Aid for New Jersey’s distressed cities, money for cancer and program and funding for four-year colleges are among the $235 million in budget items Gov. Phil Murphy is freezing until the state comes up with revenue to pay the bills, his administration announced Wednesday.
The Democratic governor explained Sunday, as he signed the $38.7 billion state budget into law, that he is taking this step to guarantee the state closes this fiscal year with about $1.3 billion in surplus. While these are programs and nonprofits he wants to fund, ones favored by Democrats, Murphy said, he isn’t sure the state can pay for them without dipping into that surplus.
Murphy froze programs in all corners of the state, including big ones in South Jersey, the home base of his political rival, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester.
And while Murphy’s state Treasury Department said the list was rooted in fairness, Sweeney accused the governor of engaging in political retribution that goes beyond former Gov. Chris Christie’s now-famous Bridgegate scandal.
“You’re seeing a real clear picture of who Phil Murphy is," Sweeney told NJ Advance Media. "Either you’re gonna agree to 100 percent of what he wants, or he’s gonna retaliate. What he did in this budget is worse than anything Chris Christie did in eight years. This is Bridgegate on steroids.”
The largest bite, $105 million, is taken from transitional aid doled out to cities like Atlantic City, Asbury Park, Nutley and Newark.
Murphy is impounding $20 million for Essex County jail substance use disorder programs, $3.5 million for Union County inmate rehabilitation services, $15.4 million for a South Jersey cancer program and $3 million for a Teaneck palliative care program. He also froze $4 million for the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange.
Colleges and universities will take a loss, too, as the freeze includes $7.5 million for Montclair State University, $12 million for Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, $4.6 million to Stockton University, $2.5 million for the Rutgers New Brunswick School of Engineering, and $1 million each to Ramapo College, Thomas Edison University, The College of New Jersey and New Jersey City University.
Sweeney said the freezes would cause pain across South Jersey.
“It is an irresponsible move that could have serious consequences by denying financial support to cancer programs, putting a medical school out of business, choking off the economic and educational growth of Stockton University in Atlantic City and refusing to provide timely aid to municipalities as they work to deliver vital services and hold down property taxes," the Senate president said in a statement.
“This is an artificial freeze that is entirely about politics and nothing about finances.”
Murphy cautioned Sunday the list would include programs of “all shapes and sizes, including items that we have proposed."
“I want to build a basketball hoop in every driveway in the state, but at the end of the day the buck stops with me. I’ve got to certify these revenues. I’ve got to make sure that we are within our means," the governor said.
Murphy used both the line-item veto and the spending freeze to bring the Legislature’s budget in line with his administration’s priorities and expectations of how much tax revenue the state will collect this year.
His Treasury Department lowered revenue forecasts by more than $200 million, compared with the budget the Legislature sent his way, and it isn’t convinced the state will be able to save all the money the Legislature believes it will save next year.
The state could fund the $235 million in programs out of reserves, but Murphy said he doesn’t want to jeopardize the nearly $1.3 billion the state would have in surplus at the end of this year by counting on dubious savings and tax revenues.
The governor has made much of the state’s surplus, with his administration warning that the state’s meek reserves will do little to soften the blow of even a mild economic downturn.
To that end, he won’t release the funding for these programs unless the Legislature agrees to a tax increase, the savings projected by the Legislature pan out, or revenues come in higher than expected.
The Legislature has balked at any new taxes or tax increases, and the state revenues are considered uncertain until about April, two months before the end of the fiscal year.
Unlike the line-item vetoes which lawmakers can restore, the Legislature cannot reverse Murphy’s executive order putting up to $235 million on hold. Murphy could, however, use this funding as a bargaining chip to cajole lawmakers to cough up money for some of his initiatives, like tuition-free community college.
Christie, a Republican, did something similar in 2016, when he signed a budget but held back $100 million and threatened to pull out of a tax agreement with Pennsylvania if the Legislature didn’t help cut $250 million in public-worker benefits.
NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.
Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus.
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