New Jersey’s Budget Presents Tough Choices

On Tuesday, Governor Jon Corzine offered very little in the way of good news with his annual state budget message address. The Governor unveiled his $29.8 billion dollar budget with the education community being one of the few benefactors in his proposed FY 2010 Budget.

However, not all is lost in this year’s budget, the Governor is proposing a $25 million expansion in Pre-K education, and a $300 million increase in direct state aid for K-12 school districts. The NJASA is cautiously optimistic about the promise of municipal aid because dollar amounts have yet to be disclosed to the public and the budget still needs to go through the onerous legislative process.

Not much has changed from the Governor’s State-of-the-State address with his wanting to use the public pension system as a vehicle to control the state’s run-away expenses. This type of political maneuvering, initiated by past administrations, is nothing more than a near-sighted solution to a far-sighted problem and is a position the NJASA is strongly against.

We welcome the proposal of infusing federal monies from the stimulus package to stabilize education funding – a one-time solution that might prevent some harsh increases to school board budgets across our state. The NJASA eagerly waits for the state budget process to get underway and stands ready to assist our local elected officials with creating education policy that will help finally lead to a permanent solution to school funding.

The NJASA will continue to monitor the FY 2010 budget process and will advocate change where necessary until the Legislature develops the final appropriations acts.