State gets local layoff proposals

Ninety-one local and county governments in New Jersey have submitted plans to shed 1,600 employees this year, up 12 percent from all of 2009, as Gov. Christie seeks to cut state aid to close a budget gap.

The Civil Service Commission has approved 80 of the plans, which don't detail dismissals of teachers or members of the state workforce, spokesman Mark Perkiss said Wednesday. The agency covers 108,000 local and county civil-service workers.

Local governments filed 81 such plans last year, Perkiss said. He declined to discuss specific plans.

Christie has proposed $10 billion in budget cuts, including $820 million from school aid and $445 million from local government assistance, in his $29.3 billion budget for fiscal 2011, which starts July 1.

"We are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of layoff plans," Perkiss said. "We are far in excess of what we reviewed last year, and it's not even half over."

Thousands of teachers and other public workers rallied Saturday in Trenton to protest Christie's cuts and to urge the reinstatement of a one-year tax surcharge on high-income residents. Last Thursday, the governor vetoed a bill that would have imposed the extra levy on those earning $1 million or more. A similar surcharge ended in December.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D., Bergen), said the reduced funding could lead to property-tax increases of as much as 8 percent as schools and local governments sought to counter Christie's cuts.