NJ State House or Capitol, Trenton, NJ by Lowlova is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
Governor Mikie Sherrill promised to rein in Trenton’s culture of pork spending. Now, she has betrayed taxpayers. On June 30th, Governor Sherrill signed a supplemental spending bill in addition to the record $60.7 billion already passed. This supplement was filled with gifts and giveaways to Democratic buddies and politically connected organizations.
This supplemental spending bill is just another example of politicians making decisions in smoke-filled rooms. The bill was rushed out as the budget deadline approached, leaving little opportunity for elected officials or taxpayers to scrutinize where millions of dollars would be going. This secretive maneuvering has only facilitated the squander of taxpayer money.
One of the clearest examples of this is the $40 million subsidy to FIFA for the World Cup, an organization already bringing in $10 billion in revenue and profit. This is already on top of the estimated $100 million already spent to host the games. Because of how these FIFA contracts are negotiated, it is unlikely that New Jersey will recoup the money, given that the state cannot collect revenue from traditional recovery packages, such as corporate suites. While New Jersey towns are coping with property tax increases, rest assured that Gianni Infantino and the other corrupt officials in FIFA are getting their handouts on your dime.
New Jersey Democrats want you to believe these appropriations were done solely based on merit. That is absolutely not the case. For example, Speaker of the Assembly Craig Coughlin directed $2.25 million into urban park improvements for Essex County. Coincidentally – or perhaps not – Essex County is a client of the Speaker’s law firm. Similarly, $5 million was appropriated to Wood-Ridge’s Highland Avenue Recreation Center, where the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations committee, Paul Sarlo, who also just happens to be the Mayor of Wood-Ridge. How convenient.
Even if these appropriations satisfy the letter of New Jersey ethics law, they violate something just as important: public confidence that tax dollars are allocated on merit rather than through political relationships.
Every dollar spent rewarding political allies is a dollar unavailable for taxpayers, schools, infrastructure, or genuine public priorities. School districts in suburban areas ranging from West Orange, New Jersey to Lakewood, New Jersey are being shortchanged by a stagnant school funding formula while money is being found to bail out left-wing incompetence and facilitate pork spending. At a time when New Jersey faces a $1.5 billion structural deficit, Trenton’s message could not be clearer: insiders come first, taxpayers come last.