Gov. Mikie Sherrill called out a proposed South Jersey jail in her budget brief. Camden County was not happy.
The South Jersey jail complex was awarded $13 million by former Gov. Phil Murphy's administration.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration pointed to a last-minute $13 million infusion of state funding for a Camden County jail as a budget line she won’t repeat.
The money was allocated to the South Jersey county as part of a flurry of spending pushed through the legislature and signed by former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy at the end of his term.
Critics said Murphy and lawmakers poured state money into controversial projects in a nontransparent way.
Sherrill, a Democrat who took office in January, added to the chorus of criticism Tuesday when she delivered her first budget speech. She railed against what she described as $3 billion in last-minute spending under Murphy, including $2.5 billion in corporate tax breaks and $240 million to projects throughout the state, which includes the jail funding in Camden County.
“Our work starts by ending previous administrations’ bad habit of tacking last-minute giveaways onto each budget,” she said.
“That can’t happen,” she added. “We can’t afford that process anymore. It’s not accountable; it’s not efficient; it’s not what the people of New Jersey deserve.”
The Camden project appears in a budget document list of Murphy-era expenses that she won’t take on. The document only includes a handful of projects with this kind of state aid .
Danielle Currie, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Treasury, said the list is meant to be a summary of some of the largest changes from one budget to the next.
The jail project received the most out of several state aid projects included in the last-minute spending spree.
The document rollout listed the project as a “decrease,” which caused confusion among Camden County officials who interpreted that as a loss in funding, said Camden County spokesperson Dan Keashen.
Camden County has not used the $13 million yet, but it plans to tap it to help pay for the design and construction of the rehabilitation center, Keashen said.
He said the jail project has been allocated a total of about $45 million of state money over the years.
The Southern New Jersey Regional Rehabilitation and Reentry Center would be a multi-county jail complex serving South Jersey. The project is in its early stages and doesn’t have a location yet after a prospective site in Winslow Township fell through last month. The county is in the process of finding a new site with local support after fierce opposition in Winslow.
Camden County has proposed the facility for years and wants to collaborate with neighboring counties on the project. Keashen said the project is a couple of years away from construction beginning.
Camden County officials have described the project as an “economic boon” and predict it will bring $1 billion in new construction, including retail space and offices for professional services like law firms.
Keashen said the jail will have an emphasis on rehabilitation and reentry services.
“The overall regionalized project is still moving forward, still is going to provide a tremendous saving to taxpayers and be a benefit to the overall community,” he said. “Regardless of the movement of this current budget document, we are still moving this project and concept forward.”