Politics & Government

Lt. Gov. Holds Roundtable With Officials, Business Owners in Westfield

Discussions center on small businesses, education, taxes.

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno brought her listening tour of state municipalities to Westfield Wednesday, holding closed-door briefings with municipal leaders, non-profit officials and the business community.

Guadagno is criss-crossing the state on behalf of Gov. Chris Christie, meeting with local leaders to hear concerns and share information from Trenton. Interviews with those who met with Guadagno today said she listened intently to all comments and shared plans and proposals from the Christie administration.

"I got the impression of a real willingness to listen and really start to address what is reasonable," said Anna Mastroianni, the owner of Sole who attended the small business roundtable.

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The Westfield contingent of municipal and business leaders shared their views on the property tax cap, education funding, small-business issues, downtown promotion and state funding. According to participants, Guadagno took notes throughout the meetings and seemed receptive to the suggestions, particularly those relating to small business and pledged to remain accessible going forward.

In an interview with Patch following her Westfield meetings, Guadagno said the Governor has sent her on a statewide mission to gather  information from local leaders while also touting the work of the regulatory-reform task force she chaired that among other topics, focused on streamlining the process for securing business permits. She said she also touted the new economic development program set up in her office to consolidate business start-up programs.

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"I wanted to let them know that Trenton is coming to them," she said.

Guadagno said property taxes and Christie's proposed toolkit of property-tax-reform legislation topped the list for many of the municipal officials she spoke to – here and in her other meetings around the state. She said that the local officials she has spoken with expressed their desire to see the toolkit pass, including legislation regarding arbitration reform, health care and pension reform and new management tools for local government. Members of the Scotch Plains and Fanwood councils have called for the passage of the toolkit, as has the Westfield Town Council.

Westfield Board of Education President Julia Walker also met with the lieutenant governor. During the meeting, Walker said she raised concerns about the impact of the governor's decision to cut state aid to school districts and education funding issues going forward.

Walker highlighted her concerns in long-term and short-term funding for education. She said short-term concerns include the recently-approved federal funds for teacher hiring and how they will be allocated to local school districts. She said she is looking for assurances that suburban school districts will get a fair share of the money. Walker added that Guadagno said the issue is still being worked out in Trenton and that she would take note of Walker's concerns regarding funding allocation.

Walker also said she informed Guadagno about concerns she and other education leaders have had on how Westfield and other suburban districts have been treated by the Christie Administration in terms of funding. In March, the governor cut Scotch Plains-Fanwood's state education aid by $3.84 million – or 84.4 percent. Fifty-nine districts statewide lost 100 percent of their state aid. Walker, who also serves as the Westfield Board of Education finance committee chairwoman, said she told Guadagno about the district's fears that its top-tier test scores and high college acceptance rate could suffer as a result of the governor's budget cuts. "We are successful and being punished," Walker said.

Walker said Guadagno said she knew the local districts were struggling with the education cuts and said the state will be addressing the issue going forward. During the interview with Patch, Guadagno said she wanted local schools to know that the toolkit would help the school systems going forward with freeing up money.


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