Stopping the “Vicious Cycle” of Suburban Flight (1976)

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47 losses in State Economic Policy Council today released a wide ranging series of proposals aimed at halting the decay of New Jersey City's report comes in the wake of the governor's pledge to make revitalization of the cities a priority issue and this is the second administration and the proposals are also not likely to make many politicians happy. Mariam are also reports New Jersey cities are caught in a vicious cycle. The high concentration of the poor and the elderly means drain on city services. That means higher taxes and higher taxes drive out the middle class. Everybody knows about the vicious cycle but few people who run the government try to do anything comprehensive about it. They're faced with two equally unmanageable alternatives either to increase the number of people paying taxes or to decrease the number of people using city schools public housing and welfare. The State Economic Policy Council that advises the governor and the legislature released its recommendations today suggesting that the state tried both alternatives

encouraging zoning that will let lower income people move to the suburbs and getting suburban residents and state government to help pay more for the cities. The Economic Policy Council says suburban commuters don't pay for the roads they use to get into and out of the city. And that's not fair. The council says it's also unfair that city people pay the same electric rates as suburban residents when it's cheaper for the electric companies to supply cities. But the city's biggest problem is the property tax. It's just not enough nourishment for urban areas starving to death from lack of funds. The council recommends some kind of tax sharing with the suburbs and a much greater dome from the state to pay for things like public housing and welfare. Small business growth is another part of the magic formula for rejuvenate cities and in addition to property tax relief the council suggests that the state give away land to Homestead and businesses land that the cities are now saddled with as a result of tax defaults. These are radical to most political realists and the chairman of the Economic Policy

Council realizes that Hart would like to stay away from political reasons. We're looking at it from the economist point of view. We see these as meritorious ideas in the art of the science of getting the legislation has clearly gone down. We recognise these are difficult issues and this is where we see the crew leadership. The council's proposals now governor and from there it's anybody's guess about how far they go with the legislature. In Trenton I Mariama now a much brighter picture is being painted by another report formally out tomorrow by the Regional Plan Association that's a citizens research and advocacy group concerned with the New York metropolitan area report is on New Jersey. And it says New York Patterson New Brunswick and possibly Hackensack have the greatest potential for becoming major metropolitan Sutter's report inner city crime rates are falling while suburban crime rates are going up. The report has three recommendations. One the private firms reconsider

office and service jobs in inner cities church and civic groups along with government encourage tenant and block associations and three of the state establish a firm urban policy to get people back into the cities 67

Stopping the “Vicious Cycle” of Suburban Flight (1976)

During the urban crisis, cities' social and economic trends decimated the urban tax base. Manufacturing jobs in cities disappeared at the same time as higher income residents moved to the suburbs. Cities could only tax within their boundaries, and the money was moving out of city limits. Thus, cities endured growing poverty-associated problems (such as crime, violence, and addiction) at the same time as they were losing the revenue needed to fund social services that addressed these problems. As conditions in cities got worse and worse, most anyone with the means to move to the suburbs did so, leaving only the poorest residents stuck in the decaying cities. For many reformers, like the authors of a New Jersey State Economic Policy Council report discussed in this 1976 episode of the New Jersey Nightly the solution was to design schemes to reallocate tax revenue. If some money raised from surrounding suburban areas, states, and the federal government could be funneled back into cities, urban areas would have the resources to deal with social problems and revitalize their economies. The clip ends with a summary of a more optimistic report regarding urban trends from the Regional Plan Association.

New Jersey Nightly News | New Jersey Network | October 3, 1976 This video clip and associated transcript appear from 1:24 - 4:45 in the full record.

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