A special state budget update from NJPP President Deborah Howlett

In his budget address three months ago, Governor Christie outlined his view of the "new normal" in New Jersey. It went something like this:

• Rich people get tax breaks.
• The middle class pays more.
• We all make do with less.

Most states, instead of relying solely on cuts to services - cuts that threaten jobs and economic recovery and hurt struggling families - have adopted a balanced approach that includes revenues. But the plan laid out by the governor was cuts-only. It would close state facilities for the profoundly disabled; continue last year's devastating cuts to schools; and require deep reductions in health insurance coverage for people with no place else to turn.

Over the next month or so, lawmakers and the governor will work in Trenton toward agreement on a state spending plan for the coming fiscal year.

NJPP will be in the thick of things.

As we have for 14 years, NJPP is fighting for the return of fair and progressive fiscal policies that until recently provided opportunities for all New Jerseyans and prosperity that was broadly shared across the Garden State. In a series of emails over the next couple of weeks I'll give you more details, but here are a few highlights of the work that NJPP is doing to make a difference.

• Senior Analyst Ray Castro is a leading voice in the independent and critical analysis of how cuts to NJ Family Care, the state Earned Income Tax Credit, and Medicaid will make it harder for poor and working families to get by.
• A study by NJPP and the national group Demos showed that a bill to deregulate telecommunications in New Jersey would cost consumers, especially the poor and the elderly. Using the findings in the report, NJ Citizen Action and AARP went to work on lawmakers and in a grassroots effort that included more than 10,000 phone calls to legislative offices they succeeded in getting the measure tabled.
• NJPP's report on the proliferation of corporate subsidies is the foundation for ongoing efforts by the Better Choices coalition, of which we're a member, to restore badly needed revenue. Made up of more than 70 nonprofits -- including human services, education, religious, and labor groups - Better Choices is a vocal advocate for a proposal developed by NJPP to raise taxes on the wealthiest among us, those with income (not net worth, but income) over $1 million a year.

We're proud to be a leading voice for common sense in New Jersey, and to strongly and clearly advocate for those who have the smallest voices in the public arena - the middle class, working families, the disabled and the most vulnerable in our society.

That work was spotlighted in a story published recently by the Asbury Park Press, which caught the attention of one of its hometown readers, rock icon Bruce Springsteen. Speaking of NJPP and our partners, Springsteen wrote in a letter to the editor, "These are voices that in our current climate are having a hard time being heard, not just in New Jersey, but nationally."

Like you, and The Boss, we refuse to accept the idea that there's a "new normal."

Not here in New Jersey.

Not this year.

More to come...

Deborah Howlett, President

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Update: I want to clarify a point made in our earlier email "Special State Budget Update," which may have left the impression that as a policy matter NJPP is opposed to the closing of state institutions for people with developmental disabilities. We absolutely are not. Further, we understand it is important that the effort to close these institutions be fully funded by the state so that people with disabilities can live in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.

Sincerely,

Deborah Howlett, President