TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey taxpayers wondering where their money went in the newly enacted FY 2027 state budget might want to take a look at Assemblyman Rob Clifton’s map.
The LD-12 Republican lawmaker is highlighting more than 300 discretionary spending earmarks included in the budget (for which we finally have SOME details long after it was adopted), plus another 81 items tucked into more than $358 million in supplemental appropriations approved on June 30th.
And according to Clifton, the geographic distribution tells its own story.
“Some favored parts of the state get the taxpayer-funded goodies,” Clifton wrote in a Facebook post accompanying the map. “The rest of us just get the privilege of paying for them.”
Clifton says billions of dollars have flowed in recent years to organizations, programs and municipalities concentrated in a relatively small number of communities, often through a budget process offering taxpayers little opportunity to scrutinize individual expenditures before lawmakers vote.
The biggest beneficiary this year, according to Clifton, is Jersey City, which received a whopping $120 million bailout — what he described as the largest single-municipality bailout in New Jersey history.
“Should the rest of New Jersey foot the bill for decades of fiscal mismanagement?” Clifton asked.
Newark also features prominently on his list.
Despite the Newark school district already receiving approximately $1.2 billion in state aid, Clifton flagged another $1 million for reading literacy and $400,000 for an early-college program at Bard High School.
Other Newark-related expenditures highlighted by the assemblyman include $30 million for the Newark Healthcare Access Partnership, $5 million for city social services, $1.5 million for the Newark Museum of Art, $1.125 million for foreclosure mitigation, $1.05 million for the Newark Symphony Orchestra and $1 million for Newark Public Radio.
There’s also $250,000 each for recreation programs, Newark Alliance beautification efforts and Keep Newark Beautiful, along with $200,000 for NJPAC.
Then there’s Paterson, which Clifton says received $76 million in Transition Aid this year, bringing its total since 2011 to well over $400 million.
The Silk City also received $8.2 million for police expenses, approximately $1.35 million spread among seven social-service nonprofits — and $50,000 for the Paterson Cricket League.
Clifton highlighted plenty of smaller expenditures elsewhere, too.
Among them: $500,000 for OUT Montclair Community Program, $200,000 for Jazz for Kids, $100,000 for Montclair Film, $50,000 for Moms Demand Action, $200,000 for the New Jersey Domestic Worker Coalition, $50,000 for the Guyana American Heritage Foundation and $11 million for a community solar initiative through New Dawn Central Jersey Community Development Corporation.
Camden-area spending cited by Clifton includes $750,000 for the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, $125,000 for the IDEA Center of the Arts, $250,000 for a statue in Camden and $1 million for Whitman Park.
The assemblyman also called attention to another $44 million for FIFA-related expenses, above more than $150 million he says had already been committed.
Clifton’s broader argument isn’t that every individual recipient is undeserving. It’s that New Jersey’s budget process allows politically connected priorities to receive millions — sometimes tens or hundreds of millions — while taxpayers elsewhere are handed the bill with precious little transparency.
“New Jersey cannot become more affordable until this changes,” Clifton concluded.
With hundreds more earmarks on the books, Clifton says he isn’t done highlighting where the money went.
Neither, presumably, are New Jersey taxpayers.
