NEWS
POLITICS
Property tax, school funds are key issues
Thursday, October 30, 2003 The legislative race in the 34th District is propelled mainly by one issue: How to alter the state's heavy dependence on property taxes for education while guaranteeing schools the money they need.
Exploring ideas and concrete proposals has made for a lively campaign in which an incumbent Democratic senator faces a Republican challenger while her two Assembly colleagues confront two GOP and two Green Party candidates.
State Sen. Nia Gill, D-Montclair, is pitted against Republican Frank C. Fusco. Assembly members Peter Eagler, D-Clifton, and Sheila Y. Oliver, D-East Orange, are up against Republicans Kenneth Kurson, R-Montclair, and Keith E. Krebs, R-Clifton, and Greens Tim Gaylord of East Orange and Thomas Robert Gregg of Montclair. Both the GOP and Green slates are first-time candidates for Assembly.
The 34th District includes Clifton, West Paterson, and the Essex County communities of East Orange, Montclair, and Glen Ridge.
Gill, 55, said she wants to push for a special legislative session to examine property taxes and education funding. She said she wants to "ensure that more dollars come back" from the state to offset property taxes.
Fusco, a 38-year-old lawyer, said that he would tackle the property tax problem by adjusting the alcohol tax. He would push to repeal the alcohol tax at a retail level, install it at a wholesale level, then "dedicate a small percent of the increase to alcohol abuse treatment and the dominant percent to education."
Eagler, 48, also favors calling a special legislative session to tackle the issue of property taxes and education. Oliver, 51, Eagler's incumbent Assembly colleague, said she doesn't have a "quick bullet" solution, but wants to look at how other states, such as Michigan, fund education and handle property taxes and apply their methods to New Jersey.
GOP Assembly challenger Kurson, 34, said he wants the state to figure out how to provide property-tax relief and "kick in" more money to schools.
His running mate, the 41-year-old Krebs, said he would push for a constitutional amendment that would "take care of the most vulnerable first" by not allowing the government to spend money on anything until education and senior services are fully funded.
Gregg, of the Green Party, said he wants other ways, perhaps income taxes, to fund "high quality education to all students." Running mate Gaylord, who is black, said he wants to focus on how schools could "help redesign the curriculum to educate black people differently."
To reduce the size of government, Fusco, the GOP Senate challenger, advocates getting the state to "pick up the tab" for running the prosecutor's office in each county.
Gill, the Senate incumbent, pledged to work to make government more effective and "look at the issue of excess spending." She also wants to fight for lower prescription drug costs and find a "pro-active, preventive, positive" way to counteract gang activity.
Assembly incumbent Eagler also wants to make government more efficient, while running mate Oliver pledged to examine "reducing the cost of state government."
Oliver also favors working to get "synergy and energy" back in towns by preserving open space, improving schools and promoting diversity. Eagler backs restoring the property tax freeze to benefit seniors.
Assembly Republican challenger Kurson said county government is a "layer of government that has outlived its usefulness" and its expensive court system should be funded by the state. Krebs, the other Assembly GOP candidate, said he wants to cap pain and suffering litigation damages to promote more medical advances. He also said he wants to "encourage competition in the insurance industry" in order to drive down costs.
Green Party Assembly candidate Gaylord said he would try to help blacks "own businesses in the cities where they live." He also wants to work to promote better leadership by blacks "in churches, schools and communities.".
Fusco and his wife are lifelong Clifton residents. They have two daughters.
A lawyer, Fusco holds a degree in economics from St. Peter's College in Jersey City.
Gill is divorced and has a son. She has served in the state Senate since 2002 and in the Assembly from 1994 to 2001. A lawyer, Gill attended Rutgers University.
Eagler lives in Clifton and has served as a freeholder since 1996, an assemblyman since 2000 and a Clifton councilman since 1990.
Oliver was an Essex County freeholder during 1996-99. She is the head of the citizen services and economic development departments in Essex County. She attended Essex County College and Rutgers University and is single.
Kurson is a professional writer who worked with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and co-wrote the book "Leadership." He attended the University of Chicago and is married with a daughter.
Krebs is a filmmaker and a photojournalist. He attended Rutgers University and the University of California-Berkeley. He is single.
Gaylord is a retired teacher, insurance salesman, and parole officer.
Gregg is a neuroscience graduate student at Montclair State University.
Reach Nate Schweber at (973) 569-7155.
