Christie Budget Targets Environment, While Giving Tax Cuts to Wealthy

The New Jersey Sierra Club joined for a press conference today with Working Families and a coalition of other groups to oppose the Governor’s budget. This budget continues to neglect New Jersey’s environment, while robbing from environmental programs to fill budget holes. Every year, the Governor’s priorities in the budget are wrong; he gives tax cuts to corporations and budget cuts to important environmental programs. This year he has continued to cut more DEP staff and programs, while rolling back environmental protections. These cuts will be even worse with the Trump Administration’s plan to rollback 30 percent of funding to the states. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club released the following statement:

“The budget is coming out today and it is going to hurt New Jersey and take us in the wrong direction. Christie’s Trump-like budget cuts key programs, robs from the environment and working families, while giving tax breaks to the wealthy. After seven years of Christie cuts, there is almost nothing left and now they are taking even more. While he has given tax cuts to the millionaires, he has stolen funding to make our air cleaner, our water safer to drink, and our state more resilient to climate change. The problem is the money he is stealing is going straight to corporate subsidies and tax breaks for the wealthy. We’ve seen another raid of the Clean Energy Fund, this time $210 million. The Governor has stolen over $1.6 billion from the Fund to plug holes in the budget that is supposed to help consumers save money on their electric bills, fund offshore wind, and other renewable energy programs. They are taking out money from environmental settlements and rolling back core DEP programs like cleaning up toxic sites. As in previous years, Christie has used the Clean Energy Fund as an ATM and Exxon settlement to balance the budget. Every year the budget has been used as an excuse to weaken and rollback more environmental protections.”

“Budgets have real consequences and all along our Governor has used the budget to dismantle environmental protections. This year DEP’s operations are down another $11 million, while staff is down by almost half. By cutting back the budget, it means there is not enough oversight to make sure our toxic sites are cleaned-up, our air is clean, and our water is pure. Under Governor Christie, our parks are falling apart and we have a $250 million backlog in needed parks capital repairs. While DEP staff is down by 40 percent, the budget has been slashed by a third under the Christie Administration. Instead more money is being spent on stewardship to log public lands, clear-cut environmentally sensitive areas, and plant grass. These cuts are even worse because we’ve actually seen $100 million being transferred out of the DEP for other purposes. While he has cut environmental programs by a third, half of the DEP’s budget could be gone with Trump’s proposal to slash funding.”

“This budget continues to raid money from important environmental programs such as the Spill Act, Hazardous Site Clean-up Fund, Hazardous Discharge Fund, Clean Communities, about $100 million. In this budget, the Governor is stealing $225 million for Exxon Settlement and $75 million for other lawsuits to plug budget holes, which is exactly the amount of money New Jersey is entitled to under the Volkswagen Settlement.”

“We are concerned that the Democrats, instead of standing up to Christie and standing up for New Jersey will fold. Again and again Governor Christie has hurt our economy and the environment by stealing from the Clean Energy Fund and not funding NJ Transit, but the Democrats have gone along with it. Before he came into office, DEP’s budget was close to $400 million and now it is $274 million. Every year the Governor cuts ten percent from the DEP budget, while diverting environmental funds to other programs. The Governor’s original budget included no money for NJ Transit, while our mass transit system is a mess and the trains are coming off the tracks. Even though there is $140 for NJ Transit, we need more funding to get people out of cars and improve our aging rail system. We also still need money for Positive Train Control to make our trains safer. Once again Christie’s budget meets the needs of polluters and developers instead of the people of the state.”

Contact Jeff Tittel, 609-558-9100