New Jersey’s 21 counties, along with 40 municipalities, are set to receive $27.8 million in state preservation and security aid for their public records and archives under funding announced by the Secretary of State’s office last week. The aid can be used, among other things, for funding manpower and training, microfilming and the duplication of both old and current documents. Funded by 40 percent of the fees county clerks and registers collect for the recording of documents, the money “enables New Jersey counties and municipalities to adopt 21st-century technologies to drive down the cost of government records’ creation, maintenance and storage, while expanding public access,” Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells said. She added that the investment “yields up to four times that sum in direct savings and cost-efficiencies statewide.” Karl Niederer, the state’s chief archivist, said centralizing the storage efforts of public records helps local governments run more efficiently, which ultimately “costs taxpayers less than a government that is inefficient, ineffective and unresponsive.” The grant program is in its second year. It provided $25 million last year.