New Jersey

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

Published

8 months ago

April 1, 2025

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

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.”

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.

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.

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.”

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.

“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.

“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.

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New Jersey

N.J. lawmakers, advocates exploring different ideas to save NJ PBS

Published

4 hours ago

November 19, 2025

Press Room

N.J. lawmakers, advocates exploring different ideas to save NJ PBS

From Camden and Cherry Hill to Trenton and the Jersey Shore, what about life in New Jersey do you want WHYY News to cover? Let us know.

A legislative committee held a hearing this week to reimagine the state’s only public television station, so it can stay operational and continue to provide local news, sports and arts programming for New Jerseyans. NJ PBS announced in September that it will cease operations next summer because of drastic state and federal funding cuts,

NJ PBS, which airs local and national news as well as community and educational programming, used to be known as New Jersey Network. After lawmakers ended public funding for the media company that was run by the state in 2011, WNET in New York City reached an agreement with New Jersey to operate the network, which was renamed NJ PBS.

Bipartisan support

During the 90-minute session, organized by the Senate legislative oversight committee, legislators from both sides of the aisle spoke in support of maintaining public television in the state. Republican Assemblywoman Aura Dunn, who served as the director of federal policy at the Association for America’s Public Television Stations for almost a decade, said for many children and new American citizens, PBS is their first classroom.

“For families that can’t afford private pre-school or expensive streaming service, public television is the only consistent source of educational content in the home,” she said.

Dunn said many parents have told her that Sesame Street was more than just a show.

“It was a trusted partner in their child’s early development, and a critical educational lifeline,” she said.

Democratic Assembly majority leader Lou Greenwald said the power of local news informs and inspires.

“When we invest in honest, reliable, community-based information, we empower people, we bring them into the process and we start to build something that we’ve lost far too much of in recent years, trust,” Greenwald said.

He told the panel that as news organizations have become smaller, with fewer reporters in New Jersey and other states, residents have fewer options to learn what’s going on in their towns.

“It’s about democracy,” said Greenwald. “It’s about community and it’s about a shared truth, in an age when truth is increasingly up for grabs.”

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New Jersey

Charges announced in 2017 NJ double murder of mother, 6-year-old son

Published

22 hours ago

November 18, 2025

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Charges announced in 2017 NJ double murder of mother, 6-year-old son

EVESHAM, N.J. (WPVI) — More than eight years after a horrific murder of a Burlington County mother and son, authorities have announced charges against Nazeer Hameed.

“We call upon the United States government and the government of India to take swift and decisive action to ensure that this individual is extradited without delay,” said Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia Bradshaw.

In March of 2017, police were called to the Fox Meadow Apartments in Maple Shade. There, they found 38-year-old Sasikala Narra and her son, 6-year-old Anish Narra, stabbed to death, discovered by husband and father Hanu Narra.

“Multiple blood stain samples were collected by detectives. In analyzing the blood one droplet collected did not belong to either victim or Hanu Narra,” said Lt. Brian Cunningham of the Burlington County Prosecutor’s office.

Nazeer Hameed became a person of interest when it was discovered that he was accused of stalking Hanu Narra – with whom he worked.

Police say the suspect lived in the same apartment complex, but returned to India six months after the murders. He’s still believed to be in India now.

After years of trying to get a DNA sample from Hameed, detectives say his employer, Cognizant Technology Solutions, turned over his laptop – and that provided a DNA sample confirming that blood found at the scene was his.

An attorney for the victim’s family spoke after the announcement.

“It was shocking more than anything else. The family is very appreciative of all the authorities. That they didn’t give up. That they kept fighting,” said attorney Donald Browne.

The announcement was held here at the Indian Cultural Center of South Jersey, authorities thanking the local Indian organization for their support, including help with translating documents during the investigation.

All questions about the extradition process and what comes next were referred to the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

Authorities say they still do not have a clear motive for the killings.

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New Jersey

New Jersey hospital closes, officials ‘deeply disappointed’ | Chief Healthcare Executive

Published

2 days ago

November 18, 2025

Press Room

New Jersey hospital closes, officials ‘deeply disappointed’ | Chief Healthcare Executive

A hospital serving Jersey City for more than 150 years has closed, stunning area residents and leaving New Jersey state regulators frustrated.

Hudson Regional Health closed Heights University Hospital over the weekend. The facility was formerly known as Christ Hospital. Hudson Regional Health took over the hospital after its previous owner, CarePoint Health, went into bankruptcy.

While the hospital is closed, Hudson Regional says it will maintain an emergency department at the facility. Hudson Regional also says patients will be able to get care at the system’s three other hospitals in northern New Jersey.

“The Heights University Hospital Emergency Department remains open and fully operational for all emergency needs. We are committed to continue providing safe, reliable, and timely care to our community,” the system said in a post on Facebook.

In another message posted on Facebook Monday, the system said the emergency department would be open around the clock and supporting services would ensure care.

Hudson Regional also pointed to an inability to secure needed funding from state officials.

“Despite the best efforts of HRH leadership and advocacy from a number of elected officials, the governor’s office declined to provide the necessary funding to continue operations at Heights University Hospital as an acute care hospital,” the system said on Facebook.

About 700 employees are affected by the closure, but Hudson Regional says the “majority” of those employees have been, or will be, offered positions at the system’s other three hospitals. “All earned wages and benefits will be provided,” the system said.

Hudson Regional cited “unanticipated setbacks” in the decision to close the hospital, including losses in charity care and the challenges of caring for a patient population that has lower incomes. The system said nearly two-thirds of its patients have little or no insurance.

The health system said it recognizes the need for a strong healthcare facility in the Jersey City community and says it will work with local officials to bring that to fruition. The system also points to the investment of over $300 million in its facilities and other efforts to improve the facilities.

The New Jersey Department of Health indicated its dissatisfaction over the closing of the hospital.

In an email to Chief Healthcare Executive Monday, a department spokesperson said the department said it was notified last week that Hudson Regional “failed to fund their payroll and started transferring its patients to surrounding hospitals.”

The health department said it advanced nearly $2 million to the hospital to avoid a disruption in services, and another $2 million grant last month to help make payroll and avoid an abrupt closure. The state also gave over $10 million to the former CarePoint system to support it through bankruptcy.

The department also said Hudson Regional didn’t follow a restructuring plan approved by a federal bankruptcy court.

“And it has not followed through on its commitments to the community it serves and to the State to turn things around after taking over the hospital,” the department said.

Hudson Regional had filed an application with state regulators to close the hospital. The department said it was still reviewing the petition, “yet Heights University Hospital has closed acute care services without the Department’s approval.” The department said it will continue to ensure the emergency department remains functioning.

“We will continue to hold Heights University Medical Center and Hudson Regional Hospital accountable through this closure with patient health and safety as our top priority,” the health department spokesperson said.

CBS New York reports the swift closure of the hospital stunned neighbors. “This is beyond devastating,” a nurse said.

Hudson County Executive Craig Guy said in a post on X that he was “deeply disappointed” by the closure of the hospital.

“This acute care facility has been a lifeline for Jersey City and Hudson County residents for generations, and its loss will have a real and immediate impact on residents who rely on timely, accessible emergency and inpatient care,” Guy said.

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