Subject: Rural towns may have to pay for state police patrols: by Tom Hester Jr. Courier Post; New Jersey State Police have patrolled the state's rural areas for 87 years at no extra cost to smaller towns that never created police departments. In fact, the law that created the state police agency stated it would "primarily" be used to protect rural areas. But times have changed, and free rural New Jersey state police patrols may soon end. That would affect some municipalities in Burlington, Gloucester and Salem counties. As the state grapples with chronic state budget woes, Gov. Jon S. Corzine has proposed requiring municipalities that get free state police patrols to pay a quarter of the estimated patrol cost to raise $20.5 million for the cash-strapped state. "These are difficult times, and the decisions and choices we must make are difficult," state Attorney General Anne Milgram said. But some lawmakers aren't convinced, including Senate Majority Leader Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, who noted Corzine's plan comes with the Democratic governor also seeking to slice state aid for towns and cities. Corzine is seeking $2.7 billion in budget cuts to try to fix finances plagued by deficits, high debt and taxes. "We're reducing their municipal aid, and on top of that now we're going to say, "Oh by the way, you start your own police department, or you're going to start paying for state police,' " Sweeney said. "Why would we target these communities when the state police was created for rural policing?" Milgram said charging municipalities is simply equitable. "There is no plan afoot to remove state police protection from any town now utilizing it," she said. "The plan is simply to require reimbursement for that coverage, which is only fair." At present, 76 municipalities get full-time state police patrols and 13 get part-time. They get those patrols free regardless of size, population, taxes and wealth. "The issue here is that most people in our state do pay for police services," Milgram said. "They also pay taxes which fund the state police. And then we've got certain folks who do not pay for their police services. They only pay the taxes, and it's really just asking for a small contribution toward the full amount." New Jersey state police don't only patrol rural areas. They also help patrol Camden, Irvington and Newark. All three cities are plagued by violent crime, but legislators question why Corzine isn't looking to charge them for state police patrols. Milgram said the state has 55 troopers patrolling those cities, compared to 777 that patrol rural areas. She also noted those cities account for 20 percent of violent crime and for 38 percent of homicides in the state. Sweeney said he has no qualms with the city patrols, but wants the same rules applied. "If we're going to charge one area then we charge all, or we don't charge any," he said. Sen. Philip E. Haines, R-Burlington, said much of his district is state-owned land, including state forests. "One would expect the state police would be a natural policing agent of that without the charge," he said.

RESPONSE: Well, given this information that the State Police were formulated for rural towns ... it would seem the ideal moment for Mullica to disband its costly Police Department and seek to avail itself of State Police coverage. DUH!!! Why the taxpayers of Mullica should be subsidizing others ... by paying for police coverage in other less rural towns like Upper or Shumong and pay for our own bloated Police Department is hard to comprehend. The present bill for Mullica taxpayers to run their own Police Department is well over one million dollars...and probably very near two million dollars

Oh, I forgot, early in the year THE CORRUPT MULLICA 5 AKA IDIOTS R US voted for the rest of us Mullica residents ... that we should pay for State Police coverage in the 70+ New Jersey towns that use only the State Police for police coverage. HUH? Well, let me clarify, only three voted in favor of this asinine position...the two Republicans janet THE AUTO INSURANCE FRAUD QUEEN OF ATLANTIC COUNTRY forman & cathy THE BAG LADY chasey and the one IDIOT Democrat, bill THE INVERTEBRATE TOADY kennedy who appears to be a supporter of anything that will raise the taxes on Mullica residents.