Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) issued the following statement condemning Governor Murphy’s veto of legislation, S-4289, to provide cap relief to districts facing Adjustment Aid cuts that are spending below the adequacy level deemed necessary under the state’s school funding law:

“The school cap relief legislation was developed with support from the New Jersey School Boards Association and school board members, superintendents and school officials from across the state.

“The legislation would have provided the same cap relief to suburban and rural districts that are losing Adjustment Aid, taxing below their Local Fair Share and spending below adequacy — as determined by the Governor’s own Department of Education — that is already provided to the Abbott districts.

“The Governor owes parents and schoolchildren in Toms River, Old Bridge, Hillsborough, South Brunswick and Brick an explanation of why he thinks the adequacy of their education is less important than those of children in cities like Newark and Trenton.

“It is the height of hypocrisy for the Governor to play politics with the lives of schoolchildren by calling for passage of the millionaire’s tax when he knows — or should know — that not one penny from the millionaire’s tax could legally go to any of the Adjustment Aid districts that would have been helped by this legislation.”