County Requests State Money Upfront for Special Elections

The Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders has approved a resolution requesting the State advance the funds to cover the costs of the special elections to fill New Jersey’s empty U.S. Senate seat.

The resolution, unanimously approved at the regular Freeholder meeting Thursday, seeks to have the County compensated for running the Aug. 13 special primary election and the Oct. 16 special general election.

“It’s a lot of money,” Freeholder John Curley said. “Everybody’s watching their belt.”

An advance from the state is necessary “in order to maintain the 2013 budget approved by the Board of Chosen Freeholders,” the resolution says.

The two special elections will cost the county upwards of $1.2 million, Chief Financial Officer Craig Marshall said. The county pays $780,000 per year for two elections plus $80,000 for the rental of polling places, $100,000 on voting machines and more than $200,000 for printing costs.

“It’s significant,” Marshall said. “Supposedly we’re going to get 100 percent reimbursement but we have to lay the money out front, and we don’t have a spending authority. It’s a money problem. They have to give us advice on how we’re able to handle it.”

If the funding isn’t provided upfront, the special election will only exasperate a cash flow problem that already exists in the county, Marshall said.

Additionally, the county wants the authorization to process the funds as a grant to avoid having to issue an emergency appropriation, according to the resolution. An emergency appropriation would impact the following year’s budget.

Assuming the county is not paid upfront, Marshall said the funds that would have been used for the November general election would be used in August. For the special election in October, the county would not be required to pay the board workers until 30 days later. At that point, the transferring of funds from another budgetary line item is permitted, and the county would not have to do an emergency appropriation.

It would be most beneficial if the State advances the money and authorizes the county to use the money as a grant because other funding cannot go into the fund balance right now, Freeholder Director Thomas Arnone said.

Monmouth County is not the only county calling for money up front, according to a June 21 Patch story. Officials in Union and Bergen County have also expressed concerns.

“It really jams us up when you look at what FEMA owes us,” Curley said.

State officials have said that there is no money for the special elections in the new budget, which takes effect July 1.

A pair of bills aimed at altering the special U.S. Senate election were passed in the state Senate Thursday. 

The first bill, sponsored by Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, calls for moving the Nov. 5 general election to the Oct. 16 polling date. 

The second bill, sponsored by Sen. Nia H.Gill, D-Bergen, would allow registered voters the opportunity to vote in the Nov. 5 election at the same time and polling place as the Oct. 16 special election.

Turner said her bill would save an estimated $24 million it would cost the state to run the Oct. 16 special election and the Aug. 13 primary.

Patch Editor Keith Brown contributed to this report.