N.J. lawmakers added $1.5 billion to budget, but few funds went to competitive districts

State lawmakers’ individual funding requests for the $54.3 billion budget New Jersey adopted in June directed millions of dollars to the state’s few competitive legislative districts, but tens of millions more went to Democratic strongholds where there is no real risk of turnover.

A New Jersey Monitor review of the budget documents found just $21.1 million of the $661.6 million that lawmakers and the Murphy administration directed to projects in individual counties or municipalities fell in the 3rd, 4th, 11th, and 16th districts — the four New Jersey legislative districts expected to hold the state’s most competitive races. All 120 seats in the Legislature are on the ballot in November.

“We had a long period without very many earmarks. When these were much more prevalent, they were going to shore up districts where the party leaders thought the incumbent was in trouble. The fact that we’re not seeing that now, it really feels like a failure of leadership,” said Dan Cassino, executive director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Poll.

No municipalities in the 4th District, where Republicans face Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester) as he seeks a promotion to the state Senate, received direct funding as a result of budget resolutions, nor did Gloucester County. Redistricting has made the district more Republican, creating a prime target for the GOP in November.

The Republican-held 3rd District, where Democrats are hoping to oust Sen. Ed Durr (R-Gloucester), received just $5.5 million as a result of budget resolutions.

The 16th District got $7.6 million. There, Republicans are hoping to unseat Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-Middlesex) in a historically GOP-friendly district that has trended Democratic in recent years.

And the 11th District — the only district in the state represented in the Legislature by members of both parties — got just over $8 million as a result of budget resolutions. Republicans have mounted an aggressive bid to oust Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth) there.

The relatively small amount of legislative funding for vulnerable Democrats’ priorities suggests support for those candidates will come through other avenues, like direct campaign dollars, Cassino said.

“The party is going to support them with money and not necessarily going to support them with these kinds of legislative favors,” he said.

Overall, budget resolutions added more than $1.5 billion in spending this year. The largest share of those funds, $890 million, went to statewide programs or projects with no geographic nexus.

Senate leadership, cities top list

No New Jersey legislative district received more direct funding than the 36th, which got $53.5 million as a result of budget resolutions. The district is represented by Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), who chairs the Senate’s budget committee. Bergen County received $850,000 in direct funding.

Awards amounted to a combined $22.5 million for capital improvements in Fairview and Wood-Ridge schools, and $15 million for a Cliffside Park library accounted for a majority of the funds.

Despite a recent wane in their influence following the surprise ouster in 2021 of then-Senate President Steve Sweeney, Camden County Democrats brought more funding from budget resolutions than most everyone else in the state.

The 5th District, a Democratic stronghold that includes the city of Camden, won $34.5 million in funding from budget resolutions. Camden County received $64 million in direct funding, more than any other New Jersey county. The money was mainly dedicated to infrastructure projects.

“Even though South Jersey has less political influence than it did in the past, Governor Murphy will still go down there for the opening of a hospital. There’s still certainly some political influence happening, and that’s going to be much bigger behind the scenes than it is in the overt political area,” Cassino said.

Union County, home to Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), placed second with nearly $57.5 million. And the 22nd District, which is Scutari’s district, received a little more than $15.9 million.

Budget resolutions awarded the 35th District $29.5 million, and almost all of that money, $26 million, went to programs or projects in Paterson, the state’s third-most populous city, including $2.5 million for the Paterson Museum and $10 million to fund the state’s takeover of the Paterson Police Department.

Newark and Jersey City, the only two New Jersey municipalities so large they are split across multiple legislative districts, received $47.3 million and $29.3 million, respectively.

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin’s (D-Middlesex) 19th District received a little under $15.5 million as a result of budget resolutions, and the neighboring Middlesex County-based 17th District got more than $36 million.

Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth), the chamber’s Republican budget officer, was unsurprised by the uneven distribution of funds.

“80% of the taxpaying public of New Jersey isn’t benefitting at all from this extra billion dollars or so. They pay in. They pay in through the nose, and their money gets distributed to people based on political favoritism. It’s that simple,” he said. “It’s pork for a very few lucky, connected people, and that’s a problem.”

Though few of the budget resolutions included in the final spending bill were submitted by Republicans, resolutions sponsored by their Democratic peers and the Treasury saw millions of dollars go to some staunchly Republican districts.

Resolutions funding well filtration, dredging, and a bridge replacement in Oakland that were submitted by the Treasury sent a combined $6 million to the 39th District, represented by Sen. Holly Schepisi (R-Bergen).

Sen. Tony Bucco’s 25th District received $1.1 million for capital projects. Those resolutions were also submitted exclusively by the Treasury. Bucco is the Senate’s minority leader.

Four districts — the 4th, 10th, 24th, and 38th — received no direct funding as a result of budget resolutions.

Methodology

The New Jersey Monitor reviewed all 495 budget resolutions released by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services and, wherever possible sought to identify the final destination of any funds awarded under a resolution.

In some cases, counties were awarded funds for projects in specific municipalities — like the $7.5 million for the Essex County-operated Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange. To track awards more easily within a given legislative district, our data attributes those funds to the municipality in question, not the county.

Budget resolutions providing funding to meet the operating needs of county entities — like an improvement authority — were always attributed to the county.

Numerous budget resolutions sought spending in multiple counties, often within a region. Any resolutions that did so were counted in the statewide pool, as were budget resolutions that impacted funding to state agencies or provided funding to statewide organizations.

The budget resolutions released by the Office of Legislative Services are imperfect. Several show different dollar amounts in their synopsis and text. In such cases, the amount in the text was always used.

Three resolutions — ones awarding $25 million for capital costs at Rutgers’ New Brunswick campus, $100 million for mental health services in Cedar Grove, and providing more than $2 million for overtime pay in Atlantic County — were posted without prime sponsors.

A fourth resolution eliminating a $350,000 appropriation for recreational improvements in Tinton Falls had no sponsors or cosponsors.