By Assemblyman Alex Sauickie

About two months ago, I wrote in these pages about the governor’s state budget proposal and how the budget process works in the Legislature. As we head into the final weeks of “budget season” in Trenton, I’d like to remind you of the process and tell you how I’m using it to help area residents and people across our state.

First, the governor proposes a budget. This is traditionally done in conjunction with a speech to a joint legislative session. Gov. Murphy gave his at the end of February. Following that, official documents with details of the governor’s budget plan are released.

Then the budget committees of the Assembly and Senate hold hearings, usually starting with open public hearings for public comment and then proceeding to “departmental hearings,” when representatives of each state department go before the committees to present their parts of the budget proposal and answer lawmakers’ questions.

Next, legislators submit “budget resolutions” to the respective committees asking for specific changes to the budget proposal. After this, the committees produce a budget bill based on the governor’s proposal but with changes the committees deem necessary or desirable.

These budget resolutions allow individual legislators, like me, to make direct requests for budget changes that we think will best serve our constituents and the state. The state budget is normally adopted in late June because the state operates on a fiscal year that begins July 1st.

So, for this upcoming new budget year, I filed some resolutions to change a few of the governor’s budget priorities in favor of what I think is better for my constituents. In a way, they’re kind of “new year’s resolutions,” only they’re about you, not me.

As a reminder, I didn’t plan to rely only on these resolutions. I testified before the Assembly Budget Committee on school aid and the serious harm the governor’s proposed budget would do to Ocean and Monmouth county schools in particular. I also sent a letter to Governor Murphy and to budget committee leaders on the subject.

I’ll say more later about school aid. Having just honored our fallen military members on Memorial Day, I thought this first entry in a planned series on my budget requests should focus on veterans.

I’ve welcomed veterans into my office to discuss problems they run into, large and small. One that I’ve heard about is the simple need to ensure veterans know what benefits and services are already offered to them. While the state has a website with information on state and federal veterans’ programs, state and county operated veterans’ services offices, and several veterans’ advocacy organizations, there remains a need to get this information out to vets more effectively.

One of my budget requests is for more funding to market veterans’ services. It’s for a modest $500,000, perhaps a lot to you and me but a rounding error in a budget of over $50 billion with an $8-10 billion surplus. This would support print and social media advertising directed at veterans so that they can benefit from the programs already in place for them.

Gov. Murphy’s proposed budget includes $12 million to help build a French art museum upstate called the “Centre Pompidou × Jersey City.” While I have nothing against French art, I don’t see it as a priority over our state’s veterans. I think we can take 1/24th of that money to benefit vets, which is what my budget request does.

I’ve also written in these pages about the incredible work being done by an Ocean County nonprofit, as well as nonprofits across the state, to help homeless people – many of whom are veterans – get temporary shelter when it’s very cold outside. This is done under the state’s “Code Blue” program. I was surprised to learn that grants to these groups from the town and the county are not matched by the state, which after all enacted the program.

So another budget request asks for $1 million to provide up to 20 matching grants of up to $50,000. This is based on my bipartisan legislation (A5118) that would do the same, and would again take some money from the French art museum to keep people alive during the winter. While a bipartisan team of senators introduced my Assembly bill and got it out of a Senate committee unanimously, the process can be slow, and I’d love to see this funded in the new state budget.

Finally, another budget request is for $12 million to place a veterans’ nursing home in Ocean or Monmouth county, which would be named after my predecessor and great veterans’ advocate, Assemblyman Ronald S. Dancer. According to census figures, Ocean and Monmouth have among the highest numbers of veterans in the state.

This mirrors my bipartisan legislation, A5119. The funds would be taken from federal Covid-related aid, as the State Auditor reported in April that the state has $5.14 billion in such funds still uncommitted. Vets should be able to stay near their family, friends and loved ones if they need nursing home care.

French art is nice, but it didn’t fight for our country.

Alex Sauickie is a life-long Jackson resident who represents his home town and 13 other towns in the State Assembly.

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Note: This opinion piece originally appeared in The Jackson Times by Jersey Shore Online in its publication dated June 10, 2023.