North Arlington receives zero Extraordinary Aid from state legislators
Rutherford, Wood-Ridge receive $500K, Carlstadt $700K as NA sees state aid reduced from $550K in FY03 to nothing in FY06!
TRENTON - Area legislators provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in state aid to virtually every area community except North Arlington, East Rutherford and Lyndhurst which received nothing from the state's Department of Community Affairs this week.
North Arlington, which received over a million dollars in Extraordinary Aid as late at the mid-1990's has seen it's share of state aid reduced to zero while communities like Carlstadt & Wood-Ridge have received significant increases in state support despite being two of the smallest municipalities in the district.
Extraordinary Aid is distributed at the discretion of the district's area legislators. In 2003 North Arlington received $550,000. That figure was reduced to $300,000 in 2004 and remained the same in 2005.
This year, North Arlington received nothing.
While North Arlington and Lyndhurst received nothing, Garfield remained the same at $500,000. Despite being three times the size of Carlstadt and Wood-Ridge, Garfield received $200,000 less than Carlstadt. Carlstadt is one of the district's smallest communities. Wallington received $350,000 in aid while neighboring East Rutherford also received zero state aid. Moonachie, the district's smallest municipality received $175,000 in Extraordinary Aid.
While population plays no role in the distribution of state aid, the process appears very political in nature. North Arlington is represented in Trenton by Nutley Assemblyman Fred Scalera (D-Essex County) and Passaic City Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic County). Both supported Governor Corzine's increase in the state's Sales Tax of 17% or one penny. North Arlington's representative in the senate is Mayor Paul Sarlo of Wood-Ridge.
Mr. Sarlo endorsed Mayor Russ Pitman in the June 6th Democratic Primary along with Assemblyman Schaer. Pitman was defeated in a landslide by Councilman Peter Massa who carried nine of the borough's twelve districts. Sarlo is an avid supporter of the controversial EnCap project which calls for the construction of 1,625 units of housing as well as the construction of hundreds of low income units. The project as presented will call for the seizure of private companies along Porete Avenue via eminent domain.
Here is the district's aid allocation for 2006:
Carlstadt - $700,000
Wood-Ridge - $500,000
Garfield - $500,000
Rutherford - $500,000
Wallington - $350,000
Moonachie - $175,000
Lyndhurst - -0-
North Arlington - -0-
East Rutherford - -0-
Average allocation per community: $303,000
