Where's the pork in New Jersey's 2026 budget?
By: Katie Sobko
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... Though New Jersey's 2026 fiscal plan was signed into law on June 30, [2025] details on special line-item requests included in the state's new budget - commonly called pork spending - were not made public by the Legislature until late on August 8. [2025]
.....
Nearly 600 projects were funded in the new budget, and they run the gamut form programs to help Garden State residents afford their utility bills and student teacher stipends to aid for individual school districts and investment in municipal infrastructure.
..... The budget ballooned to $58.8 billion - an increase of about $727 million over the governor's proposal from earlier this ayer [2025] and $2.2 billion more than the fiscal year 2025 budget.
..... Revenue projections indicate that the state will earn about $57 billion in the new fiscal year, [2026] meaning the budget functions at a structural deficit of $1.47 billion. Projections show a surplus of about $6.7 billion.
..... Of the 858 resolutions posted to the Legislature's website Friday, [08/08/2025] nearly two dozen were sponsored by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, who is up for reelection this year. [2025] Senate President Nick Scutari served as sponsor of 36 resolutions.
..... The budget committee chairs in both chambers also sponsored multiple resolutions: 21 for state Senator Paul Sarlo and 74 for Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin.
..... There were only six resolutions that featured a Republican sponsor, one as a prime sponsor and five as co-sponsors.
What types of spending?
.... Scutari secured $2 million for the union County Improvement Authority, $3 million for capital improvements in the Fairview school district, and $3 million for a community block grant in Union County.
.....
Coughlin manged to bring $1 million to his district for ferry terminal support in Carteret, $1 million to the Perth Amboy Fire Department for substation land acquisition, and $500,000 each to Sayreville for a record digitization project and South Amboy for upgrades at Fifth Street Park.
..... Sarlo, who is also mayor of WoodRidge, managed to secure $9.5 million for capital improvements to the WoodRidge school district.
..... He also got $500,000 for renovations at the Femoral Park athletic field in Rutherford and another $500,000 million for the Lis Lane Athletic Complex in East Rutherford, as well as $250,000 for the Broad Street Sports Complex in Carlstadt.
..... Those projects received $3 million, $2 and $1.5 million respectively in the fiscal year 2024 budget.
.....
Among the other programs and institutions to receive money were Centenary University, where Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Dale Caldwell currently serves as president, which will receive $1.5 million, and the Middlesex County Improvement Authority, which will receive $9 million for educational infrastructure. The authority has received $193 million in 18 line items in the last three years.
..... Dozens of towns throughout the sate got $1 million or more for specific infrastructure or capital projects, including flood mitigation Plainfield, lead pipe replacement in Elizabeth and sanitation vehicles in Newark.
.....
Medical services and health care systems throughout the state also saw funding, such as $20 million to Atlantic Health System for a mobile training center and $5 million to Hackensack Meridian Health Carrier Clinic for capital improvements.
.....
There were appropriations for tuition aid grants as well as programs at state colleges and universities, including $10 million to Ken University for New Jersey city University toward merger costs, $4 million for Virtual Health College of Medicine and Life Sciences at Rowan University, $1 million to expand the nursing program at Ramapo College, and $3.5 million to Bloomfield Collage of Montclair State University for transitional aid.
How do appropriators work?
..... This isn't the first time these sorts of appropriations were made. Each year in the waning days of budget negotiations, legislators add items that benefit their specific communities, as well as larger projects.
..... Although the statute says resolutions that add new spending for these pet projects must be published 14 days before the state Senate begins deliberation its final spending bill, lawmakers typically ignore their own rules.
..... The 2023, 2024 and 2025 lists of special request items were also released in August, after the summer recess stated, when attention was no longer on Trenton.
..... State Senate Republican Budget Officer Declan O'Scanlon said in a statement that what was released was "not transparency" but "deliberately sanitized of an explanations of how taxpayer money is being spent with sponsorships being manipulated after the fact."
..... "Democrats jammed through 400 secretive special line-items totaling 4500 million of taxpayer money into the budget at midnight without justification or explanation," he said. "This is the ultimate form of disrespect to the people of the garden State, and we should all be outraged. George Orewell would be proud."
..... Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email" sobko@northjersey.com