08/13/2026
Make sure you read through this and look at LD3 four! Our tax dollars are helping to fund Mom’s Demand Action!😡
👀NJ taxpayers, take a look at this map.
Each pin represents one of the discretionary spending earmarks -either by budget resolution from a Legislator or other means. There are 300+ in the FY’27 budget + 81 in last-minute $358M+ supplemental appropriations, both approved on June 30. As you can see some districts and towns are buried under blue pins. Others? Almost nothing. Some favored parts of the state get the taxpayer-funded goodies. The rest of us just get the privilege of paying for them.
The point of highlighting these expenditures is simply to show taxpayers exactly where their money is going . In the last few years alone, billions of dollars have flowed to organizations and causes that primarily benefit the same small fraction of favored communities, while the rest of the state is left behind. These decisions are made by a select few legislators, with little transparency, and no input from the people who actually pay the bills. New Jersey cannot become more affordable until this changes.
Biggest 'winner' this year? Jersey City (LD32) — a $120,000,000 bailout, the largest single-municipal bailout in state history.. Should the rest of New Jersey foot the bill for decades of fiscal mismanagement?
Second biggest winner: Newark (LD29),
Here are some highlights:
For the school district that already raked in $1.2 Billion in State Aid this year...another: $1,000,000 for Reading Literacy and $400,000 for an early college program at Bard HS.
• $1,125,000 -foreclosure mitigation program
• $30,000,000 ($20M in the budget + $10M supplemental) -Newark Healthcare Access Partnership - uninsured & noncitizens eligible
• $250,000 recreation programs
• $1,500,000 Newark Museum of Art
• $250,000 Newark Alliance- Beautification
• $250,000 Keep Newark Beautiful
• $ 1,000,000 Newark Public Radio
• $ 1,050,000 Newark Symphony Orchestra
• $5,000,000 City of Newark Social Services (on top of $3,876,000 to 8 more social-service nonprofits)
• $200,000 NJPAC
Over to Paterson (LD35): $76,000,000 in Transition Aid this year — for a total of well over $400,000,000 in Transition Aid since 2011
•$8,200,000 for Police Expenses -the state runs the Department after a take over
•$1,350,000 for 7 various 'social-service' nonprofits, and..
•$50,000 for the Paterson Cricket League.
Now some LD34 highlights:
•$20,000 Embrace Relief (disaster relief manly for overseas communities)
•$50,000 Make The Road NJ
•$50,000 Moms Demand Action
•$200,000 NJ Domestic Worker Coalition
•$100,000 Local News (5 local news blogs)
•$50,000 Guyana American Heritage Foundation (events in NJ & abroad)
•$20,000 swimming lessons , YMCA
•$50,000 Peace Island Institute NJ
From LD27 :
•$500,000 OUT Montclair Community Program
•$200,000 Jazz for Kids
•$500,000 Improving Montclair Achievement
•$100,000 Montclair Film
Over in LD37:
•$11,000,000 New Dawn Central Jersey Community Development Corp- Community Solar
•$550,000 EID Committee of New Jersey
Moving down to LD5:
•$750,000 Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers
•$125,000 IDEA Center of the Arts
•$250,000 for a statue in Camden
•$100,000 NJ Council Of Humanities
•$1,000,000 Witman Park, Camden
And to round out today...
$44,000,000 for additional FIFA expenses-above the original $150,000,000+spent initially- was expense worth it? We still have no figures on that.
We will highlight many more like these tomorrow, stay tuned...
