Connect with us

New Jersey

NJ disability program faces $3M cut in proposed budget. Advocates call it ‘devastating’

Published

on

NJ disability program faces M cut in proposed budget. Advocates call it ‘devastating’


play

  • New Jersey’s Centers for Independent Living, which provide services to people with disabilities, face a proposed $3 million budget cut.
  • Disability advocates argue that the cuts would severely affect the centers’ ability to offer essential services like job training and accessible housing assistance.
  • Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration says “belt-tightening” is necessary as the state faces fiscal challenges.

Disability advocates across the state are calling on lawmakers to reverse a proposed $3 million cut to New Jersey’s Centers for Independent Living, which assist with job training and other resources for thousands of clients.

“This is a devastating setback to the disability community,” said Donald Campbell, executive director of the Atlantic Center for Independent Living in Galloway. “CILs are not just service providers — they’re lifelines. They help people get out of bed in the morning, find accessible housing, secure jobs and transition out of institutions.”

Advertisement

The cuts in Gov. Phil Murphy’s budget proposal would amount to a 45% reduction in the centers’ $6.7 million operating budget, which relies on both state and federal dollars, said Carmela Slivinski, who directs the DAWN Center for Independent Living in Denville.

New Jersey has 12 Centers for Independent Living, all run by nonprofit groups that serve the state’s 21 counties. The programs offer services designed to help people with disabilities live more independently and participate in society, supporters said.

Murphy’s $58.1 billion budget plan, introduced in February, must still pass through the state Legislature, where lawmakers are likely to make changes. His fiscal blueprint includes more spending for tax relief and school funding, but it’s also being crafted as Republicans in Washington contemplate deep cuts to Medicaid and other programs that fund state services.

Maggie Garbarino, Murphy’s deputy press secretary, said “some belt-tightening” was necessary to protect the state’s long-term priorities. As a result, the proposed budget eliminates most of the direct grants that were awarded without competition last year, and it significantly reduces funding for many older grants, she said.

Advertisement

Questions to Murphy’s office on whether the administration planned alternative support for the centers and how it weighed the potential loss of services went unanswered.

The only option for some with disabilities

The centers serve clients of all ages and types of disabilities and are often the only option for people who acquire a disability later in life, such as from a car accident or stroke, Slivinksi said. Those people often don’t qualify for programs like those offered by the state’s Division of Developmental Disabilities.

Customers can connect with services that make homes accessible, find transportation options and offer employment training. Often the help comes from peers — 51% of CIL employees also have a disability. In 2023, the programs helped 7,800 people statewide, said Marily Gonzalez, CEO of the Heightened Independence and Progress Center in Hackensack.

Advertisement

Center directors said their offices play a unique role in helping people navigate fragmented benefit systems and access lesser-known resources, such as foundations that can help pay for wheelchairs when insurance won’t pay.

“These individuals have needs, but no programs are designed for them,” said Slivinski. “We’re often the only place they can turn to.”

CILs have always operated with limited resources, she added. “I’ve been with my center for 26 years now, and I don’t remember a day when we weren’t fighting for additional resources,” she said.

State funding enabled Slivinski’s DAWN Center for Independent Living to hire two staff members and buy a car. The center created a mobile office that goes to the rural areas of Sussex and Warren counties to help people who have a hard time reaching more populated areas.

“We meet people where they’re at,” she said. Without the money, “that’s going to go away.”

Advertisement

The newer employees at Slivinski’s center won’t be the only ones to lose their jobs. At the Heightened Independence and Progress Center, which serves Bergen and Hudson counties, the cut could affect over 30 positions, many held by people with disabilities, Gonzalez said.

Slivinski said she understands that budgets are tight, but the amount in question is small in the context of state spending, she argued.

Murphy wants to ‘leave the state flush’

“It’s a drop in the bucket for the state,” she said. Still, she said, “some of the smaller centers will not be able to survive this,” she said.

Slivinski recently met with representatives of Murphy’s office to explain the scope of CIL services and was told the proposed cut was part of a sweep of discretionary appropriations aimed at reducing the size of the budget.

Advertisement

“We were told the governor had wanted to leave the state flush, and all of the funding that was considered discretionary funding, like an appropriation through the Legislature, was wiped away,” she said.

The CILs have since been meeting with legislators, including members of the Assembly Budget Committee and the Legislature’s Disability Caucus, in hopes of getting the money reinstated.

A message to state Assemblywoman Ellen Park, a Bergen County Democrat and vice chairwoman of the chamber’s Budget Committee, wasn’t immediately returned.

Both Campbell and Slivinski said the consequences of the funding cut would go beyond lost programs. The centers play a crucial role in helping people with disabilities remain in their communities, avoiding costly and often inappropriate institutional care, they said.

Advertisement

“When the funding disappears, the services disappear — and with them, our independence,” Campbell said.

He urged residents to contact legislators and ask for the funding to be restored.

“The cure for despair is action,” he said.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

New Jersey

‘Stopping Donald Trump starts’ in N.J., top Democrat says

Published

on

‘Stopping Donald Trump starts’ in N.J., top Democrat says


The leader of the national Democratic Party stood on a porch in Somerset County on Saturday — seven miles away from the president’s golf club — to hammer home a message.

“Stopping Donald Trump starts right here in New Jersey,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin told a few dozen local party leaders, candidates, and voters at a private residence in Basking Ridge — three days before the primary in the massive race for the Garden State’s next governor.

Martin was on hand for a final-weekend push for votes and painted Jersey as ground zero for American elections right now. It’s one of only two states, along with Virginia, to hold a gubernatorial race this year. And it’s seen as an early litmus test on Trump’s first year back in the Oval Office.

Republicans are trying to win back the governor’s office after eight years of term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. Trump, who lives part of the year at his golf club in Bedminster, even held a phone call last week to stump for Republican frontrunner Jack Ciattarelli, stressing the goal is to turn the blue-leaning state red.

Advertisement

“New Jersey is ready to pop out of that blue horror show and vote for somebody that’s gonna make things happen,” Trump said.

Martin admitted Saturday the Democratic Party is trying to shake off a lull after Republicans retook the White House and both houses of Congress. To boot, New Jersey hasn’t elected one party to three straight terms in the governor’s office since 1961.

“I think what most people want to see is if our Democratic Party will get up off our asses and fight,” Martin told the audience that stood on the lawn outside the house in the rain to hear him speak. “Why have we lost ground with so many people? Because they believe we’re not gonna fight. They believe we’re weak. They believe we’re spineless.

“Let’s get out there and fight.”

Six candidates are running in Tuesday’s primary for the Democratic nomination to succeed Murphy. And all signs show it’s a very tight race.

Advertisement

The five-man Republican primary is different: Ciattarelli, a former state Assemblyman who came within about 3 percentage points of upsetting Murphy in 2021, has led big in all polls and has Trump’s critical endorsement.

Though there are still 800,000 more registered Democrats in New Jersey, Republicans have gained ground and Trump shrank his margin of defeat in the state last year.

On Saturday, Martin said Republicans’ “best opportunity to stop us” is in Jersey — and even noted Ciattarelli is well liked.

“While Jack may be a nice guy, Donald Trump is not and you can expect (Ciattarelli) to fall in line,” the DNC chair said.

“At some point, we have to remind Americans who we are,” Martin added. “Donald Trump goes around talking about making America great again, but he ignores the values that built this country.”

Advertisement

Next year is big for Jersey, too. Democrats believe one of the seats key to retaking the U.S. House in Trump’s midterms lies in the state’s purple 7th congressional district, home to Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. Martin’s stop Saturday took place there, and several Democrats hoping to unseat Kean were on hand.

The six Democrats running in the gubernatorial primary are: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller, and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney. All of them have repeatedly promised to combat Trump.

Last week, Trump called the Dem contenders “literally lunatics.”

The DNC has not endorsed a candidate. Martin praised all of them.

“We’re going to make sure we’re investing a lot of time, energy, and money to keep this state blue,” he told reporters after his speech. “And I think we’ll prevail in the end. You’ve got six great candidates.”

Advertisement

He said they all “represent the great diversity in our party — the ideological diversity, the geographical diversity.”

Asked how much money the national party will pour into the general election, Martin said: “It will be a significant seven-figure investment in this state.”

He noted the president was back at his Bedminster club this weekend and is slated to attend a UFC event in Newark on Saturday night.

“They’re very bullish on their chances here,” Martin said of Trump and Republicans. “He’s going to put a lot of his own time and personality and money and effort in this state.”

Trump also reiterated his support of Ciattarelli on social media Saturday afternoon.

Advertisement

Also running in the Republican primary are contractor Justin Barbera, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, and former radio host Bill Spadea. Barbera, Kranjac, and Spadea are Trump supporters. Bramnick has been willing to criticize the president.

Early in-person voting runs through Sunday.

Governor's race

The 11 candidates running for New Jersey governor (linearly from top left): Jon Bramnick, Mikie Sherrill, Steven Fulop, Ras Baraka, Mario Kranjac, Josh Gottheimer, Jack Ciattarelli, Justin Barbera, Steve Sweeney, Bill Spadea, and Sean Spiller.Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X at @johnsb01.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

New Jersey

Ras Baraka eyes New Jersey governor job after 11 years as Newark mayor

Published

on

Ras Baraka eyes New Jersey governor job after 11 years as Newark mayor


NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka believes it is time for him to make the move from the mayor’s office to the governor’s office.

“Being in charge of Newark for over a decade, you can see a lot of things we’ve been able to accomplish, but not for as many people as we wanted to accomplish it for,” Baraka said. “I think in the governor’s office, you can do a lot more for people across the state of New Jersey who witnessed in our party the same issues that we have from housing to violence to Medicaid to Medicare to health care.”

In his 11 years as mayor of Newark, the city has seen a tremendous growth spurt – the city skyline is etched with new businesses that moved in and new partnerships have brought more jobs.

“We’ve reduced crime, we’ve changed the lead service lines, we went up twice in our Moody’s financial rating in the city, we’ve turned people’s Section 8 vouchers into mortgages,” Baraka said.

Advertisement

Under his leadership, Newark Public Schools are back under local control and flourishing.

As governor, he wants to control costs across the board to make living more affordable.

“We have too many school districts, we have more school districts than cities, and we have too many cities, more cities than California, which is eight times our size,” Baraka said. “And so it’s incredibly inefficient and we’re paying two or three times for similar services or same services that we could combine and reduce our costs.”

He has multi-pronged plan to address housing, which includes a capital fund for affordable housing, subsidized affordable home ownership, tax relief for home owners, a cap on rent increases, and regulating investment firms that impact housing and raising filing fees for evictions.

On higher education, Baraka says he will push for free community college and partner universities with private sector leaders to recruit and retain local talent.

Advertisement

Some critics called his recent arrest outside the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center a political stunt.

“I was down there every day, if I wanted to do a political stunt, I could have done it at 7:00 in the morning, I’m there every day, 7 o’clock, when I was there earlier that day with the ICE agents out there in the front,” he said.

He was asked if he would try to have it shut down as governor.

“Well, I think what we should try to do as governor is to make sure that we don’t have private prisons in New Jersey,” Baraka said.

There are six Democrats and five Republicans in the running for New Jersey governor. Eyewitness News will profile a candidate for governor each day this week.

Advertisement

———-

* Get Eyewitness News Delivered

* More New Jersey news

* Send us a news tip

* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts

Advertisement

* Follow us on YouTube


Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News

Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.

Copyright © 2025 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

New Jersey

Haddon Township Pride Parade’s 5th year in New Jersey comes alive with a message: “Choose joy”

Published

on

Haddon Township Pride Parade’s 5th year in New Jersey comes alive with a message: “Choose joy”


Hundreds lined Haddon Avenue in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Thursday night for the annual Pride Parade, with all the colors and feelings of pride on full display.

“It’s awesome, it’s beautiful, it’s what Pride is,” said Lauren Smith from Voorhees.

The parade featured bands, floats, entertainment and participants of the two and four-legged variety.

“This is our second year coming. We came last year and had an absolute blast, so we’re back again,” said Gracie Broglin from West Deptford.

Advertisement

Randy Teague is the mayor of Haddon Township.

“It means that everyone is welcome, we’re an inclusionary community and we accept everybody,” says Teague.

For many, this night is a chance to be accepted.

“It just makes us feel very welcome and feel comfortable and safe together,” said Dejenee Mathis from Marlton.

Emily Munsick came out with her wife and two little girls.

Advertisement

“It’s really nice that this is here, they look around and they see, ‘Oh, two moms, OK, I have the same thing,’ so it’s important to have that community,” Munsick said.

This is the fifth year for the Haddon Township Pride Parade. Last year, more than 3,000 people marched in the parade and organizers said this year was even bigger.

Brendan Slavin is on the Board for the Haddon Township Equity Initiative, which sponsors the parade.

“This year we actually are expecting about 4,000 (people) and we’re about 30% larger on the participant count, businesses, local businesses that came in,” Slavin said.

This year’s theme is “Choose Joy,” a message Slavin and many others hope will march on during this month of Pride and beyond.

Advertisement

“Joy is something that isn’t given to you. So it’s something the world can’t take from you either. So in the world, you can choose to be angry, you can choose to be upset with everything, you can choose all this political climate stuff, just choose joy,” Slavin said. “That’s something you can protect, something that spreads easily, too. So just choose joy.”



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending