NJ - Morris County New Jersey                            

Morris County is governed by a seven-member Board of Chosen Freeholders, who are elected to three-year terms on a staggered basis, with two or three seats up for election each year. The Freeholder Board sets policies for the operation of six super-departments, more than 30 divisions plus authorities, commissions, boards and study committees. Actual day-to-day operation of departments is supervised by the county administrator.

The Board of Chosen Freeholders has been granted broad powers by the state legislature to regulate almost all county property, finances and affairs. The Freeholder Board's duties include preparing and adopting the county budget; authorizing expenditures and bonds; appointing county officials and members to boards, commissions and authorities; passing on all claims against the county, and supervising the administration of county government.

The Freeholders are the center of legislative and administrative responsibility in Morris County and, as such, perform a dual role. As legislators they draw up and adopt a budget, and in the role of administrators they are responsible for spending the funds they have appropriated. Many of these duties in Morris County have been delegated by the Board of Chosen Freeholders to the county administrator.

From 2008, Morris County's Freeholders are Freeholder Director Margaret Nordstrom, Deputy Freeholder Director Gene F. Feyl, Douglas R. Cabana, William J. Chegwidden, John J. Murphy, James W. Murray and James W. Murray.

The Morris Automated Information Network, which supplies Internet service to area libraries, turned down $10,000 per year in federal funding, starting in 2004. Acceptance of the grants would have required the network to install anti-porn content filters to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act. As these filters excluded legitimate information — such as pages with the word "breast" in online searches regarding "breast cancer" — the network declined to accept these grants.

Another organization having the power to affect the county budget without county governmental control is the Morris County Board of Taxation, a.k.a. the Morris County Tax Board. "The freeholders, and county government in general, do not have control over tax board spending, the tax board is an entity of state government, even though it submits expense vouchers to county government."

Elections

Morris County has been one of New Jersey's more Republican counties. In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, George W. Bush carried the county by a 15.8% margin over John Kerry, with Kerry carrying the state by 6.7% over Bush. In the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, John McCain carried the county by an 8.1% margin over Barack Obama, with Obama carrying the state by 15.5% over McCain. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Republican Chris Christie carried the county with 60%. Incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine received 31%, and Independent Chris Daggett received 8%.^{[citation needed]}

Taxation

Based on IRS data for the 2004 tax year, Morris County had the tenth highest average federal income tax liability per return in the country Average tax liability was $15,296, representing 16.3% of Adjusted Gross Income.

 

ECONOMY

Personal Income
Morris County has the third highest median household income in the USA ($77,340).[15] According to the County 2000 Census:

Median household income = $77,340 (2007 estimate: $92,018)[16]
Median family income = $89,773 (2007 estimate: $108,092)
Median income for males = $60,165
Median income for females = $40,065
Per capita income = $36,964
Families below the poverty line = 2.40%
Population below the poverty line= 3.90%
Under age 18 below the poverty line = 3.70%
Age 65 or over, below the poverty line = 5.30%

 

Business
Fifty-three Fortune 500 businesses have headquarters, offices or a major facility in Morris County. These include AT&T, Honeywell, Colgate-Palmolive, Pfizer, ExxonMobil, Novartis, BASF, Verizon, Bayer and Wyeth. Major industries include finance, insurance, real estate, pharmaceuticals, health services, research and development, and technology. There are 13,000 acres (53 km²) set aside for 28 county parks. Four county golf courses and 16 public and private courses are in Morris.

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

At the 2000 census, there were 470,212 people, 169,711 households and 124,907 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,003 per square mile (387/km²). There were 174,379 housing units at an average density of 372 per square mile (144/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 87.20% White, 2.80% Black or African American, 0.12% Native American, 6.26% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 2.01% from other races, and 1.56% from two or more races. 7.79% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 21.5% were of Italian, 14.5% Irish, 10.6% German, 5.5% Polish and 5.5% English ancestry according to Census 2000.

In 2005, 78.5% of Morris County's population was non-Hispanic whites. African Americans constituted 3.1% of the population. 8.0% of the population was Asian. 1.0% of the population reported two or more races. These figures did not include any people in the category "Some other race". Latinos were 9.7% of the population, all except 0.5% of whom classified as white.[21].

In 2000, there were 169,711 households of which 35.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.80% were married couples living together, 7.90% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.40% were non-families. 21.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.18.

Age distribution was 24.80% under the age of 18, 6.40% from 18 to 24, 31.90% from 25 to 44, 25.30% from 45 to 64, and 11.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 95.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.70 males.

Hispanics constituted a majority of the population in Dover and over a quarter of the people in Morristown; over 18% of Americans in Parsippany-Troy Hills are Asian Americans. There are fairly equal numbers of Irish American and German American residents. The Jewish American community is strong in specific areas, such as Randolph, Rockaway, and Morristown. Lincoln Park (26.7%), Montville (26.8%), East Hanover (41.8%), Pequannock Township (29.2%), and Riverdale (33.5%) have significant Italian American populations, along with other northern and eastern communities, while the rest of the county is more mixed with populations of Irish and German ancestries. Wharton (20.8%), Denville (25.1%), and Mine Hill (23.5%) are Irish American.

In 2009, Forbes magazine ranked the county sixth best place in the nation to raise a family. This was the best of any county in the state. The ranking was mainly due to the high graduation rate of 98.4% and employment possibilities from area industry.

 

EDUCATION

The County College of Morris is a two-year public community college serving students from Morris County. The school's campus is in Randolph and was founded in 1965. Another two-year college, the private Roman Catholic women's college Assumption College for Sisters, is in Mendham.

The Florham Park-Madison-Convent Station area is also the home of three universities. The College at Florham, a campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University, is located on the border of these three towns. Drew University is a small, private university in Madison. The College of Saint Elizabeth is a private Roman Catholic, four-year, liberal arts women's college located in Convent Station
 

MUNICIPALITIES
 

The following is a list of the municipalities in Morris County. Other, unincorporated areas in the county are listed below their parent municipality (or municipalities, as the case may be). Most of these areas are census-designated places that have been created by the United States Census Bureau for enumeration purposes within a township. Other communities and enclaves that exist within a municipality are marked with an asterisk (*) next to the name.

Boonton Town
Boonton Township
Butler
Chatham Borough
Chatham Township
Chester Borough
Chester Township
Denville Township
Indian Lake*
Union Hill*
Cedar Lake*
Estling Lake*
Dover
East Hanover Township
Florham Park
Hanover Township
Cedar Knolls*
Whippany*
Harding Township
Green Village*
New Vernon*
Jefferson Township
Picatinny Arsenal*
Kinnelon
Lincoln Park
Long Hill Township
Gillette*
Meyersville*
Millington*
Stirling*
Madison
Mendham Borough
Mendham Township
Brookside*
Ralston*
Pleasant Valley*
Mine Hill Township
Montville Township
Pine Brook*
Towaco*
Morris Plains
Morris Township
Collinsville*
Convent Station*
Washington Valley*
Morristown
Mount Arlington
Mount Olive Township
Budd Lake
Flanders*
Mountain Lakes
Netcong
Parsippany-Troy Hills Township
Greystone Park*
Lake Hiawatha*
Lake Parsippany*
Parsippany*
Troy Hills*
Pequannock Township
Pompton Plains*
Randolph Township
Mount Freedom*
Riverdale
Rockaway Borough
Rockaway Township
Hibernia*
Lake Telemark*
White Meadow Lake*
Green Pond*
Picatinny Arsenal*
Roxbury Township
Landing*
Ledgewood*
Port Morris*
Succasunna-Kenvil
Flanders*
Victory Gardens
Washington Township
Long Valley
Wharton
 

LOCAL MEDIA

WMTR is an AM radio station at 1250 kHz is licensed to Morristown. The station features an oldies format.
WJSV radio and television (90.5 FM) is also in Morristown, the non-profit radio station of Morristown High School, which also has a television show which is shown on cable television, Colonial Corner.
The Morristown Daily Record[23] and The Star-Ledger are published locally.
Hometown Tales, a public access TV show and podcast chronicling stories and urban legends from around the world, is loosely based in Morristown.
 

CCM COUNTY COLLEGE OF MORRIS COUNTY