We Need a Budget That Reflects Our Priorities on the Environment and Climate Change

The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee held a public hearing today on Governor Murphy’s proposed budget FY2021. The DEP budget has been cut by 34%, from $557 million to $342 million. The state service funding dropped 1.3%, from $253 million to $250 million. The Clean Energy Fund was raided by $113 million, with an additional $30 million to be taken out of the fund for EV’s, NJ Transit, and the Whole House Project. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, released the following statement:

“The environment has been shortchanged for far too long, and this budget is still shortchanging the environment. This year sees more cuts to the DEP. This budget is still raiding DEP funds and programs as well as the Clean Energy Fund. Funds for critical environmental programs like the Hazardous Discharge Fund were raided again like last year. We cannot continue to do these raids on the back of the environment. It is critical to fund and move New Jersey forward when it comes to important issues like climate change and clean energy, cleaning up toxic sites, and making sure our air is clean and our water is pure.

“Year after year, DEP is cut to the bone. Now Governor Murphy is cutting through the bone into the marrow, slashing the FY2021 budget by 34%. 15 years ago, the overall DEP budget was $516 million. Yet now, even with inflation and rising salaries, we are down to $342 million. The operations budget has dropped by 1.3%, from $253 million to $250 million. DEP needs more funding so that we have enough people to do the many jobs of the agency, including re-writing the rules that Christie rolled back. Enforcement is down, parks are in disrepair. We don’t have enough people to deal with the lead crisis, clean up toxic sites, and make sure our air is clean to breath and our water is clean to drink. As the state budget grows, the DEP budget declines.

“Staffing levels are going down without any new hiring at DEP, which will only expand privatization and outsourcing of DEP programs. The Environmental Integrity Project found that NJ is 10th in the nation for environmental funding cuts, with a 20% cut in DEP staff from 2008 to 2018. Governor Murphy promised to have 100 more DEP staffers than under Christie, but we are more than 150 below Christie – or 250 below what the Governor promised. DEP went from 4,400 staff members in the mid-1990’s to 2,321 in 2008, and now we are down to 1,858. DEP needs enough resources to make sure our land is clean, our air is pure, and we are able to keep parks open for the people of NJ.

“The budget continues to target our environment, as well as urban areas that suffer the most from pollution. They are grabbing $200 million in fees, fines and other funds. This money should be going toward brownfield cleanups. The Hazardous Discharge Fund is being raided by $19 million, and $17.5 million from the Spill Act Compensation Fund. That money should be going to urban areas for pollution cleanup, but instead it is being shipped out to the wealthy suburbs. Our urban areas are suffering the most because of money being diverted for other purposes. We’re taking money away from Newark and Linden and places that have been damaged and instead using it to plug a black hole in the budget. This budget has the wrong priorities, continuing to take money out of the environment and away from urban areas, and shifting it into wealthy suburbs. The diversion of these funds is a regressive tax that especially hurts working families and urban low-income communities.

“The budget raids $113 million from the Clean Energy Fund, which includes $80 million for NJ Transit and $30 million for EVs. NJ Transit needs a stable source of income because the system we have now is broken. Just like last year, this year NJ Transit is taking $460 million in capital funds for operations and maintenance. Diverting capital funds means that they don’t have the money for improvements and to expand lines like the Hudson-Bergen and South Jersey light rail lines. This is like robbing our future to pay for current expenses, or taking a second mortgage on a house to buy groceries. We need to fix this broken system and help NJ Transit move forward. Even though a law was passed to support EV infrastructure for the public, the state is not electrifying their fleet. We are lagging behind other states when it comes to EVs. New Jersey must find a sustainable source of funding for our transportation system so that we can have money for CEF and move forward with things like energy efficiency programs and EV infrastructure for our state.

“Money for open space is increasing, but the priorities are wrong for constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues for FY2021. Over the past decade funding is down 40% despite us adding 40% more open space. State parks are falling apart, but we have $500 million in backlogs. The funding formula reinforces funding inequities that continue to damage lower-income and minority communities. Money is being shifted from brownfield cleanups, watershed protections, and toxic site cleanups. The funding promotes stewardship projects, which are an excuse for logging public lands. We have seen in the past clear cutting forests and creating grass habitat under the guise of ‘stewardship.’ The priorities of this funding is wrong. There is no money going toward urban parks, Blue Acres, buying our flood-prone properties, or fixing our parks.

“We have major problems with our water in New Jersey, whether it is lead in our drinking water, algae in our lakes, stormwater management, or sewer overflows. A lack of testing and oversight has put New Jersey at risk, especially when it comes to lead in the drinking water. The $80 million is a start and a down payment, however we need a stable source of funding. Overall, the cost to fix New Jersey’s lead problem is $3.2 billion. The budget only includes $2 million for lake management programs. This is a miniscule drop in the budget for what is needed. Last year there were over 50 bodies of water in NJ that were closed or under advisory for high levels of cyanobacteria.Lake Hopatcong and Barnegat Bay will continue to be impacted by harmful algae and pollution without proper funding for critical programs like lake management. We also need to tie fixing our infrastructure to energy efficiency and renewable energy as well as green building, including blue and green roofs to reduce flooding.

“Even though this year’s budget overall is better than last year’s, we still need to stop these raids and cuts for vital programs that affect our land, our air, our water, and cleanup of toxic sites. We need to fix our aging infrastructure, put more money into transit, and remove lead from our homes and schools. We need DEP’s budget to be restored. More funding for DEP and critical environmental programs means having enough staff to get the lead out of our children’s schools, moving New Jersey forward in energy efficiency, and reducing our impact on climate change. To get there, we need to make sure millionaires pay their fair share, get rid of corporate loopholes and subsidies, and make polluters pay for the damage that they have done to the environment. We need a budget with the right priorities, that is for the many and not for the special interest groups and the privileged few. We need a budget that reflects our values when it comes to the environment, climate change, and funding NJ Transit. The money is there – we need political will to put it in the right places.”