My Daughter Just Wants To Walk at Graduation. Congress Can Help.

By Kelly Brazzo

Fifteen years ago, I noticed something different about my two-year-old daughter, Sammy’s walk. She had a noticeable sway in her hips, a little diva move that seemed more cute than concerning. But when she struggled to keep up in gymnastics and dance, we took her to a physical therapist. After months of sessions, the therapist made a quiet suggestion that changed everything: “It would be nice to have a diagnosis.”

That comment launched a journey no parent imagines. After undergoing genetic testing, only possible because we enrolled in a study at the National Institutes of Health, Sammy was diagnosed with Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy Type 2I/R9, an ultra-rare muscle-wasting disease.

Today, Sammy is 17 — and working hard to be able to walk across the stage at her high school graduation next spring. Whether kids like Sammy can achieve their dreams depends on whether Congress renews the Pediatric Priority Review Voucher (PPRV) program, which expired in December 2024.
Continue reading “My Daughter Just Wants To Walk at Graduation. Congress Can Help.” →

From Labs to Leadership: Preserving American Dominance in Biotechnology

By Sen. Todd Young and John F. Crowley

Picture a world where most life-saving medicines are discovered not in the United States, but in Beijing and Shanghai. Imagine a time when the most advanced biotechnologies — therapies that cure cancer and Alzheimer’s, protect us from pandemics and fuel our economy — are controlled not by America, but by our chief global adversary. That is the future we risk drifting into soon if we do not act now to secure and advance American dominance in biotechnology.

Today, America still leads the world in biotechnology. But China is fast closing the gap and is close to overtaking us. Chinese dominance in biotechnology would have dire, even existential, consequences for our economy and our national security. It would leave Americans dependent on an authoritarian rival for critical medicines, giving China and its allies tremendous global influence.

Continue reading →

Letter to the Editor: Dear former President Barack Obama,

During former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, you chastised “the brothers” for what you perceived as their reluctance to vote for a black female. You said: “We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all corners of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running. Now, I also want to say that that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.”

Did you tell “the brothers” who, for the sake of racial solidarity, you tried to shame into voting for Harris that you only believe in left-wing racial solidarity?

Continue reading →

GUEST OPINION: Give FERC a chance

By Rea S. Hederman Jr

The Center Square

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – or FERC – recently

ruled

that wholesale electricity grid operator, PJM, must set a new price floor for bids to supply electric capacity to PJM’s 13-state mid-Atlantic/Midwest region. State utility regulators in the region are unimpressed by the rule and Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have even

threatened

to leave the PJM market altogether. Such threats are premature.

Motivated by recent power plant subsidies in Illinois, New Jersey and Ohio, FERC’s new pricing rule aims to prevent subsidized power plants from bidding artificially low prices and distorting the electricity-supply market – and to deter neighboring states from following suit. The new rule and subsequent regulator overreaction has broad implications for other electricity markets from New England to California.

Special interests poised to benefit from hard-won subsidies understandably oppose FERC’s effort to curb state-sponsored favoritism. And those same special interests are now pressuring states to leave PJM in order to save their subsidized revenues. During a February earnings call, executives of a Chicago-based electric utility

opined

that “states are right in looking at what their alternatives are to continued participation in [the markets].” Another utility CEO

said

that as state legislators review energy policy this year, “we’ll be at the table helping where they want help.” Expect utility executives in other states to be similarly “helpful” in the coming months.

The stubborn fact is that state power plant bailouts were escalating out of control and risked a dangerous market distortion. Several PJM states directly or indirectly

subsidize

various forms of renewable energy to the tune of nearly $1 billion per year, and taxpayer subsidies for nuclear and coal plants in New Jersey, Ohio, and Illinois will annually cost about $735 million. Proponents often tout such subsidy schemes as saving local jobs, preserving carbon-free power sources, and raising local tax revenue. But state-backed subsidies made it increasingly difficult to find true market prices at auction, and the schemes’ inherent unfairness pressured other states to adopt their own subsidies.

Enter FERC, which took action designed to maintain some semblance of market efficiency. FERC’s attempt may or may not work, but before state regulators storm out of PJM in a huff, they should keep a few things in mind.

First, consumers benefit from participating in PJM. The regional market helps keep electricity supply reliable and affordable. Access to power across state lines makes for a more dependable grid, and allowing customers to get electricity from the lowest-cost providers across a broad region keeps a lid on utility prices. A

joint academic study

found that market competition reduced electricity prices in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio by about 16 percent from 2009 to 2014 versus their vertically integrated neighbors – Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Ohio alone saw roughly $3 billion per year in total savings.

Second, exiting the regional market will require states to replace PJM’s infrastructure for power plant procurement. And replacement costs aren’t cheap. PJM’s independent market monitor

estimated

that replacing PJM’s infrastructure in Illinois’ ComEd region, for instance, would likely cost customers at least an additional $414 million per year.

Third, electricity prices significantly affect state economies. Electricity is critical to production, and especially to energy-intensive manufacturing. The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center

found

that if Ohio’s renewable energy mandates raise electricity prices by just two percent, the state’s industrial sector employment would drop by more than 10,000 jobs and output would decline by up to $1.4 billion by 2026.

Finally, the new FERC rule allows power plants to apply for an exemption. In a nutshell, if a subsidized plant shows that it would be competitive even without the taxpayer-funded subsidy, it may bid below the rule’s price floor. Thus, power providers have the opportunity to demonstrate that they can provide cheap energy even on a level playing field. They should take it.

FERC’s approach may or may not be perfect. It is simply too soon to tell. And that makes any rush to exit PJM and the regional market a premature move. States and their utility regulators should give the new rule a chance, and avoid a messy, costly divorce that will undoubtedly harm consumers, state economies, and taxpayers.

Rea S. Hederman Jr. is the executive director of the Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute in Columbus, Ohio and vice president of policy.

published by olive-wolverine-471793.hostingersite.com with permission of

The Center Square

GUEST OPINION: America awakes to a national emergency and a weekend at home

By Dan McCaleb |

The Center Square

A day after President Donald Trump issued an

emergency declaration

over the coronavirus pandemic, Americans woke up Saturday realizing life over the next several weeks will be very different.

Schools are closed. Colleges and universities are turning to virtual education online. College students studying far from home are making travel plans to return home early.

Sporting events are postponed or cancelled.

Many workers are being asked to work from home.

Grocery store shelves are empty.

Churches are cancelling services.

Many states have enacted bans on mass gatherings, including parades, concerts and other social events.

Americans\’ 401(k)s are less valuable.

Social distancing is the catch phrase of the day.

As of Friday night, more than 2,200 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that originated in China in December. At least 59 people died: the majority of them, 37, in the state of Washington, the epicenter of the disease in the U.S.

Globally, more than 142,000 cases have been confirmed.

Trump during a Friday afternoon news conference asked Americans not to panic but instead called for a \”shared sacrifice\” so \”we can get past this.\”

Trump\’s emergency declaration makes available up to $50 billion of federal funds to help stop the spread of the disease and frees up other federal resources. He asked every hospital in the country to activate their disaster plans to help deal with the crisis and every state to establish emergency response centers.

He said a public-private partnership will lead to the faster development of new tests, which have been in short supply around the country. Drive-thru testing has begun in some states, and Trump vowed that more would be opening across the country soon.

Health officials say most people are not at high risk of serious complications from COVID-19, but they urge everyone to take proper precautions to help protect people who are in high-risk groups, such as older people and those with chronic health conditions.

Health officials recommend the following precautions:

Those who believe they been exposed to COVID-19 should call their healthcare provider, or the nearest hospital if they lack a healthcare provider

Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for 20 seconds, or use hand sanitizer

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands

Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing

Avoid contact with people who are sick and say home if you are sick

Stay at least 6 feet away from others when in public

posted here with permission of

The Center Square

Guest Opinion: Toll Hike Benefits American Dream Mall, Hurts Commuters

Jeff Tittel, Director

New Jersey Sierra Club

This week, New Jersey Turnpike Authority released more details about a proposed toll increase. The proposed increases include a 36% increase for the New Jersey Turnpike and a 27% increase for the Garden State Parkway. The money from the toll hike will go toward various projects, including full-

time use of NJ Turnpike exit 19W with direct access to the American Dream Mall in the Meadowlands.

“Using toll money to pay for more direct access to the American Dream Mall is a sham. This mega mall was too costly to build and too costly to visit, and now they want New Jersey commuters to pay for a direct exit from the Turnpike to the mall. This is ridiculous. New Jersey taxpayers already paid for that interchange to be moved originally to allow for direct access to the mall and also paid about $2 million in road and rail improvements to benefit the mall. In addition, taxpayers paid over $1 billion to subsidize this monstrosity of a mall, its customers are being charged to enjoy it, and now commuters are being charged even more,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “This hits commuters in the wallet and doesn’t help them get to work. The mall still owes taxpayers millions of dollars for their mega mall, and now they are taking more money out of our wallets.”

The toll increases would be equally applied to all toll rates, including cash, E-ZPas, peak, off-peak, truck and car rates. The rate for a passenger car on the Turnpike would increase by an average of $1.25 and Parkway tolls by 30 cents.

“The tolls for the Turnpike will go up by an average of $1.25 per trip. That means that the average commuter who takes the Turnpike every day will be paying an additional $600 every year just to get to work. Using that money to benefit the American Scheme mega mall is ridiculous because it has already been the largest corporate subsidy in the state’s history. In addition to these toll hikes, people have to pay $24 for parking, and the daily price to ride American Dream rides will be $80 soon. Combined, that’s more than a season pass at Six Flags and just $5 shy for a daily pass to Disney World,” said Jeff Tittel. “The people who work at the American Dream Mall making $11/hour cannot afford to go there, much less drive there with these toll hikes. To spend a full day at the park could take a full week’s wages.”

This toll hike is estimated to raise more than $500 million. The money will support a capital plan that goes through 2029. There are 53 projects that will widen sections of the Parkway and Turnpike. Both roads will also get cashless toll collection, and full-time use of exit 19W. 19W allows direct access from the Turnpike to the Meadowlands sports complex and is currently only open on event days.

“There is no real traffic program for the bus or train services that are reliable, instead the mall will be car-dependent. The project, which comprises 7.1 million square feet of office and commercial space, in order to be successful, it will need to generate around 120,000 to 150,000 cars a day, gridlocking Bergen County with traffic. Everyday traffic will be like game day at Giants Stadium, and now they want to use toll money to benefit the mall,” said Tittel. “The Murphy Administration has been trying to fix traffic problems by proposing a rail plan that will cost $1-$2 billion while NJ Transit is crumbling. That money could have been used to finish the Bergen-Hudson Light Rail Line or important improvements for NJ Transit. Why should we be paying for a rail to a private mall. They created the problem, why should NJ taxpayers and commuters pay to fix it?”

The mall is an estimated 3 million square feet with more than half of that allotted to entertainment and the other 45% of the space will be for retail. There are 11,000 parking spaces and they share 22,000 with MetLife stadium on non-event days. The American Dream/Xanadu mall sits partly on wetlands in an environmentally sensitive area prone to flooding. Meadowlands resources are important for flood control, fisheries, and migratory birds.

“We have been fighting this mega mall for over 20 years because it is too large, it’s in an environmentally sensitive area, and will cause a lot of pollution and traffic. The American Dream/Xanadu site flooded during Hurricane Sandy. The mall’s water park is built on top of wetlands, which means increasingly vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise and storm surges. Studies have shown the entire area will end up under 3 feet of water. The EPA and Fish & Wildlife under President George W. Bush opposed the project because of environmental impacts on clean air and water, and wildlife,” said Tittel. “Overdeveloping the Meadowlands will not only put more people in danger of flooding, but will actually impact wetlands and the fragile ecosystems.”

Governor Murphy believes this project has provided New Jersey residents with extraordinary opportunities for good-paying construction and building jobs, as well as opportunities for New Jersey’s business owners.

“The billions of dollars for American Dream could’ve been used for building schools and colleges, taking lead out of our drinking water, or cleaning up our toxic sites. Instead, this private enterprise is a one-two punch to our wallets, the billions it took to build it and the high price tag to enjoy its amenities. The American Dream mall shows everything that is wrong about New Jersey,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “By proposing to use toll increases to help pay for direct access to the American Dream Mall, the NJ Transit Authority is failing the commuters of New Jersey.”

Guest Opinion: Let\’s Not Panic

Well, I\’d have to say that 2020 is off to a hell of a start. From giant fires ravaging the country of Australia, the death of NBA icon Kobe Bryant, the Coronavirus, stock market volatility and of all things, Prince Harry wants out of the royal family!

Here\’s what I know; I\’m grateful for today and I\’ll take it as it comes. I\’m not

going to play into the fear-mongering on social media when it comes to stock market declines or Coronavirus. My solution is pretty simple; diversify, buy real estate for cash flow, wash my hands frequently and keep trucking along.

On Facebook this week I saw a lot of stoking the fire of fear when it comes to stocks vs. real estate. I don\’t agree with that tactic as I continue to own both stocks along with my real estate. Maybe it\’s the former financial advisor in me, but I don\’t get too emotional when it comes to investments. I make decisions based upon data and return on investment and believe me when I say, that this wasn\’t learned overnight. I got absolutely destroyed in the recession and learned some painful lessons about emotions and following the crowd.

This week I posted on Facebook about a partial note with a 12% yield that we were looking to sell and I had multiple IRA holders in my network reach out to purchase it. If you don\’t know what a partial note is, you can learn more about that

HERE

on our YouTube Channel, but in a nutshell it means that I\’m selling a portion of the payments on a note that I own for a period of time. These are ideal for IRA holders that may want to hold some cash flowing assets in their portfolio along with their stocks and bonds. Did you know that you can also hold these assets in an account for your kids, HSA, Roth or even 401k?

I don\’t think you should have all of your eggs in one basket which is why I own different businesses, stocks, bonds, notes and of course real estate. If you are interested in adding some notes to your portfolio as an income producer, reach out and let\’s schedule a call to learn more about your investment goals to see if they\’re a fit.

It\’s a crazy world we live in and that will continue on. I\’m grateful to have you in my network and I hope you stay healthy and happy!

PS: Don\’t forget to wash your hands! 😉

Regards,

Ben Fredricks

Odell Barnes REO

www.OdellBarnesREO.com

THE INSANE WEEK WE HAD EBOLA

Pastor Joe Marlin

Pastor of The Epiphany Church

On the anti-virtue of fear.

We came home from Rwanda for a few months in 2014 as missionaries for a time to reconnect with family and be ‘invisible’ in our home country, but that was not in the cards for us!

If you google

‘Maple Shade Ebola’

you will find 128,000 results. You will also see articles about it from

local news stations like Actions News

all the way to international

news agencies

like the BBC, CNN, and France 24. Yes, in the middle of that “ebola mania’ it was

our family

that came under the international spotlight, though our identities were never revealed. Not only did our family anonymously become the “Ebola scare of the week” on the news, our case affected international politics as an ebola free Rwanda, decided to impose a visa fee on American visitors for the first time and to check American’s temperature three times a day for 21 days, since ‘technically’ America had cases of Ebola. That was an interesting year. In America and then back in Africa, there wasn’t a day we did not hear about it, even deep in the village where there was no TV people knew about the Rwandans whose kids were not allowed to go to school in New Jersey.

The interviews shown on TV were not flattering of South Jersey, but it was the comment sections, and the overheard conversations at the WAWA and other local spots that was straight up as racist, and ignorant as you can imagine, even getting to the point where people threaten this “Rwandan family” with violence if they tried coming into the school.

We could have tapped out in a bunch of ways, but we didn’t. There were generous offers for our kids to go to a private school. There was also the idea that it could be leaked that this ‘Rwandan family’ are actually missionaries, and that my wife and I where married right in that town. Should our race and the reason we were in Rwanda matter?

You know the answer

Invisibility isn’t even an option for many minorities in majority spaces.

FEAR is a terrible thing, and we are seeing it raise it’s ugly head now with this coronavirus. I was reminded of this when When it comes to our kids, our fears go into hyperdrive. But we must resist fear.

This was a post recently by a friend and fellow pastor. 30 years in America, what is the excuse for this?

At Epiphany, we like to talk about the three chief virtues of a Christian, which are Faith, Hope, and Love. Sadly in the culture and in the Church, we have distorted these virtues into ‘anti-virtues.’ Instead of the three virtues, we find from the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 13, we feed on fear, hate, and lust like a chained up pitbull in a junkyard .

I am going to write about these anti-virtues in the weeks to come but today I just want to encourage to ask yourself what good comes out of stoking fear? Yet that is what sells, that is what gets attention, that is what seems to motivate so many religious and so many irreligious people. True Faith is not your grandma smacking you with a Bible till you ‘fall in line’, True Faith is full of

curiosity

and

courage

. The soil where real genuine faith grows that isn’t fake is a soil where you can ask questions, where you are allowed to have doubts, and where those doubts are addressed thoughtfully and lovingly. Authentic faith also blossoms into courage, it isn’t cursing at the darkness, at the big horrible word. True faith doesn’t care about, need or even want whatever ‘cultural power’ the Church had in the past because it’s not about comfort or power. True faith is at peace because it’s hope is not in being in the majority, but being in the truth.

So I encourage you to consider what news you listen to, consider how much you listen to your friends, and ask yourself, do they stoke the fires of fear, hate, and lust or do they stoke the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love.. If we are honest with ourselves, especially as we look at the Church, so much of what we see doesn’t make us more like Christ, but less.

Let’s wash our hands, get our facts right, and love our neighbor, wherever they are from, and whatever they look like.

POST SCRIPT:Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) IS WAY MORE CONTAGIOUS THAN EBOLA (AND WAY LESS FATAL), THE PRINCIPLE OF THIS BLOG ARE THE SAME, LET’S REJECT FEAR AND HATE. HOWEVER IT IS WISE TO BE PREPARED AS POSSIBLE. SO PAY ATTENTION TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES, BUT TAKE SOME OF THE THINGS YOUR FRIENDS SAY WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

Written by Pastor Joe Marlin, pastor of The Epiphany Church, Monmouth and Sussex Streets, Gloucester City

Guest Opinion: Another Anti-Catholic Joke

Bill Donohue | CNBNews Contributor

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on another anti-Catholic joke:

We know Seth Meyers will never trash Muslims, but he can safely insult Catholics knowing we will not resort to violence. He won\’t trash Jews because he doesn\’t have the guts to do so, and he sure won\’t attack \”people of color.\” The most protected of all classes these days are the LGBTQXYZ people: he

would actually quit his job before mocking them.

Yesterday, we mentioned that Trevor Noah, David Spade, and the Onion libeled priests with \”jokes\” about the coronavirus. To show how creative the Hollywood writers are, Seth Meyers chimed in last night with one of his own. \”Despite Italy\’s national lockdown, Pope Francis today urged priests to visit coronavirus patients, and if there\’s one thing priests respond to, it\’s urges.\”

No reasonable person seeks to justify someone who, in the heat of a confrontation, lashes out against his adversary with a bigoted remark. But at least the context helps explain the outburst.

What do we say about someone who makes a gratuitous, totally unprovoked, sweeping statement about an entire class of people, maliciously assaulting them?

This is the state of anti-Catholicism in America today. Those who claim to be the most tolerant people in the country—the Hollywood elite—have more in common with white supremacists than they know.

Contact Lauren Manasevit, NBC Entertainment Publicity:

lauren.manasevit@nbcuni.com

Guest Opinion: We Need a Budget That Reflects the Environment/Climate Change

Jeff Tittel

New Jersey Sierra Club

The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee held a public hearing today on Governor Murphy’s proposed budget FY2021. The DEP budget has been cut by 34%, from $557 million to $342 million. The state service funding dropped 1.3%, from $253 million to $250 million. The Clean Energy Fund was raided by $113 million, with an

additional $30 million to be taken out of the fund for EV’s, NJ Transit, and the Whole House Project. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, released the following statement:

“The environment has been shortchanged for far too long, and this budget is still shortchanging the environment. This year sees more cuts to the DEP. This budget is still raiding DEP funds and programs as well as the Clean Energy Fund. Funds for critical environmental programs like the Hazardous Discharge Fund were raided again like last year. We cannot continue to do these raids on the back of the environment. It is critical to fund and move New Jersey forward when it comes to important issues like climate change and clean energy, cleaning up toxic sites, and making sure our air is clean and our water is pure.

“Year after year, DEP is cut to the bone. Now Governor Murphy is cutting through the bone into the marrow, slashing the FY2021 budget by 34%. 15 years ago, the overall DEP budget was $516 million. Yet now, even with inflation and rising salaries, we are down to $342 million. The operations budget has dropped by 1.3%, from $253 million to $250 million. DEP needs more funding so that we have enough people to do the many jobs of the agency, including re-writing the rules that Christie rolled back. Enforcement is down, parks are in disrepair. We don’t have enough people to deal with the lead crisis, clean up toxic sites, and make sure our air is clean to breath and our water is clean to drink. As the state budget grows, the DEP budget declines.

“Staffing levels are going down without any new hiring at DEP, which will only expand privatization and outsourcing of DEP programs. The Environmental Integrity Project found that NJ is 10th in the nation for environmental funding cuts, with a 20% cut in DEP staff from 2008 to 2018. Governor Murphy promised to have 100 more DEP staffers than under Christie, but we are more than 150 below Christie – or 250 below what the Governor promised. DEP went from 4,400 staff members in the mid-1990’s to 2,321 in 2008, and now we are down to 1,858. DEP needs enough resources to make sure our land is clean, our air is pure, and we are able to keep parks open for the people of NJ.

“The budget continues to target our environment, as well as urban areas that suffer the most from pollution. They are grabbing $200 million in fees, fines and other funds. This money should be going toward brownfield cleanups. The Hazardous Discharge Fund is being raided by $19 million, and $17.5 million from the Spill Act Compensation Fund. That money should be going to urban areas for pollution cleanup, but instead it is being shipped out to the wealthy suburbs. Our urban areas are suffering the most because of money being diverted for other purposes. We’re taking money away from Newark and Linden and places that have been damaged and instead using it to plug a black hole in the budget. This budget has the wrong priorities, continuing to take money out of the environment and away from urban areas, and shifting it into wealthy suburbs. The diversion of these funds is a regressive tax that especially hurts working families and urban low-income communities.

“The budget raids $113 million from the Clean Energy Fund, which includes $80 million for NJ Transit and $30 million for EVs. NJ Transit needs a stable source of income because the system we have now is broken. Just like last year, this year NJ Transit is taking $460 million in capital funds for operations and maintenance. Diverting capital funds means that they don’t have the money for improvements and to expand lines like the Hudson-Bergen and South Jersey light rail lines. This is like robbing our future to pay for current expenses, or taking a second mortgage on a house to buy groceries. We need to fix this broken system and help NJ Transit move forward. Even though a law was passed to support EV infrastructure for the public, the state is not electrifying their fleet. We are lagging behind other states when it comes to EVs. New Jersey must find a sustainable source of funding for our transportation system so that we can have money for CEF and move forward with things like energy efficiency programs and EV infrastructure for our state.

“Money for open space is increasing, but the priorities are wrong for constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues for FY2021. Over the past decade funding is down 40% despite us adding 40% more open space. State parks are falling apart, but we have $500 million in backlogs. The funding formula reinforces funding inequities that continue to damage lower-income and minority communities. Money is being shifted from brownfield cleanups, watershed protections, and toxic site cleanups. The funding promotes stewardship projects, which are an excuse for logging public lands. We have seen in the past clear cutting forests and creating grass habitat under the guise of ‘stewardship.’ The priorities of this funding is wrong. There is no money going toward urban parks, Blue Acres, buying our flood-prone properties, or fixing our parks.

“We have major problems with our water in New Jersey, whether it is lead in our drinking water, algae in our lakes, stormwater management, or sewer overflows. A lack of testing and oversight has put New Jersey at risk, especially when it comes to lead in the drinking water. The $80 million is a start and a down payment, however we need a stable source of funding. Overall, the cost to fix New Jersey’s lead problem is $3.2 billion. The budget only includes $2 million for lake management programs. This is a miniscule drop in the budget for what is needed. Last year there were over 50 bodies of water in NJ that were closed or under advisory for high levels of cyanobacteria.Lake Hopatcong and Barnegat Bay will continue to be impacted by harmful algae and pollution without proper funding for critical programs like lake management. We also need to tie fixing our infrastructure to energy efficiency and renewable energy as well as green building, including blue and green roofs to reduce flooding.

\”Even though this year’s budget overall is better than last year’s, we still need to stop these raids and cuts for vital programs that affect our land, our air, our water, and cleanup of toxic sites. We need to fix our aging infrastructure, put more money into transit, and remove lead from our homes and schools. We need DEP’s budget to be restored. More funding for DEP and critical environmental programs means having enough staff to get the lead out of our children’s schools, moving New Jersey forward in energy efficiency, and reducing our impact on climate change. To get there, we need to make sure millionaires pay their fair share, get rid of corporate loopholes and subsidies, and make polluters pay for the damage that they have done to the environment. We need a budget with the right priorities, that is for the many and not for the special interest groups and the privileged few. We need a budget that reflects our values when it comes to the environment, climate change, and funding NJ Transit. The money is there – we need political will to put it in the right places.”