Many to do the work of a few

The last few days we've been hearing a lot about Gov.-elect Chrisite's plans to cut spending. The plan is to look for programs to cut and federal spending to tap. Yet I hear next to nothing about 1000 pound elephant in the room -- all the money we waste on administration. We have too much government. We have many doing the work that only a few are needed for.

New Jersey is so in love with "home rule" that any talk of consolidation is jeered down. I live within 10 miles of 6 towns municipal buildings (including donut towns). That is 6 mayors, 6 municipal clerks etc with their staffs. At least a few of the towns share schools (and we all belong to one regional high school district). That is a ton of duplicate jobs and a lot of extra salary and health benefits being paid out. Add in that more people means more people to potentially bribe (doesn't even have to be a big bribe -- perhaps the low level clerk who would have been weeded out in a bigger town accepts a gift from a contractor and unduly influences a contract) and it is easy to see where the money goes.

There is no reason all of these offices couldn't be combined into one huge office with one mayor, clerk, one school district etc. but for one -- home rule. Too many people use their offices as gifts for friends. Your high school drop out daughter can't find work? Well my friendly contributor, she can work in administration for $75k. Your Rutgers graduate can't find a job stranger? Sorry, the economy stinks for all.

The school districts would sooner cancel trips to museums then let one of their buddies go unemployed. The towns would sooner let potholes grow then let one of their buddies get laid off. The police departments would sooner stop cars for going 2 MPH over the speed limit, having snow on their plates or one of those dealer frames around the license plates than lay off an officer (happened in one of the donut towns near here).

We don't need to take money out of the classroom, we just need to get rid of our extra government overhead.