Mikie Sherrill removed $13 million for Camden County’s regional jail proposal in her budget proposal
Gov. Mikie Sherrill wants the state to take back funding for a Camden County jail that the New Jersey legislature and Gov. Phil Murphy allocated at the end of the former governor's term.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s budget proposal would claw back $13 million for a proposed regional jail complex spearheaded by Camden County.
That money was allocated to Camden 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 that chorus in her first budget speech on Tuesday as she made her case to lawmakers for how she wants taxpayer money to be spent next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
She said the last-minute items totaled nearly $3 billion in additional spending, including $2.5 billion in corporate tax breaks and $240 million to projects throughout the state like the jail and other local initiatives.
“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 January allocations were put into the current fiscal year’s budget, though the county has not used it yet. That makes it an easy option as the governor seeks spending cuts.
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.
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.
Dan Keashen, a Camden County spokesperson, told The Inquirer that the $13 million budget allocation would have been used to work with professional service providers for the design and construction of the rehabilitation center to help move the project forward — but it won’t halt its progress.
Keashen said the jail would have an emphasis on rehabilitation and re-entry 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.”
The Inquirer reached out to the Department of the Treasury and Sherrill’s office and is awaiting response.