New Jersey Lawmaker Seeks To Rein In Pork Barrel Spending

By Christian Wade | The Center Square contributor, The Center Square New Jersey

December 7, 2022

(The Center Square) – A New Jersey GOP lawmaker is pushing to scale back "politically motivated gift-giving" by the executive branch, with proposals to redirect hundreds of millions of dollars in pork barrel spending.

State Sen. Michael Testa, R-Vineland, a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, has filed a package of bills that would cut off $675 million in local spending earmarks approved as part of the $50.6 billion fiscal year 2023 state budget, which was signed by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in June.

He took aim specifically at Murphy's administration for increasing state spending, along with the number of pork-barrel projects funded through the budget.

"Santa Murphy has established a new standard in gifting, handing out multi-million-dollar packages to friends, mostly in North Jersey, like candy canes," Testa said in a statement. "Taxpayers, and those without direct connections to the front office in Trenton, have had to settle for stockings full of coal."

He pointed to a $300 million "handout" to Rutgers University in the form of an "additional appropriation," which includes $100 million to renovate the basketball facility, and begin work on an indoor football practice facility.

Other budget earmarks singled out by the GOP lawmaker, included $7 million for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, $5 million for the Cherry Blossom Center in Branch Brook and $4.6 million for a park in North Bergen.

"This is blatant favoritism based on how influential the recipients are and not on any fair or balanced process which governors of both parties traditionally advocate," Testa said. "This is no way to allocate state spending."

His proposals, if approved, would redirect up to $675 million in funding for local earmarks into new grant programs that would be open to all local governments, cultural and performing arts venues seeking state funding.

Testa said the move would "take the process out of the dark so everybody can have a fair shot at the money, regardless of politics or geographic preferences."

"These awards should be transparent, competitive and merit based, but what we’ve seen out of Trenton is secretive, arbitrary and unfair," he said.

The focus of the work of The Center Square New Jersey is state and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility.