There’s a story in this week’s Coast Star about Sea Girt being forced to rent coutroom time from Wall Twp because Sea Girt’s courtroom has been rendered unusable. So what happened? Fire? Flood? Earthquake? Nope, nothing like that. Apparently the courtroom, conveniently located in Sea Girt’s own municipal building, does not meet New Jersey’s “state security requirements”. The estimated cost of upgrading the facility to meet the requirements is prohibitively expensive at more than $150,000. I guess the state feels every burg in NJ must have the capability of trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or some equally dangerous character should the need present itself.
Time and time again the state sticks it’s nose into the business of our towns when their interference is neither requested or desired. I’m quite sure that Sea Girt’s own courtroom is perfectly usable for their purposes. There was no public outcry among the good people of Sea Girt demanding a more secure courtroom. I’m sure they would much rather attend court in their own town and not have to pay rent to Wall. This state meddling has to be one of the principle causes of our high local taxes. I will be doing more research on these state mandates and will report what I learn.
I did find this in the New Jersey State Constitution:
The Legislature shall not pass any private, special, or local laws…………Regulating the internal affairs of municipalities formed for local government and counties, except as otherwise in this Constitution provided.
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