N.J. prepares to weed out dormant panels, agencies
New Jersey has hundreds of boards, authorities and commissions. State lawmakers are taking action to get rid of some of the inactive or redundant panels.
A Senate committee has advanced legislation that would eliminate about 50 inactive boards and commissions that are no longer needed or have been replaced by other government agencies.
Scrapping them probably won’t save the state much money, acknowledges Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic.
“You’re not printing stuff or publishing a list of things that really as a practical matter don’t exist,” says Whelan. “So, it’s not something that we can point to that we’re going to balance the budget on. I wish it were, but it’s not.”
Two years ago, lawmakers abolished 20 other dormant authorities and commissions.
Whelan says he really doesn’t know how many more of them there might be, and additional action may be needed in the future to remove others from the books.
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