New Jersey
NJ disability program faces $3M cut in proposed budget. Advocates call it ‘devastating’
Charlie Stile on the 2026 NJ fiscal budget address
Political columnist Charlie Stile breaks down what Gov. Phil Murphy said in 2026 fiscal budget address in Trenton on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023.
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.
We’re now officially less than a week before we spring forward in New Jersey, and everyone has an opinion on it. The clock change, by the way, will happen on Sunday, Mar. 8, 2026. We’ll essentially skip the 2 a.m. hour and gain the extra hour of daylight in the evening.
But the reality is, we don’t gain a thing when we do this. We’re so conditioned to believe we gain sunlight, but all we’re doing is shifting the clocks. Animals don’t do this, and are unaffected by what a clock says.
ALSO READ: Snow vs. no snow: How most in NJ feel after latest blizzard
Our pets, on the other hand, are forced to change with our practice of doing this. It really is an outdated practice, but we can’t stop it just like that simply because we’ll either complain about it being too dark during winter mornings under daylight saving, or getting dark too soon during summer nights under standard time.
It should be a lot simpler. And for those of us in New Jersey, it can be. Here’s what I think we should do.
Time clocks calendar thumbs up green check approve sunrise sunset
Leave the clock, adjust our day
When I worked on a golf course, all we did was adjust when we came in based on when the sun came up. During the longer days, we started at 6 a.m. And when the sunrise was later than 6 a.m., we adjusted our start time to 7 a.m.
Why can’t we just do this when it comes to work and school? Leave the clocks in standard time since that’s the one truly aligned with the Earths rotation. During the winter, make the regular workday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., then adjust it to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the summer. It’s just that simple.
In other words, we’d be following Natural Daylight Time. Just get rid of the clock change, and adjust our day based on the sunrise. Problem solved.
Final flakes: When does snow season end in NJ?
Gallery Credit: Dan Zarrow
Significant or historical events in New Jersey for March (in chronological order)
Gallery Credit: Dan Alexander
The above post reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host & content contributor Mike Brant. Any opinions expressed are his own.
The United States and Israel announced a major military assault against Iran Saturday morning, sending shockwaves through the Middle East. The massive aerial attack killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
President Trump says “heavy and pinpoint bombing” of Iran will continue for as long as necessary.
The strikes sparked demonstrations in Philadelphia and across the country. Reaction from Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey lawmakers to Operation Epic Fury was swift.
Pennsylvania lawmakers react
CBS News Philadelphia was at an event Saturday night at Villanova University with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
While the governor didn’t have time to take our questions, he said in a statement:
“In going to war with Iran, the President has not adequately explained why this war is urgent now, what this military campaign may look like, or what the strategic objective is.”
Both Pennsylvania senators expressed views of support for the strike.
Republican Dave McCormick released a statement, writing: “They (Iran) are the world’s number one sponsor of terror. The president has given the ayatollahs a chance for a deal, and they have rejected a path to peace and prosperity.”
Democrat John Fetterman posted on social media: “President Trump has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region.”
Delaware senator shares concern
Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware is concerned the move by the Trump administration further destabilizes the region.
“I’m hopeful that this phase of war will come to a quick conclusion,” Coons said over a Zoom interview with CBS News Philadelphia. “I’m alarmed President Trump launched a full spectrum war against Iran with our ally Israel without meaningfully consulting the American people.”
New Jersey lawmakers split on strikes
New Jersey Senator Andy Kim, a democrat, called the attack an appalling action by the president.
“He literally called this a war and said American lives could be lost and to be able to do this with justification, no congressional authorization, and most importantly American people don’t want this.”
South Jersey Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew arguing the attack removed a critical threat to national security:
“What we are witnessing now is a decisive response to years of aggression. The leadership of the world’s largest state sponsor of terror has been dealt a powerful blow. We killed one of the most evil men in the world….”
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Chester County, said in a post on X that although “Iran is a very bad actor on the world stage … the American people have not been given any evidence of an appreciable change, and Congress did not authorize any action.”
“President Trump, who promised no wars, is now again putting the lives of our men and women in uniform in grave danger all while trampling all over the Constitution,” she said.
“Trump promised Americans no new wars,” state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, said in a post on X. “Every word out of his damn mouth is a lie.”
U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Delaware County, said in a post on X that Trump has “done nothing” to prove that the military action will make Americans safer.
“The people of Iran deserve peace and democracy, but the United States must support these goals without plunging our nation into another endless war,” Scanlon said.
U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, joined Kim in calling for a vote on the War Powers Resolution “to stop Trump’s reckless warmongering.”
“After claiming last June he ‘completely and totally obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear program, President Trump launched yet another illegal, ill-conceived attack on Iran,” Evans said in a statement. “These escalations only put American lives, at home and abroad, at greater risk and drag our country towards another endless war.”
In a post on X, U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery County, called the military operation in Iran the result of “the erratic decision-making of an irrational President.”
“Americans do not want war,” Dean said. “Americans do not want to send their sons and daughters into foreign conflict. Americans do not want to live in fear of an ever-escalating, volatile situation.”
In a statement, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., lambasted the military action as “a reckless new war of choice with no clear strategy and no clear end point.”
“This is not how a democracy goes to war,” Coons said. “Less than five years after the end of the longest war in American history, the United States is once again staring down another open-ended conflict with a hostile country in the Middle East that could cost the lives of many American service members.”
U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., said in a statement that Trump’s “reckless actions demonstrate a troubling lack of clear foreign policy strategy” and also called for a vote on the War Powers Resolution.
“He has inched us closer to war on a whim and the last thing we need is another open-ended war in the Middle East,” she said. “Escalation without a clear strategy risks putting Americans in harm’s way and sets a dangerous precedent, signaling to adversaries like China and Russia that there are no consequences to aggression.”
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., said in a post on X that he is praying for “our brave troops and our steadfast allies who stand with us during this challenging and noble mission.”
“The president has given the ayatollahs a chance for a deal, and they have rejected a path to peace and prosperity,” McCormick said.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., joined Republicans in praising the operations.
“President Trump has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region. God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel,” he said in a post on X.
Pennsylvania Treasurer and GOP gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity said in a post on X that she “will always stand with the brave men and women of our military who serve with strength, discipline, and honor to protect our nation.”
This story may be updated.
WHYY News reporter Phil Davis contributed to this story.
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