COLLEEN O’DEA, SENIOR WRITER, PROJECTS EDITOR | NJ SPOTLIGHT
The new president of the state Senate said he would like to see more information made public about the spending lawmakers add to the New Jersey budget every year just before they vote to approve it.
Lawmakers on average added $240 million a year over the past five years for special projects in their districts. In the current budget, the Democrats who control the Legislature added close to $1.6 billion to Gov. Phil Murphy’s original budget, boosting it to $46.4 billion. Most of that added money-funded programs with a statewide impact, including a boost to the popular Homestead property-tax relief program. But some $747 million, including $450 million in federal COVID-19 relief money given to three hospitals, is being spent on more parochial items, such as a garden, a YWCA, and a VFW post.
Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), an 18-year legislator sworn in Tuesday to what is arguably the second-most powerful position in the State House, said he supports letting legislators propose worthy projects for funding. But, Scutari said, it is “unfortunate” that these additions to the budget, as well as bills passed at the end of a legislative session such as the one that ended Monday, do not get more scrutiny.
“There’s no doubt that government at the end of the sessions runs really fast and sometimes members (of the Legislature), and the public as well, don’t have enough time to review this stuff,” Scutari told NJ Spotlight News in an interview. “We’ve got to do better on that, for sure. People have to have an opportunity to review budget items, and that goes for all types of legislation.”
‘Christmas tree’ items
Every year, after spending months analyzing the governor’s budget proposal, lawmakers add hundreds of millions of dollars for special projects, commonly referred to in Trenton as “Christmas tree items” at the 11th hour when lawmakers and the public have little time to review and comment on them. NJ Spotlight News outlined this process earlier this week in the series “Pet projects, public cash.”
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