Fearing that budget woes will keep the state from re-funding the Garden State Preservation Trust, officials in Hudson County gathered at the newly opened Rutkowski Park in Bayonne to raise public awareness of the issue.
Bayonne Mayor Joseph V. Doria Jr., who is also a Democratic state senator, joined Assemblyman Louis Manzo (D-31st Dist.), Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise, and NY/NJ Baykeeper representative Greg Remaud to press for the replenishment of the fund, which they characterized as “near empty.”
Although state officials claim the fund still has $175 million in it, most of this is already earmarked for previously approved projects, leaving future projects to depend on whatever gets budgeted each year.
The Garden State Preservation Trust, created out of legislation co-sponsored by then Assemblyman Doria in 1998, provides money to municipalities and not-for-profit organizations to preserve open space.
The fund will run out of cash after fiscal year 2008 unless the state renews the legislation.
The trust fund, which supplies money to the Green Acres grant program, was designed to last 10 years, dedicating just under $100 million from sales tax and other revenues each year. Statewide, the fund has preserved slightly over 430,000 acres and spent about $2 billion.
The Green Acres Program, which, among other things, helps provide counties such as Hudson County with matching funds for the creation and maintenance of parks, has become a key part of Hudson County’s open-space program.
Gov. Jon Corzine has agreed to fund the program, but not through the sales tax or creation of bonds. The budget for 2008 gives only $25 million to the program. It may be funded by the leasing of state assets such as the New Jersey Turnpike to private firms, something Manzo and Doria have spoken out against.
“We need to move to renew legislation for the Garden State Preservation Trust before this legislative session goes on summer break,” Manzo said. “For 10 years, New Jersey had a stable source of open-space funding through this trust. We need to renew it this year to keep the momentum for preserving and improving our parks and green spaces in Hudson County.”
Rutkowski Park is among numerous projects throughout the county that received funds from the state, some of which came through the Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund, which imposes a small tax that is solely dedicated to historic and environmental preservation.
Manzo, who sits on the Assembly Environment Committee, said the county is looking at several other sites for funding, such as Jersey City’s Lafayette Park and Reservoir No. 3.
Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise said the local trust fund allows the county to draw down on matching grants from the Green Acres program. But without the Garden State Preservation Trust to fund the Green Acres program, the county has fewer funds available to upgrade parks, build playgrounds, or preserve historic sites. “Our Open Space Trust Fund has worked hand-in-hand with the Garden State Preservation Trust to bring new parks and open space to Hudson County,” DeGise said. “Continued funding of the [trust] is critical to urban communities like ours.”
In support of DeGise’s efforts, the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders passed a resolution urging Corzine to continue funding the Garden State Preservation Trust as proposed.
The trust, the resolution said, supplied $325 million annually to counties and other not-for-profit organizations – $225 million for acquisition and $100 million for capital improvements.
County parks will have food vendors
In a separate parks-related issue, a glitch in sending out bids may have cost the county revenue from food vendors doing business in county parks.
Although contracts to provide services with the parks are for 12 months a year, contracts ran out in early May, leaving a nearly month-long gap in which no one was contracted to service the parks.
Freeholder Bill O’Dea said good weather had provided opportunities for vendors to make money by selling food in the parks, money that would have partly gone to the county. But the delay by the county’s purchasing department stopped that.
Perhaps more importantly, O’Dea said revenue from vendors to the county declined in this year’s bidding. Vendors bid for contracts by offering the county some of their sales revenue. The vendor with the highest responsible offer gets the bid.
O’Dea said he believed the county could get much more in these fees, and also suggested that food offerings by these vendors be expanded beyond the original hotdogs, ice cream, and pretzels currently stipulated, to include foods that may be more attractive to the ethnic groups in each area of the county.
One additional problem is the fact that the county received no bid at all for Stephen Gregg Park in Bayonne, making it possible that no vendor will be providing refreshments there over the summer. The county has since re-bid the contract with the hopes of attracting a vendor to the site.