NJPRI Press Releases

March 6, 2009 - Analysis of State Budget Crisis Calls for Prioritizing Human Needs and Revenue Solutions

EDISON – The Poverty Research Institute (PRI) of Legal Services of New Jersey (LSNJ) today released the summary report from the sixth edition of its annual budget analysis report series. Eye on the Budget 2009: Summary of Major Analysis and Recommendations provides an overview of the current state budget crisis and makes specific recommendations for addressing the existing revenue shortfall and prioritizing urgent expenditure needs.

“There is no doubt that the State is facing a serious crisis in the current and coming fiscal years,” stated Melville D. Miller, Jr., president and general counsel of LSNJ. “In this context, it is more important than ever that New Jersey prioritize the most critical human needs of our most vulnerable residents in allocating scarce state resources. This report examines how the state budget meets these most basic human needs. As with all PRI reports, our hope is that better information about poverty will produce better public policy decisions, better strategies, solutions to poverty’s problems and, ultimately, fewer legal problems for the poor.”

“This summary analyzes the State’s current challenges and options,” according to Serena Rice, managing director of PRI and the primary author of the report. “It explains how both the recession and the longer-term structural budget deficit have combined to undercut the adequacy of current state revenues, and the necessity for the next state budget to include recommended new revenue raisers that will protect the State’s economy and low-income residents.”

One source of additional funding, according to Lowell Arye, executive director of the Alliance for the Betterment of Children with Disabilities, is the federal government. “When the State does more, by expanding programs,” he said, “it can get more money from the federal government. The recently passed economic stimulus package can also provide the State with more funding – since there is an increased federal match for the next two years for Medicaid purposes.”

“The report also examines how the State is currently using its resources,” continued Rice. “In a time when the need for state programs and services is dramatically expanding and resources to meet these needs are diminishing, the State must ensure it is operating as efficiently and effectively as possible. This includes maximizing federal dollars wherever possible, and devoting the necessary resources to support the success of effective and needed programs.”

The Reverend Bruce Davidson, director of the Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry in New Jersey, echoed this emphasis on the importance of the efficient administration of programs. “One of the things that I appreciate about the report this year is that it highlights the need for the State to increase its capacity to administer the programs already in existence and available to provide the kinds of support that people are looking for. But I think right now state departments are already just overwhelmed – county welfare offices are having a difficult time processing things like food stamps applications, and just trying to manage all of the many programs that are out there.”

The summary highlights eleven immediate and overriding needs from the full report for specific expenditure recommendations. “In times of unprecedented budget pressures, it is all the more imperative to identify those needs that are most immediate and pressing,” stated Miller. “This report calls for the State to prioritize investments in specific areas where the need is so great, or has been ignored for so long, that no further delay can be allowed. Commitment to these human needs of vulnerable state residents must be addressed before efforts to trim the fat or share the pain through state spending cuts.” The revenue proposals in the report would provide significantly more funds than are required to address the eleven expenditure recommendations, and a portion of the federal stimulus funds coming to New Jersey could be devoted to at least six of the recommendations.

Starting at 10:00 a.m. on March 6, the summary report may be downloaded from Poverty Research Institute's Budget Analysis Project page.

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Legal Services is New Jersey’s statewide system of seven non-profit corporations which provides free legal help in civil cases to those in true poverty (below 200 percent of the federal poverty level) in all 21 New Jersey counties. LSNJ organized the Poverty Research Institute in 1997 to marshal information from its own experiences in serving New Jersey’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable people, link it to other available data and create an ongoing and reliable base of information on the extent, causes and effects of poverty, as well as potential remedies. LSNJ’s hope is that, through information, data and analysis, major problems, including legal problems, of those in poverty may be obviated, and the consequent need for legal representation thereby reduced. This report was supported in part by a grant from the Fund for New Jersey.