Ban Dual Office Holding Once-and-for-All

Murray Sabrin

Although the Legislature passed a bill to ban dual office holding, current members were “grandfathered,” so they will continue to double dip, or in the case of Senator Nicholas Sacco of North Bergen, to triple dip. Senator Sacco, in addition to serving in the state senate, is assistant school superintendent in North Bergen, where he is also the mayor. His annual income is more than $200,000 per year. This is the most egregious example in New Jersey of office holding and public sector employment run amok.

According to a new report by the New Jersey Policy Perspective, dual office holding creates less accountability and conflicts of interest, among other issues. The report includes the following findings:

• 600 men and women elected to municipal office have at least one other job on a public payroll besides their elected positions-more than 30 percent are employed in public education either as teachers or administrators; 20 percent work in county government; 14 percent for public authorities.
• In the state's 10 most populous municipalities, just over half of council members have their day jobs in the public sector.
• At least 56, or more than 40 percent, of the state's 137 county freeholders hold at least one other public sector job. Some 23 freeholders hold another elected office.
• A dozen men and women in the 40-member State Senate in 2006 held at least one non-elected public job, and 26 of the 80-member State Assembly earn at least part of their living from public sector employment.

While the report does an excellent job of reporting the facts, the authors do not make an obvious conclusion about dual office holding: Government spending and hence taxes are high in the Garden State, because lawmakers have a vested interest in increasing the role of government at all levels.

Let’s face it, if an individual is a state legislator, freeholder, or council member, and holds a public sector job, there is a built in self interest to vote for more spending, taxes, and debt. The history of the last ten years or more confirms that higher taxes, more spending and more debt have been enacted by the state legislature, while municipal spending including local school budgets have outpaced inflation, in general. In short, fiscal restraint is just not in the cards, if lawmakers are on the public payroll, or their law firms receive government contracts.

Admittedly, dual office holding, does not “explain” all the increase in taxes, spending, and borrowing. However, I would wager that dual office holders vote consistently to increase spending. And that’s one of the reasons why taxes are so high in New Jersey. In addition, dual office holding should be banned because being a full time school administrator, or having a supposedly full time job in another public sector, should require an individual’s full time attention.

If Governor Corzine wants to be known as a “reformer,” he would demand that the Legislature end all dual office holding immediately once-and-for-all. But then again, the governor needs the votes of dual office holders to increase spending and to create new government programs.

Ending dual office holding could be one small step that could put a brake, however, slight on the growth of government in New Jersey. The beleaguered New Jersey taxpayer should welcome this change in the way we are governed. Unfortunately, replacing dual office holders with other big government officials would, in the final analysis, maintain the status quo of high taxes and profligate spending.

Murray Sabrin, Ph.D., is Professor of Finance in the Anisfield School of Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he is Executive Director of the Center for Business and Public Policy. He also writes a blog twice a week for the Star-Ledger, http://www.nj.com/njvoices/. Sabrin’s weekly column on national issues will soon appear on www.usadaily.com.