Senator Declan O’Scanlon and Senator Carmen Amato, Jr sent a letter to Governor Sherrill on April 29 urging immediate action to fully restore school aid that was capped in the proposed state budget. The senators cited updated revenue projections and Republican budget solutions as reasons why increasing aid is now possible.
The letter highlights concerns about the timing of any restoration, stating, “With all due respect, if you wait until late May or June to acknowledge these increased revenue projections or finish vetting our cost-saving ideas, it will be too late to help schools that are currently in the process of cutting critical programs or needlessly raising property taxes. And there are others who will abuse these savings and additional revenues for continued pork spending based on favoritism and excess.”
O’Scanlon and Amato asked the administration to clarify which proposals have been accepted, whether revenue forecasts will be raised, and if any of the additional funds would go toward schools whose aid has been reduced in recent years. They wrote: “We respectfully request that your Administration advise which of our proposals have been embraced, whether revenue forecasts will be increased, and whether you support allocating at least some of the savings and additional revenue fairly to schools whose aid was slashed for years and whose services will be harmed without change. Without a timely change from the Murphy Administration’s school funding approach of capping long overdue increases in aid, there will be little reason to hope that the budget enacted in June will be anything other than more of the same failures that we’ve seen in the past.”
In February, Republican members on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee released a letter outlining nearly a dozen ideas for fixing what they describe as a $4 billion structural imbalance. These included canceling unspent project balances—sometimes called “pork”—and redirecting those funds toward fair increases in school funding.
Senator Anthony M. Bucco serves as Senate Republican Leader representing New Jersey’s 25th Legislative District according to his official website. Bucco also chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee while serving on both this committee and on Budget and Appropriations. He provides constituent services through his district office as well as email for legislative inquiries according to his official website.
Bucco is involved with sponsoring bills, co-sponsoring legislation, participating actively in committee discussions about major state issues according to his official website. He has led as Senate Republican Leader while chairing important committees such as Judiciary according to his official website.
