Local Democratic legislators were stunned last week by more than $1.3 billion in cuts that Republican Gov. Christopher Christie made to the $30.6 billion state budget through his use of line item vetoes.
In making vetoes that the Democrats will not be able to override, Christie claimed the budget passed by the Democrats in late June had unconstitutional revenue elements.
Mental health services and addiction services were cut by $17 million.
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The budget – passed along party lines – is $1 billion more than Republicans sought. The state was required to have a budget in place by July 1.
The state will now be run under a budget with major cuts to various programs.
Last week, Democratic State Sen. Nicholas Sacco defended the original budget.
“The Democratic budget I voted for would put New Jersey back on the right track and take us off the Republican road to nowhere,” he said. “It not only funds Abbott [needy urban] school districts, but provides $580 million in funding for urban and suburban districts like North Bergen, Kearny, and Secaucus which will result in direct property tax relief.”
Assemblywoman Joan Quigley said Christie’s cuts surprised many people including some of his usual supporters, since they went deeper than anybody expected. She said the Democratic legislature lacks the needed votes to override the vetoes.
“By using the line-item veto, he simply removed things, so there is nothing for the legislature to need to concur with,” she said. “Both houses know there won’t be enough votes for overrides, so it is unlikely they’ll try.”
While the state Supreme Court ruled that Christie could not cut aid to urban school districts that are seen in need, Christie did away with the $492.8 million dedicated non-Abbott Districts. This was money, according to Assemblyman Jason O’Donnell, that the Democrats had included in the budget to help school districts that are faced with rising costs and were near Abbott districts.
Bayonne, he said, faces many of the same challenges Jersey City does, but while Jersey City gets Abbott aid, Bayonne does not.
Sacco had hoped for less of an impact, saying that districts that had lost out-of-school funding would have received their share under the budget passed by Democrats.
He defended the budget that the legislature presented to the governor.
“The budget also restores important tax relief programs for seniors and the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor, supports our urban hospitals, restores Urban Enterprise Zone funding, and reverses Governor Christie’s unconscionable Medicaid cuts,” Sacco said.
The governor’s veto does not do away with the aid entirely to non Abbott districts, but repeats what he did last year, which is to grant non-Abbott districts 2 percent of what they received prior to his taking office.
What’s cut
Christie’s cuts eliminated $50 million in Municipal Public Safety Aid, $7.5 million for state Family Planning Services, and $139 million from Transitional Aid to Localities (aid to towns) – leaving about $10 million for this last item.
The vetoes eliminated money for the court appointed special advocates throughout the state, as well legislative fellowship programs and a woman’s leadership program hosted by the Eagleton Institute.
The vetoes also appear to have reduced teachers’ pension payments from $506 million to $468 million.
Christie cut about $30 million dedicated to nursing homes and special care in nursing facilities. He also cut money for Medicaid prescriptions, money for the aged, blind and disabled, and money from managed care programs and services to the blind and visually impaired
Mental health services and addiction services were cut by $17 million.
Some of the vetoes undid legislative efforts to make up for cuts Christie originally proposed in areas such as general assistance (Welfare), Work First, and educational opportunities grants.
Tuition Aid Grants for college lost about $46 million as a result of the vetoes, an odd occurence since Christie appears to have cut $21 million the legislature added to the original budget as well as $25 million that Christie himself proposed.
Other vetoed areas included medical programs, including the Governor’s Council on Mental Health; legal programs for the poor, and library aid.
Christie’s vetoes even eliminated $4.3 million for historic sites such as the Battleship New Jersey.
Cities will feel it most
Quigley said cities will feel a significant impact. This is particularly true with the loss of Urban Enterprise Zone funding, which goes toward improvements and police for urban business districts.
This also includes the loss of the funding from the new Democratic Public Safety Program (Jersey City would have received $4.5 million) and the municipal aid cuts.
State Sen. and Union City Brian Stack said that he had hopes to maintain the UEZ program and pointed to a compromise funding program that had been proposed by a South Jersey legislator.
“Bayonne and Jersey City have done well under the UEZ program,” O’Donnell said. “I can’t vouch for other places, but in these towns, the UEZ did what it was supposed to do, create jobs and help rejuvenate business districts.”
Overall, Quigley said, the impact of the vetoes will be felt most heavily in urban areas.
“Mayors will be devastated,” she said. “Later on – if and when the federal government acts on the governor’s request for a waiver of current Medicaid regulations – we are likely to see major impacts on people relying on Medicaid and Family Care for health care. It is hard to assess that now; we just have to see what the feds permit. That’s a $300 million number. Nursing homes took hits two years in a row, so some of them may close.”