Housing costs along with taxes have led to a crisis of affordability. Housing costs have risen due to high demand. High taxes may be the result of the large number of municipalities that exist in New Jersey resulting in redundancy in the services provided by various governments.
The state passed the Mount Laurel Doctrine providing the constitutional pathway to fulfilling the state’s requirements to provide affordable housing. It has been upheld over years of litigation and so it is now time to focus on constructing adequate affordable housing. The approach the state has taken has acted as an unfunded mandate on municipalities. In most, if not all, towns the infrastructure is not sufficient to support the numbers of new housing units that would be required under the Doctrine. The state must share in the financial burdens that settle on the towns and cities that work constructively to meet the affordable housing requirements.
New Jersey has over 560 municipalities, some as small as a couple of square miles. This high number of municipalities results in a lot of redundancy in the services that are offered the governments. Where possible, these services should be consolidated at the regional or county level to sustain important government services without eliminating the local identities that people like about New Jersey.
