Atlantic County Government Must Remain Vigilant on Spending
As a proponent of Offshore Wind, I often listened with frustration to the attacks from the other side. However, I never condemned those opponents, including the Atlantic County Board of Commissioners, for asking one question: how much would these projects cost utility customers? While I would have preferred more serious discussion around the answer, it is still an important question that should be asked for every type of government endeavor.
The question should be asked based on recent spending activities among Atlantic County agencies and organizations. At the December 5th Atlantic County Commissioners Meeting, the Atlantic County Utility Authority discussed their budget which included an investment of $900,000 into two organizations, the Atlantic County Economic Alliance (ACEA) and the National Aviation Research and Technology Park (NARTP). The ACEA is the lead organization for economic development in Atlantic County and the NARTP is tasked with attracting high-tech aviation businesses in the vicinity of the FAA Technical Center. Both are important missions and as regular readers of my commentary can attest, economic development is a strong interest of mine.
The ACUA plays an important role in county operations. It provides water and sewer services for various municipalities as well as trash and recycling collection. It manages our landfill and supports environmental stewardship and education throughout the county. These multiple responsibilities make one wonder about the opportunity cost of the $900,000 investment in other agencies. Could the money have been invested in new technology to improve ACUA operations such as increasing our capacity to recycle more products? Could resources have been allocated to improve service to customers? Could some of the money have been passed onto municipalities? Hammonton alone pays the ACUA over $200,000 per year for recycling pick-up.
Therefore, just as our elected county officials asked if Offshore Wind was worth the cost to customers, there should be a reasonable expectation that they ask if the ACUA investments in the ACEA and NARTP are providing benefit to county residents. Officials should be asking how many permanent jobs have been created by investments in these organizations? How many new businesses have been established as a result of these investments? Will the new NARTP building for which the county just authorized bonding be completely filled? Is the state of NJ providing the requested funding for the building? How has failure of the NARTP to be designated a Research Hub by the USEDA impacted future plans? These are not “gotcha” questions but are extremely important considering that a recent labor analytics report showed that Atlantic County continues to trail the state and the nation in key economic measures of education, employment, and industry diversification.
Should economic development investments of this size be contingent on key performance metrics? If so, funding would be released based on the achievement of certain goals within a given period of time. So this ensures that not only will public dollars be carefully managed, but the county would be setting achievable goals and realistic expectations.
Atlantic County’s unofficial slogan is “the best-run county in the state” according to our elected county officials. I am confident that they would agree that for this to remain true, we need constant vigilance. Whether it’s the ACUA, ACEA, or NARTP, we need to ensure that every dollar is spent in the most cost-effective way to deliver true value to our residents. Atlantic County deserves better.