COMMITTEE ON THE EXECUTIVE, MILITIA AND CIVIL OFFICERS RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

STATE OF NEW JERSEY CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1947
COMMITTEE ON THE EXECUTIVE, MILITIA AND CIVIL OFFICERS
Wednesday, June 25, 1947
(Morning session)

MR. SMITH: Along your line of thinking, these county offices should by Constitution remain so, so that the Legislature would not have the right to step in and take control?

GOVERNOR MOORE: I do.

MR. SMITH: Another question in that direction. To what extent do you believe in confining the power to local government? I am thoroughly in sympathy with that. I think the closer you can keep the government to people, the stronger you make our republican form of government. Is there any way, in your experience, that things could be so handled, from a legislative point of view, that we could maintain home rule without at the same time weakening our State Government?

GOVERNOR MOORE: Yes. We have the Home Rule Act now, and it is constantly being either enlarged or decreased. We should have as much home rule as we can get. I think one of the outstanding examples is boards of education. I don’t think there are any officers in the State who do a better job than those unpaid, appointed members of boards of education. All of our executives have done a wonderful job, and it is a home rule proposition.

MR. SMITH: You don’t mind if I differ with you on that?

GOVERNOR MOORE: No.

MR. SMITH: I served as –

GOVERNOR MOORE: Are you a member of a board?

MR. SMITH: Well, I was for 34 years in “President Volstead’s” time, and my experience on the local board is this: I think tremendous savings can be made in our state expenditures if our boards of education were county-wide and not local. I desire to object to the local board. Too frequently a member of the local board sets himself up as a know-it-all and he interferes a little bit too much sometimes with the professionals.

CHAIRMAN: Let’s stick to the point, please.

MR. SMITH: I am only trying to bring back to the Governor –

GOVERNOR MOORE: I am still for the board of education.

CHAIRMAN: I apologize, but I think we ought to stick to our discussion. … Colonel Walton.

MR. GEORGE H. WALTON: Governor Moore, in allowing the Governor ten days in which to consider bills passed by the Legislature, is it your thought that the subterfuge that has grown up over the terms of many Governors, of allowing the Governor to get around that five-day rule by having him call for bills as he wants to consider them – do you think that should be dropped and, if you do, is ten days sufficient?

GOVERNOR MOORE: Ten days is not sufficient if you want to consider bills very carefully, but ten days would be helpful and probably more easily gotten than anything else. I just want to point

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