The Budget- The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Today Governor Murphy released New Jersey’s proposed budget FY2020.  The Governor has 110 days to work with the Legislature and enact the budget, per constitutional deadline. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club released the following statement:

“The good thing about the budget is that less money will be coming out of the Clean Energy Fund. Governor Murphy is taking half of the Clean Energy Fund which means more money for things like weatherization and EV’s. The bad is Murphy is cutting the DEP budget down to the marrow. The department will not have enough staff to make sure our air and water is clean, and our parks are open. The ugly is New Jersey’s budget crisis and having to deal with he fiscal mess that Christie left us.

“Only $87.1 million will be taken from the Clean Energy Fund FY2020. Those funds will be going to NJ Transit. This is the first real improvement we had in the raids on the Clean Energy Fund in over a decade. Christie took over $1.5 billion at one point and Governor Murphy took $160 million last year. This year, Murphy will only take $87.1 million which is the biggest reduction in a long time. This is important because last year, Murphy said he would take $140 FY2020 and took a lot less. This is a step in the right direction. Because of the constitutional dedication, Murphy could not take NRD money to use for the general budget.

“The proposed budget FY2020 has cut the DEP and its operations. The department’s budget for 2019 was $388 million and FY2020, it is $319 million, a 17.8% cut. DEP operations FY2019 was $267 million and FY2020 is $240. This is a loss of $27 million or 10.1%. The total money coming into DEP last year was $1,000,1000 and this year it is down to $911,000,000. DEP has been cut for the last ten years and people have not been able to do their jobs. Governor Murphy is cutting the DEP while the agency brings in more money than it spends. The DEP needs more funding so that we have enough people to do the many jobs of the agency, including re-writing the rules Christie rolled back,”