Corzine: Squeeze the towns for state trooper costs

Coalition of the Swilling has the story:

Rather than do something silly like, say, cut waste in Trenton or perhaps not add thousands of people to the state payroll our glorious bloated bureaucracy has instead chosen to charge people for what they already pay for.

Asbury Park Press has the details: As times change, so may NJ's free rural state police patrols

TRENTON — New Jersey State Police have patrolled the state's rural areas for 87 years at no extra cost to smaller towns that never created police departments.

In fact, the law that created the state police agency stated it would "primarily'' be used to protect rural areas.

But times have changed, and free rural New Jersey state police patrols may soon end.

As the state grapples with chronic state budget woes, Gov. Corzine has proposed requiring municipalities that get free state police patrols to pay a quarter of the estimated patrol cost to raise $20.5 million for the cash-strapped state.

"These are difficult times, and the decisions and choices we must make are difficult,'' state Attorney General Anne Milgram said.

Of course, reducing the bloated state bureaucracy would never cross their minds, would it?