Assembly panel gets public input on budget

William Wills' son, David, is autistic, but in some ways, he is much like other 22-year-olds: He likes to buy movies and music and an occasional pair of jeans or sneakers.

He might have less money for those kinds of purchases, though, under a proposal included in Gov. Christie's budget. The spending plan, which seeks to cut state expenses to hold down taxes, would require people with developmental disabilities to pay more for community-based care.

For David Wills, that means contributing all but $100 of his $824-a-month Social Security check, up from $533, according to his father. The $100 would be set aside as a personal living allowance.

"That $100 a month, even for him, it's not a lot," William Wills, of Gloucester City, told Assembly Budget Committee members in Collingswood yesterday morning. The panel came to South Jersey for its first hearing on Christie's budget.

The Senate budget committee is scheduled to hold a similar hearing today at Rutgers-Camden's law school, starting at 9 a.m.

The testimony yesterday featured many familiar faces who for years have decried the looming impact of proposed budget cuts. There were advocates for hospitals and the mentally ill, for school boards, social service agencies, and other recipients of state support.

"Many of these same people have these same pleas for all the years that I have been in the Legislature, and they have fallen on deaf ears in many cases in the past," said Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R., Burlington).

He said it would be "more and more difficult" to make changes to the budget, given the state's precarious financial position. Christie said he closed an $11 billion deficit.

Malone said many of the same groups talked about underfunding even in years when the budget reached $33.5 billion. Christie's plan cuts spending to $29.3 billion.

"Even when we had the largest budget [in state history], we still didn't address the needs of the individuals that are coming before us today, and that is part of the tragedy," Malone said.

The impact of funding cuts was reflected in many ways.

Sharon Hartson Stine, president of the Merchantville Board of Education, said her K-8 district was dropping preschool for 4-year-olds and going from a full-day to half-day kindergarten program. The district's budget would include a 4 percent property-tax increase, equal to about $40 on the average home, after cuts of $760,000 of state aid in the current and proposed budgets.

"We're running as lean and as mean as we possibly can," Stine said. With the district's surplus depleted by cuts, one big emergency - a broken heating system, for example - could leave the board "bankrupt," she said.

Guillermo Beytagh-Maldonado, executive director of the Hispanic Directors' Association of New Jersey, said the state budget would cut the entire $3.7 million for the Center for Hispanic Policy, Research and Development, which distributes grants to community organizations.

"We are left with zero, nada," he said.

Not every group was upset, though.

Lowell Arye, executive director of the Alliance for the Betterment of Citizens with Disabilities, said Christie's budget was fair to the disabled, considering the scope of the overall spending cuts.

"We're very happy. The governor has done a great job of understanding our needs," Arye said, though he added that his group had concerns about some cuts, including proposed $3 co-pays for medical day care.

Assembly Budget Chairman Louis Greenwald (D., Camden) said that people coming to the committee know there is little money for state aid but that efficiencies from fewer mandates could help groups save money and continue providing services.

He said some cuts may not have been well-thought-out to fairly spread the budget's impact.

"Money's going to be tight," Greenwald said. "We may have to shift some money around from some areas to another.. . . I don't know that the true concept of sharing the pain has been expressed here today."