State to towns: Collecting dead deer will be your job

Sussex County - Dead deer on the road _ a common site in most of New Jersey _ have become a messy political squabble. As part of $17 million in proposed state Department of Transportation budget cuts, the state wants to force municipalities to begin collecting dead deer, starting in September. The state has spent $850,000 per year to hire a contractor to collect 21,000 dead deer annually from all roadways, though 14,700 deer are collected from county and municipal roads. New Jersey has an estimated 180,000 deer. Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri said the state will continue to collect deer carcasses from state highways, but local municipalities would have to collect deer from their own roads and county roads within their borders. He compared the proposed move to the state plowing snow on state highways and municipal governments plowing snow on local streets. Kolluri said the move would save the state about $734,000 as it tries to close a projected $4.5 billion budget deficit for next fiscal year. ``This is a tough fiscal environment,’’ Kolluri said. He said the state is open to allowing municipalities to use the state’s 18 deer carcass disposal sites, as long as safe and health practices are followed by municipalities and the state doesn’t see additional costs. No agreement has been completed, he said. Bill Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, said local governments will fight the proposal. ``It’s an unanticipated cost, a cost that’s traditionally been picked up by the state,’’ Dressel said. ``It’s going to mean in many cases possible property tax increases.’’ Dressel said the state wants municipalities to cover more services while proposing no increase in state aid for municipalities for the fifth consecutive year. He also noted Gov. Jon S. Corzine wants rural communities to pay for state police patrols. ``I would argue it’s cheaper for the state to be enabled to negotiate with one contractor than it would be for each of the individual municipalities to negotiate with a lot of contractors,’’ Dressel said. New Jersey has 566 municipalities.