For Immediate Release
Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100
Yesterday, the Governor delivered his FY2022 Budget Address. The overall budget totals $44.83 billion. The Department of Environmental Protection budget is up slightly by $26 million. There is $20 million more going to beach replenishment this year, $4 million more going to site remediation, and $60 million going to “Drinking Water and Clean Water Infrastructure.”
“Money going to the environment this year is up slightly from last year. The DEP’s budget is up for the first time in 10 years by a small amount of $26 million. However, it doesn’t make up for all the cuts over the past 3 years or 10 years. There is a slight increase of staff by about 200 people, but we’ll still be down more than 250 people from what Murphy committed to when he came in. The money for these hirings is coming from important programs like the Hazardous Discharge Fund, Brownfield Program, and other CBT programs,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “They are adding $20 million for beach replenishment, with a total of $45 million this year. This is more money that will be washed out to sea. This money should be going toward resiliency and fixing natural systems, not failed systems that won’t make us stronger.”
During his speech, Governor Murphy said, “This budget will … do away with antiquated permitting rules at the Department of Environmental Protection, and other departments, which will cut government bureaucracy and get projects off the ground quicker.”
“The Governor’s statement yesterday about streamlining DEP permitting still raises a red flag. The DEP has said that he meant that they will be reorganizing and prioritizing permitting processes, modernizing records, and making everything electronic. However, this has not lessened our concerns. It seems like more spin. We are afraid that this could lead to the privatization of parks, public-private partnerships, or streamlining permits by making them general permits. It could also expand the LSP program and allow engineers to write and grant their own permits in other areas like land use and water,” said Jeff Tittel. “We are worried that they will be rolling back environmental programs and pushing out permits without enough public scrutiny and input, similar to the infamous Fast Track Law of 2005. This is something you’d expect from a Republican governor.”
The budget will include $60 million for “Drinking Water and Clean Water Infrastructure.” Lead in drinking water has become an ongoing issue in New Jersey. The DEP is planning to come out with a new lead and copper rule this fall.
“The budget includes $60 million to deal with drinking water issues. This is a small down payment. Considering that they raided the $60 million that should have gone to lead last year, they should have at least doubled the amount of money this year. We have major problems with lead including $8.2 billion worth of pipes that need to be fixed, $4.6 billion for getting lead out of our water and a $6 billion combined sewer overflow fix. Overall, we need at least $46 billion to fix New Jersey’s environmental problems,” said Tittel. “The DEP is planning to come with new lead and copper standards this fall, but they need to move sooner. They also need to make sure that the standards are much stricter than the federal level. We need to have a protective level of 1 ppb like California, because any amount of lead in drinking water is dangerous.”
The DEP budget will increase full-time employees from 996 in FY2021 to 1,116 in FY2022. Total employees will increase from 2,544 to 2,811. Meanwhile, the state will be increasing its contribution to public employee pension funds. The South Jersey Wind Port will receive $200 million from the general funds, which is good but it could have come out of the Economic Development Authority instead.
“The DEP is finally going to be hiring some more people. They are planning to hire about 200 people, but this will be backfilling existing job openings and won’t get us where we need to be. We’ll still be 250 below what Murphy promised when he came in. DEP needs more people to write Environmental Justice rules or rules dealing with sea-level rise and storm surges. If you want to move permits quicker, hire more staff instead of weakening standards. What’s worse, the money for these hirings is coming from important programs like the Hazardous Discharge Fund, Brownfield Program, and other CBT programs,” said Jeff Tittel. “They aren’t adding any money or new staff to parks. We are concerned that this will lead to privatization or potential public-private partnerships.”
The budget includes $200 million for the Offshore Wind Port in South Jersey. According to the Budget Brief, 2019 was a record-breaking year for New Jersey’s solar energy program. It also noted that the light duty electric vehicle incentive program awarded $30 million in 2020 and incentivized more than 5,000 electric vehicles.
“There is $200 million going for the offshore wind port, which is an important investment in our future. We are seeing a slight increase in solar installations, but we need to do more. There is a modest increase in electric vehicles, but we won’t get to our goals unless we have more resources and funding,” said Tittel. “This doesn’t show the sense of urgency on climate change and moving forward with a green economy. We need to do more faster if we’re really going to see the green recovery and the jobs that we need after the pandemic.”
The FY2022 Budget will raid $82 million from the Clean Energy Fund for NJ Transit. This would bring the total amount that the state has raided from the Clean Energy Fund since 2010 to approximately $1.9 billion. NJ Transit’s FY2022 budget is $2.65 billion, but the agency is taking about $350 million from capital funds for operations and maintenance. This is about $100 million less than they took last year.
“Governor Murphy promised not to take any more money from the Clean Energy Fund. However, they are once again using it as the state’s ATM and taking at least $82 million for NJ Transit, and there could be more. We have raided nearly $1.9 billion from the CEF since 2010. At the same time, bills in the Legislature are moving forward that would use more CEF money for schools, wind, and a whole range of other things instead of energy efficiency,” said Jeff Tittel. “On top of taking money from the CEF, NJ Transit is still using $350 million capital funds for operations and maintenance. We can’t continue to use capital money for operations. The state should take at least $400 million a year from the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway toll hikes to fund NJ Transit.”
The Governor has 110 days to work with the Legislature and enact the budget, per constitutional deadline.
“For over a decade, New Jersey’s budget has had a lot of money being diverted from critical environmental programs. We need real money, not just pocket change for these programs. We still need to adequately fund DEP and NJ Transit. More funding for DEP and critical environmental programs means having enough staff to get the lead out of children’s schools and moving New Jersey forward in energy efficiency while reducing our impact on climate change,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Governor Murphy has made commitments on climate change and clean energy, but this budget does not fund those commitments.”