file photo Boyd Loving Ridgewood FD
Budgets have more North Jersey towns considering shared services
Faced with stringent budget cuts and rising health care and pension costs, a growing number of towns, including Mahwah and Allendale, are on the verge of turning longtime public services over to the private sector. Record
“The times they are a changing”…and it is about time!!
best way to reduces services and increase cost
Spoken like an employee worried about having his or her cost effectiveness compared to another service provider. Nothing better to bring costs down than a little competition…bring it on!
1. I’m not an employee.
2. “Shared Services” is NOT competition.
Competition is one thing (and good BTW).
“Shared Services” is the opposite.
It is giving up control of the services to a non-competitive organization with no vested interest in providing the best service for RW.
With privatization, you have competition and incentive to do a good job or get replaced.
With a local single government service you have the interests of a single municipality as your primary focus.
With shared services you get the worst of both worlds…
– no competitive incentive
– split loyalties and focus.
What happens is that we would just wind up subsidizing the “other town” and getting worse service due to resource sharing.
Privatize – sure
Shared municipal services – NO WAY.
Start with Ridgewood Central Garage