint Purchasing. These agreements result in lower prices for products purchased and less resources required to conduct bidding processes. In New jersey, 71% of municipalities, 75% of school districts, and 81% of counties participate in cooperative purchasing agreements. This study analyzes cooperative purchasing systems and offers several recommendations. The Potential Impacts of Revaluation on Property Tax Burdens in Newark (1999) This report analyzes the impacts of a revaluation on property tax burdens in the City of Newark. A revaluation would increase total assessments from the current level of $816.7 million to just over $5 billion. The revaluation would result in a significant shift in property tax burdens from commercial and industrial to residential properties, nd significant shifts would also occur among residential neighborhoods. Higher tax rates may be capitalized into lower property values. Similarly, factors other than the revaluation affect the property tax rate and levy in Newark. The magnitude of those effects is unclear. A proposed plan for phasing in a revaluation, a Municipal Loan Program, would use low-interest loans to finance tax credits covering a five-year phase-in of the new assessments. New Jersey's Statewide 9-1-1 System: A Case study in Regionalization in New Jersey (1999) Efforts by New Jersey State and local officials in the early 1990s resulted in the development of a 9-1-1 answering and dispatching system for all telephone requests for emergency services. Changes in technology and a desire to control costs led to a movement to a Statewide 9-1-1 public safety answering system, and to a shift to more regional dispatching operations. This study surveys the efforts of the individual emergency service providers, describes the system established in the early 1990s, and concludes with several recommendations for changes. The School District Achievement Index (1999) The School District Achievement Index combines student scores on the State's11th grade High School Proficiency Test and estimated high school completion rates to give an indication of each school district's educational output. This report includes new data for all districts for 1996-97 and identifies the school districts showing the most improvement from 1993-94 through 1996-97. ( The paper's author is Dr. Ernest C. Reock, Jr., Professor Emeritus at Rutgers.) Implementing Whole School Reform in This publication presents the results of a study of 32 schools in 3 Abbott school districts as they began implementing the court-mandated process of whole school reform and school-based budgeting. It evaluates the schools' experiences with Success For All, Community For Learning and Comer models. Additionally, it details the school-based budgeting process used by the first cohort schools. (WSRNJ99) Implementing Whole School Reform in New Jersey: Redistricting New Jersey After This occasional paper describes the procedures to be used and forecasts in genera terms the probable changes which will be made after the Census of 2000in Congressional districts, state Legislative districts, county freeholder districts, municipal wards, regional school board membership, and local election districts. (The paper's author is Dr. Ernest C. Reock, Jr., Professor Emeritus at Rutgers.) The School District Achievement Index (1997) This occasional paper suggests a method of evaluating the performance of school districts in New Jersey using as output measures average scores on the High School Proficiency Test (HSPT) and high school completion rates. Data are presented for the most recent three years, and each of the districts operating a secondary school is classified according to its Achievement Index over that period. Eighth grade Early Warning Test Data also are included for all districts. (The paper's author is Dr. Ernest C. Reock, Jr., Professor Emeritus at Rutgers.) State Aid for Schools in This publication describes the formulas which have been used over the past two decades for distributing state id; traces the implementation of the various formulas which have been used; shows the trends of state aid expenditures over the period and, when possible, provides some explanation for the patterns observed; and places state aid for schools in a broader fiscal context. A Plan for School District Consolidation This occasional paper proposes reducing the number of school districts in New Jersey by more than half through the expansion of existing districts and the creation of new K-12 regional districts. Annual savings in administrative costs are demonstrated and additional savings in overall costs are estimated. Data also are presented on changes in enrollments, equalized valuations per pupil and school property tax rates. Appendices identify all proposed school districts and the communities included. (The paper's author is Dr. Ernest C. Reock, Jr., Professor Emeritus at Rutgers.) The Cost Impact of School District Creation This paper evaluates the expenditure experience of 43 groups of school districts which, between 1955 and 1982, joined to created new limited purpose regional high school districts and six groups of school districts which consolidated into all purpose K-12 regional districts during the same period. The paper suggests the cost savings which might be achieved through the consolidation of limited purpose regional districts into all purpose districts. (The paper's author is Dr. Ernest C. Reock, Jr., Professor Emeritus at Rutgers.) Long-Range Property Tax Rate Trends The purpose of this paper is to analyze the long-run trend in property tax burdens in New Jersey to determine if burdens are rising, declining, or remaining relatively the same. In addition, the paper describes the components of the property tax and the factors that influence changes in property tax burdens. Confusion over property tax burdens results in part from short-run fluctuations in property values. To determine the true long-run trend with respect to property tax burdens, Dr. Reock (Professor Emeritus at Rutgers and the paper's author) introduces the concept of a "stabilized" tax rate. The stabilized tax rate provides a better measure of the actual taxpayer burden from the property tax. |
