'Don't Shortchange Schools, Tax Relief'

The New Jersey Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee held the second of a series of public hearings for the fiscal year 2012 budget at Camden County College on Tuesday. 

Members of the public were given four minutes to testify and lobby for changes to the 2012 proposed budget. The hot issues: education, property-tax relief, and community-health and rehabilitation services. 

The 2012 budget, as proposed by Gov. Chris Christie, totals $29.4 billion, a 2.6-percent reduction from 2011 budget. 

For education, Christie proposed a $250 million increase in aid to support the 600 school districts in New Jersey. Last year, state aid did not increase for schools and in 2010, aid was cut between 75 and 100 percent. 

“The 2011 budget is strangling our schools, making deeper and deeper cuts into programs and leaving us without funding options,” said Wendell Steinhauer, vice president of the NJ Education Association, which represents 200,000 public school employees in the state. 

Steinhauer reflected on the 2011 budget, which, he said, hurt students by cutting funding necessary for supplies, programs and extracurricular activities. 

“New Jersey’s commitment to education cannot be questioned. We spend $28 billion a year on K-12, which is 26 to 28 percent more than other states with similar test assessment scores," Sen. Steven Oroho (R-24) said. "How can we close the gap between spending and test scores?”

The 13-member Senate committe also heard from Chuck Chiarello, the mayor of Buena Vista Township and president of the NJ State League of Municipalities on the issue of property-tax relief and the necessity to provide aid to local governments.

“The tasks at hand for mayors, in crafting budgets and meeting the needs of citizens in this economic climate, is very difficult,” Chiarello said.  

Municipalities collect property-tax revenues and when residents cannot pay, the local government is stuck operating with slashed budgets and at a deficient, said Chiarello. He also cited the massive amounts of property-tax appeals that have been filed to reflect dropping home prices and a difficult economic climate.

"Giving property-tax relief to residents needs to be the 'new normal,'" Chiarello said, referring to a phrase Christie coined during his budget address in February.

Also on-hand for the morning hearing were several groups lobbying for additional support for after-school programs, mental-health services and community-based substance-abuse rehabilitation.

Ten "graduates" of Damon House, an in-patient rehabilitation facility, attended the hearing to demonstrate their success stories and the importance of continued state support for it and similar programs. 

"It is so refreshing and worth it to see the faces of those who have benefited from your program in front of us. Republicans and Democrats don't always agree, but we agree that we need to put more resources into programs that work," said Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-40).

On March 28, the Senate committee will be back in Trenton to begin work on the final budget proposal. According to committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-36), the Senate committee may schedule another round of public hearings before the budget is moved to the Legislature for adoption. 

The state Assembly will hold a public hearing on the budget at Camden County College on March 23.

"There is still a lot of work to do. Our goal is to have a balanced budget by June 30, 2011, as required by our state constitution," said Sarlo.