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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is freezing more than $53 million in aid for towns and millions more for Democratic-backed programs including rape prevention and cancer research over concerns about health care and benefit costs.
In signing New Jersey's $34.5 billion budget Thursday, the Republican scolded Democrats for including $250 million in budget savings from cuts to public employee benefits but not enacting reforms.
Christie ordered half of the state's transitional aid to towns and $45 million from legislative changes made in the budget to be held in reserve.
He said in an executive order that the money will be released based on results of later changes made by committees, including administration and union officials working to find health benefits savings.
Programs added into the budget by Democratic lawmakers that are affected include sexual violence prevention, domestic violence prevention, cancer research and prisoner re-entry, according to a list released Friday.
In the fiscal year that ended Thursday, 12 towns and a school district split about $129 million in transitional aid. That included $33 million for cash-strapped Atlantic City and its school district, $25 million for Paterson, $20 million for Trenton and $12 million for Camden
"The legislative majority wants to thoughtlessly spend down the State's surplus by $160 million. Worse, however, is their shameless inclusion of a $250 million phantom savings in public employee and retiree health care costs, which I called for in February but the Legislature did absolutely nothing to embrace, negotiate or achieve," Christie said. "Those 'savings' were penciled in on paper but completely nonexistent."
Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, a Democrat representing parts of Bergen and Passaic counties, said that it is a "terrible" decision that will hurt financially distressed communities.
"How are these communities supposed to rebound when the administration keeps setting up roadblocks?" Sumter said in a statement. "These are real people, real families who will feel the consequences of this unreasonable action by the administration. These residents deserve better than a governor who consistently undercuts them."
Christie also asked his treasurer to look into what would be required for the state to withdrawal from a reciprocal agreement with Pennsylvania that allows residents of either state to only pay income taxes to one.
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This story has been corrected to show that the numbers cited for Atlantic City, Paterson and Camden were totals from the last fiscal year.
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