N.J. Measure Seeks Constitutional Ban on Unfunded State Mandates

By Mark Walsh

When it comes to unfunded state mandates, these are the types of measures that have raised the hackles of New Jersey school officials:

Some of the requirements have been eliminated recently by the legislature or the state school board. But they are examples of the mandates that local governments in New Jersey hope to stave off with adoption of a state constitutional amendment that appears on the Nov. 7 ballot.

"We look at it as a good-government bill," said Frank Belluscio, a spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, which is one of the primary supporters of the amendment. "This will put the brakes on the...