Thousands of local officials will converge on Atlantic City for the League of Municipalities convention Tuesday with a new sense of urgency: They must figure out how to run their towns while keeping property tax growth below a 2-percent cap that goes into effect next year. “We’re looking down the barrel of a howitzer, and the cannon is going to go off January 1,” said League Executive Director Bill Dressel.

The convention — the League’s 95th — comes as Republican Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic leaders of the Legislature fight over how towns can meet the cap.

Christie has been pressuring the Legislature to pass his “tool kit” bills, the most important of which would allow towns to opt out of civil service rules and put a cap on arbitration awards. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said he’ll get to that before the end of the year, but that the governor has not proposed legislation that would push towns to share more services. Full story in Star Ledger.