New Jerseyans have been paying higher motor vehicle registration fees since 2006 to pay for new medical helicopters and more state troopers, but no new helicopters have been purchased nor are additional state trooper classes planned.

"This is why people are so against fee increases and charging things, because the money doesn't go where it's supposed to," said Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester. "It's another broken promise and it shouldn't happen."

Motor vehicle registration fees were raised by $3 in January 2006. The fees range from $35.50 to $84, depending on the vehicle model and weight.

The increase has raised about $29 million per year, but budget language that can trump state law diverted the money to other purposes.

Instead of new helicopters and additional troopers, the money has been used to buy 250 new state police vehicles and to pay for state police salaries, medical helicopter repairs and program costs, and general state expenses, a state Treasury Department spokesman said.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine, in his $33 billion budget plan, proposes using $15.1 million earned through the higher fee for state police salaries, 250 more new state police vehicles and more medical helicopter program and maintenance costs.

Meanwhile, the nine state police emergency medical helicopters - used to quickly fly accident victims to hospitals - have each, on average, been grounded 81 days since July 1 for maintenance and repair.

State Attorney General Anne Milgram said the helicopters range in age from 13 to more than 20 years old.

The state publicly advertised for as many as five new helicopters in March, but new helicopters won't arrive soon. The Attorney General's Office estimates it will take 18 months to deliver the helicopters once a contract is awarded.

The higher surcharge was supposed to provide enough money for four 50-member trooper classes each year. But Corzine's budget proposes no new recruiting classes for the 3,000-member state police.

During a Monday Senate budget hearing, Milgram said the state police should ideally have as many as 3,400 troopers. She said the agency expects to lose 200 troopers per year to retirement.

"We don't have what I would say is a lot of cushion right now," Milgram said.

Sen. Kevin O'Toole, R-Essex, expressed dismay the fees haven't been used as intended.

"It is just troubling that things are not as they appear," O'Toole said.

Though no new state trooper classes are planned, Treasury spokesman Tom Vincz said the money has and will be used for purposes legally authorized through language inserted into the state budget.

"Any changes to the original statutory purpose have been done through authorizing statute, and surcharge revenues have been used to support the state police," Vincz said.
 

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - Mayor Chuck Chiarello is out of the hospital and recuperating at home following his doctors' decision not to operate on his heart a second time.

Chiarello, 53, was admitted to the hospital for the second time in two months at the beginning of April, following what he described as a blackout.

In late February, he collapsed in the state Capitol while waiting to hear the governor's budget announcement.

Shortly after that first episode, he said doctors believed he had suffered a minor heart attack and he had three stents inserted to prop open cardiac arteries.

Following the second episode, he said, doctors at University of Pennsylvania Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia gave him a stress test, which measures the stress of exertion on the heart, but he again entered cardiac arrest shortly after completing the test.

At the time, he told supporters and friends in an e-mail that he expected to have a procedure to insert a defibrillator into his heart in the near future.

"Since I sent that e-mail," he explained, "doctors made a decision not to operate on me again."

"Having seen me go into cardiac arrest on Friday, they didn't want to be operating on me on Monday."

Instead of using a defibrillator, a device that regulates the heartbeat, Chiarello said he started taking medication that would slow his heart rate. "It takes a couple of weeks even to start acting," he said, adding that he would begin a program of physical rehabilitation to increase his energy.

A 47-year-old Vineland man was killed Friday evening when he and three other motorcyclists rear-ended a car on Landis Avenue in Buena Vista Township, State Police said.

Torrey Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene. Fellow riders Michael Woolston, 45, of Millville, Steven Brizak, 27, of Vineland, and Dennis Arendarezyk, 42, of Millville, were taken to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, Mainland Campus in Galloway Township, with unspecified injuries, Sgt. Stephen Jones said.

The driver of the car, Willie Collier Jr., 34, of Bridgeton, was also transported to AtlantiCare. He was released early Saturday morning, police said.

It was unclear what caused the crash near the intersection of Landis and Cimino Boulevard. All four were thrown from their bikes, police said.

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - Mayor Chuck Chiarello announced in an e-mail Monday morning that he had been hospitalized again for several days after having gone into cardiac arrest last week during a medical examination.

In a message forwarded to friends and supporters, Chiarello explained he had a second bout of heart problems following his collapse at the Statehouse and subsequent hospitalization in late February.

After experiencing lightheadedness and what he called a slight blackout a little more than a week ago, Chiarello said he had gone first to South Jersey Regional Medical Center in Vineland and then to the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia, where doctors performed an electric stress test on his heart Friday. Immediately after that test, he said, he went into full cardiac arrest.

"After two-and-a-half minutes of CPR and a dozen hits from the electrical paddles (I have the burns to prove it all over)," he wrote, "I was revived.

"I was gone for about 5 minutes - literally," he said.

Chiarello said in early March that he had had three stents, or small coils, put in to open up blocked arteries following his first attack.

DENNIS TOWNSHIP - If you put the pedal to the metal, you may soon end up footing the bill to help fund State Police coverage in rural municipalities.

Small towns that use State Police instead of locally funded police departments to patrol their neighborhoods are asking the state to increase surcharges for lawbreakers.

The new revenue stream, officials say, could finance a $20 million shortfall in State Police funding under Gov. Jon S. Corzine's proposed 2009
budget.

And it could allay the fears of rural municipalities such as Dennis Township (pop. 5,907) and Woodbine (pop. 2,508) that the state may demand they pay for State Police coverage, which they contend would add a significant burden to local taxpayers.

The New Jersey League of Municipalities said the proposal would affect all municipalities, not just the small ones.

It could help pay for new court-security requirements or even supplement municipal police departments, said Bill Dressel, executive director of the League of Municipalities.

"The intent was to provide additional dollars, which clearly are needed for each municipality to be able to use those monies for a spectrum of services," Dressel said.

There is no concrete proposal on what types of surcharges would be increased - such as those issued for various traffic violations - or by how much, nor how much money that would generate.

"We're not leaving a stone unturned. We're looking at every possible way we can to restore these cuts - for every dollar lost is a dollar that will have to be made up through property taxes or reduction of services," Dressel said.

Dennis Township Business Administrator Jody Alessandrine said raising surcharges was an idea brought up last year. State Police functions include much more than policing rural municipalities and stretch into other areas that have their own police departments, he said.

There has been a recurring concern over the years in places such as Dennis Township that taxpayers would be ordered to pay for State Police coverage. It can be a controversial issue, particularly with municipalities that pay for their own police departments but see their state taxes pay for other towns' State Police coverage.

The following municipalities in The Press coverage area depend on State Police patrols: Buena Vista Township, Corbin City, Folsom, Weymouth Township, Estell Manor and Port Republic Atlantic County; Dennis Township, Upper Township and Woodbine in Cape May County Commercial Township, Deerfield Township, Downe Township, Fairfield Township, Greenwich Township, Hopewell Township, Lawrence Township, Maurice River Township, Shiloh, Stow Creek Township and Upper Deerfield Township in Cumberland County Eagleswood Township in Ocean County; Bass River Township and Washington Township in Burlington County.

In financially strapped New Jersey this year, Corzine's budget proposals wield a cutting edge, with proposals to ax the Garden's State's Department of Agriculture and close a number of state parks.

With these budget issues looming, Woodbine Mayor William Pikolycky said a proposal to increase surcharges for lawbreakers seems an acceptable way to raise money that would benefit the municipalities without increasing taxes.

"It's going to be the people that offend," he said. "If people don't speed, they're not going to worry about it."