The New Jersey Commission on Municipal Mergers has been in place since the Corzine Administration. However, they have not had much success in motivating many of the Garden State’s 565 municipalities to merge or share services to save tax dollars for residents.

Under Corzine, towns were given financial incentives. Under Christie, Executive Order 527 ordered: “municipalities that are contiguous to one another must immediately merge under the penalty of losing state aid.”  Neither the carrot approach under Corzine nor the stick approach under Christie proved successful.

And now the Murphy approach: Under the new administrative code initiated in March 2018, the Commission on Municipal Mergers gives towns “(1) the freedom to merge with non-contiguous municipalities; (2) entertain more creative names for the new municipal entity; (3) allowing more than only two towns to merge; (4) Merge across state lines into Pennsylvania.”

Gina Genovese, the founder of the non-partisan, non-profit organization Courage To Connect NJ, has been encouraging municipal merger reform since 2005. Genovese served as the organization’s executive director and co-authored the Courage To Connect NJ Guidebook. She was an advocate of the 2013 merger of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, and shared that “the new administrative rules are a creative step forward for New Jersey residents to save money in the long run.”

Genovese serves on the New Jersey Commission on Municipal Mergers and will be the new chair in 2019. Under previous merger rules, Princeton Borough and Princeton Township merged. The name of the new entity: “Princeton”.

“If at first, you don’t succeed, try again.” That’s the advice that Liz Lempert, mayor of Princeton, has for any of the 565 municipalities in New Jersey that may be considering consolidation or shared services with towns in an effort to save money and avoid property-tax increases. Lempert says the combined municipality has exceeded the projected savings of $3 million annually—achieved largely by eliminating redundant jobs.

“Another great benefit of the Princeton Borough/Princeton Township merger is the end to the name confusion. Visitors no longer wonder which ‘Princeton’ they’re in. That’s not something the Washingtons of New Jersey can brag about!“, quipped Lempert.

All mergers and name changes must be approved by the Commission. Here are the towns whose mergers have been approved by the Commision for 2019:

Wayne (Passaic County) and Newton (Sussex County):

Wayne-Newton.

Elizabeth (Union County) and Montgomery Township (Somerset County):
Elizabeth-Montgomery.

Beverly (Burlington County) and Far Hills (Somerset County):
Beverly-Hills.

Galloway Township (Atlantic County), Peapack/Gladstone (Somerset County)
Gall-Stones.

Eatontown (Monmouth County) and Victory Gardens (Morris County)
Garden of Eaton.

Nutley (Essex County), Roxbury (Morris County), Asbury Park (Monmouth County)
Nuts & Berries. 

Alexandria Township (Hunterdon County) and Great Meadows Township (Warren County)
Alexander-the-Great.

Great Gorge (Sussex County), Washington Township (Warren County), Bridgewater (Somerset County)
Gorge Washington Bridge.

Atlantic City (Atlantic County) and Ocean City (Cape May County)
Atlantic-Ocean.

East Amwell (Hunterdon County), West New York (Hudson County), North Plainfield (Somerset County), South Amboy (Middlesex County)
East-West-North-South

Green Brook (Somerset County), Hamburg (Sussex County), Egg Harbor City, (Atlantic County), Little Egg Harbor Township (Ocean County)
Green-Eggs & Ham. 

Cherry Hill (Camden County)  and Pittstown (Hunterdon)
Cherry-Pitts

Alpha Township (Warren County) and Bates Mill (Camden County)
Alpha-Bates

Paulsboro (Gloucester County), Newton (Warren County), Manville (Somerset County)
Paul-New-Man

Applegarth (Middlesex County)  West Orange (Essex County), East Orange (Essex County), and Bound Brook (Somerset County)
Dual communities of Apples & Oranges, and Garth-Brooks.

Middletown Township (Monmouth County) Lower Township and Upper Township (Cape May County]
Upper-Middle-Lower Township

Kingwood Township (Hunterdon County) and Pohatcong (Warren County)
King-Kong

Paulsboro (Gloucester County), Ringoes (Hunterdon County), Great Gorge (Sussex County) Johnstown from Pennsylvania
John-Paul-Gorge & Ringo

Ho-Ho-Kus (Bergen County) and Hoboken (Hudson County)
Ho-Ho-Ho

Woodbridge (Middle County) and Allendale (Bergen County)
Woody-Allen

Watchung (Somerset County) and Washington (Burlington County)
Wawa

Brick Township (Ocean County)  and Wall Township (Monmouth Township)
Brick-Wall

Waldwick (Bergen County) and Martinsville (Somerset County)
WAL-MART

Warren Township (Somerset County)  andBeattystown (Warren County)

Warren-Beatty

Belle Meade (Somerset County), Palmyra (Burlington County), Ringwood (Burlington County)
Ring-My-Belle

Hillsdale (Bergen County), Mt. Airy (Hunterdon County), Clinton Township (Hunterdon County)
Hill-Airy-Clinton

EDITOR’S NOTE:
The piece is satire.