Christie Will Continue to Use Budget to Dismantle Environmental Protections

The New Jersey Sierra Club joined with a coalition of organizations today to oppose Governor Christie’s final budget as Governor. Over the past seven years, Governor Christie has rolled back environmental protections by cutting funding for important environmental programs. Before Governor Christie took office, the DEP budget was $395 million, but this year it dropped $343 million. Last year, he even cut funding at the NJDEP by $57 million, while diverting funds to other purposes. The Christie Administration has actually approved over $7 billion in tax subsidies to corporations in addition to $3 billion worth of business tax cuts. We believe this budget will continue the pattern of raids on environmental programs and clean energy funds and tax cuts for special interests. Like previous years, it will side with polluters and special interests over clean energy and combating climate change. We believe budget will be used as an excuse to weaken and rollback more environmental programs. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, released the following statement:

“Governor Christie’s war on the environment continues with his slash and burn tactics. Every year as Governor, he has gone after environmental protections by going after the budget. He has continued to balance the budget on the backs of the environment while giving subsidies to polluters. While he has cut environmental programs by a third, he has taken money away from protecting children from lead paint. Our Governor has clearly attacked environmental programs by cutting funding and staff at the DEP every year. At the same time, he has rolled back environmental protections to protect clean water. The attack on environmental programs in his budget is part of the Administration’s rollbacks in the Flood Hazard Rules, Water Quality Management Planning Rules, and Highlands Septic Rules to take care of polluters and developers over the people of New Jersey.”

“Budgets have real consequences and all along our Governor has used the budget to dismantle environmental protections. By eliminating almost half of the staff and cutting vital programs there is not enough oversight to make sure our toxic sites are cleaned-up, our air is clean, and our water is pure. He has even closed the Office of Climate Change, putting us more at risk to climate impacts. This is a huge threat to our communities because it will mean there will be no one to make sure people are protected from the next storm. Under Governor Christie, DEP enforcement is down 60 percent, while our parks are falling apart. While DEP staff is down by 40 percent, the budget has been slashed by a third under the Christie Administration. We now have the lowest level of DEP funding since the Kean Administration. This means there is no one at the DEP to make sure our air is clean and our water is pure. These cuts are even worse because we’ve actually seen $100 million being transferred out of the DEP  for other purposes. All of these attacks are actually a death by a thousands cuts.”

“Our Governor has even given millions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate subsidies, while our mass transit is crumbling and children are drinking contaminated water. He has taken funding over a billion dollars from the Clean Energy Fund, stolen $10 million from lead abatement programs, and robbed millions of dollars from settlements that were supposed to be used towards clean-ups. In this year’s budget, we expect him to keep stealing money out of DEP, using the Clean Energy Fund as an ATM and taking money from Exxon settlement to balance the budget. Our Governor may only have less than a year left in New Jersey, but the damage of rolling back environmental protections, undercutting jobs, and making us more vulnerable to the next storm will live on for decades.”

“Even though Christie keeps cutting DEP, we could loose even more funding with the Trump Administration’s plan to cut 25 percent of funding from EPA. In New Jersey, DEP gets half of its money from EPA, including a 1/3 of its funding for operations and capital improvements like fixing sewer projects and resiliency projects along our coast. New Jersey could also loose over a $100 million in funding to deal with stormwater, mitigate climate change, and retrofit lead pipes. We could see the DEP have to cut staff who are responsible for implementing the Clean Water Act, leaving a huge hole in our budget. While New Jersey has been hurt by the effects of climate change more than any other state, we could loose even more funding to deal with it. All along the Governor has prevented us from reducing our impact on climate change and now we have a President who is a climate-denier who will rollback protections even further. Instead of moving New Jersey forward, Governor Christie has sent us backwards, while causing long-term damage to the environment.”

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