Now that the New Jersey State budget has passed and has been signed into law I thought it would be a good topic to talk about. Governor Christie as usual for him has line item vetoed those things he either disagrees with or thinks that the money should not be spent on. All in the name of his integrity, what about ours?
There are of course the typical appropriations for the state pension system, property tax relief, aid to schools, etc. The following is from the Citizen’s Guide to the Budget:
People Served/Items Purchased Helping Those in Need
119,000,000 ** Subsidized School Lunches
8,600,000 ** Hunger Initiative — Food Purchased (lbs.)
2,741,025 * Subsidized Drugs for Seniors and Disabled: PAAD Annual
Prescriptions
1,797,121 * Persons Receiving Health Care through NJ FamilyCare
367,091 * Senior Gold Annual Prescriptions
325,065 * Individuals Receiving Mental Health Services (Community Programs)
302,345 * Energy Assistance — Tenants and Homeowners Served
183,440 * Children Receiving Health Care through the Children’s Health Insurance
Program
179,714 Children Receiving Services from Division of Child Protection and
Permanency Services (DCP&P)
80,567 Temporary Assistance to Needy Families — Recipients
23,277 Adults with Disabilities Served (Community Programs )
22,423 Adoption Subsidies/Foster Care: Average Daily Populations
4,262 * State Rental Assistance — Families Served
Protecting the Public’s Safety
790,600 * State Police Investigations (Criminal, Accident, and General)
249,525 * Fire, Housing and Construction Code Inspections
102,000 * State Police — Instances of Aid to Motorists
19,811 * Inmates Supervised (Annual Average — Excludes Community
Programs)
15,975 Parolees Supervised
1,500 Forest Fire Responses
1,225 State-owned Bridge Safety Inspections
595 * Criminal Indictments Obtained — Criminal Justice
Preserving the Environment
17,000,000 ** Parks Visitors Served
11,300 * Acres of Open Space Preserved:
3,300 Via Green Acres
8,000 Via Farmland Acres
5,919 * Air and Water Pollution Inspections
People Served/Items Purchased Protecting the Public’s Health
287,000 ** Women, Infants, and Children – Health Care Recipients
220,000 Children Screened for Lead Poisoning
95,000 ** AIDS Clients Tested and Counseled
90,000 Number of Licensed Long Term Care Beds/Slots
50,000 * Homes Tested for Radon
25,000 ** Breast Cancer and Cervical Cancer Screenings
3,600 Helicopter Response Missions for Traumatic Injuries
785 * Long Term Care Facilities Licensed
Transportation Services
477,463 Average Daily Mass Transit Ridership
13,341 Miles of Roads Maintained
8,226 Emergency and After-Hour Call Responses
2,945 * Traffic Signals Maintained
900 Highway Lanes Under Construction
495 Lane Miles Resurfaced
Serving Businesses
557,303 * State Professional Boards — Total Regulated Licenses
91,500 Real Estate Brokers and Salespersons Licensed
93,500 Insurance Licenses Issued
6,800 Currently Participating Businesses — Urban Enterprise Zones
5,800 Banking Licenses Issued
Educating Our Children
1,415,468 Total Enrollment (Public School System)
1,290,878 * Standardized Tests Administered
791,178 Pupils Transported — Public/Nonpublic
202,549 Special Ed Enrollment
144,965 Kindergarten/Preschool Enrollment
37,401 Charter School Enrollment
26,402 County Vocational Ed Enrollment
People Served/Items Purchased Higher Education Student Assistance
174,359 New Jersey College Loans to State Students (NJCLASS)
76,018 Tuition Aid Grants (TAG, Full and Part-Time)
2,360 NJ Student Tuition Assistance Reward Scholarship
(NJSTARS I & II) Grants
* Data reported is related to a Key Performance Indicator in
the Core Mission Summaries section of the Citizen’s Guide.
** Data reported is also published as a Key Performance
Indicator in the Core Mission Summaries section of the
Citizen’s Guide.
Direct Property Tax Relief
695,300 Homestead Benefit Program (Recipients)
211,000 Veterans Claiming a Property TaxDeduction
171,000 Senior and Disabled Property TaxFreeze (Recipients)
46,800 Seniors and Disabled Claiming a Property Tax Deduction
Protecting our Residents
28,464 * Mental Health Advocacy — Representation of Individuals at
Civil Commitment Hearings — New Cases
5,800 Elder Advocacy — Nursing Home/Boarding Home/Other
Facility Visits
5,600 Elder Advocacy — On-Site Investigations Regarding
Care/Abuse/Neglect or Patient Funds
2,154 Rate Counsel — Representation of Ratepayers on Cases Involving Utilities and Cable Television
If your eyes are not crossing by now then continue reading, otherwise take a short break before continuing. Please note that the above are not dollar amounts but a count of people or miles or things. They make it seem that this budget helps a lot of people to live well here in New Jersey, but do you think so?
Now how about the amounts that are going to be spent? Well there is a payment to the state pension plan of $1.3 billion, a business retention program funded at $2.3 billion, a distribution for property tax relief of over $16 billion, $12.8 billion for our schools and I could go on. But I am sure you get the point I am making; everything is in the billions of dollars. Makes me want to say a billion here a billion there and who really knows if it gets where it is needed! I am quite sure that you get the point; very large amounts of money are involved. The State of New Jersey’s taxpayer’s money is what is being spent without any auditing each year to make sure that it is going where it is supposed to.
If you were to look at the budget for this state you will begin to realize that it is more than likely that no legislator has ever gone through it line by line and just blindly believes what he or she is told by their experts. My take is that the budget must be examined line by line by some outside experts and compared to what is really spent to see if the budget was realistic and I bet you that they would find that it is not.
What I am getting at is that we the people of New Jersey have to demand that we are shown that our monies are not being wasted. So I am calling for the creation of an independent state auditor department to insure that our monies are being used as per the budget and not being wasted.
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
