Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

 
     3-30-13 Education in the News - Dept of Education-State Budget, Autism Rates in NJ
     3-20-12 Education Issues in the News
     GSCS State Budget FY 2012-2013 Testimony
     3-11-12 Education Issues in the News
     2-29-12 NJTV on NJ School Funding...and, Reporters' Roundtable back on the aire
     2-26-12 State budget, School Elections, and Federal Grant funds for local reform initiatives
     2-24-12 Headlines from around NJ - from Google (hit on nj education-nj budget)
     2-23-12 Education in the News - Education reform noted in state budget message; Facebook grant to Newark teachers
     2-23-12 State Aid Figures Released late today: GSCS Statement
     STATE AID DISTRICT LIST - PROPOSED for FY 2012-2013
     Education Funding Report on School Funding Reform Act (SFRA) issued 2-23-12
     Text of Gov. Christie's State Budget Message, given Feb. 21, 2012
     2-22-12 School Aid in State Budget Message - Is There a Devil in the Details
     2-21-12 State Budget Message for Fiscal Year 2012-2013
     FY'12 State School Aid District-by-District Listing, per Appropriations Act, released 110711
     GSCS Take on Governor's Budget Message for FY'12
     GSCS 3-7-11Testimony on State Budget as Proposed by the Governor for FY'12 before the Senate Budget Committee
     Gov's Budget Message for Fiscal Year 2011-2012 Today, 2pm
     GSCS FYI
     2-7-11Grassroots at Work in the Suburbs
     1-13-11 Supreme Court Appoints Special Master for remand Hearing
     1-20-11 GSCS Testimony before Senator Buono's Education Aid Impact hearing in Edison
     NOTE: FOR CURRENT INFO ON STATE BUDGET FY'11, GO TO LINK ON LEFT SIDEBAR '2010-2011 STATE BUDGET'
     GSCS FYI - GSCS will be testifying onTuesday in Bergen County on the State Budget
     3-17-10 Budget News - Gov. Chris Christie proposes sacrifices
     3-15-10mid-day: 'Gov. Christie plans to cut NJ school aid by $800M'
     3-14-10 'Christie will propose constitutional amendment to cap tax hikes in N.J. budget'
     3-15-10 'N.J. taxpayers owe pension fund $45.8 billion' The Record
     3-3-10 'Public Education in N.J.: Acting NJ Comm of Educ Bret Schundler says 'Opportunity'
     2-24-10 'Tight funds raise class sizes that districts long sought to cut'
     2-22-10 Christie and unions poised to do batttle over budget cuts'
     2-22-10 Trenton Active Today
     2-19-10 'Acting NJ education commissioner hoping other savings can ward off cuts'
     2-16-10 'Christie Adopts Corzine Cuts, Then Some'
     2-14-10 'FAQ's on NJ's state of fiscal emergency declaration by Gov. Christie'
     2-12-10 Assembly Budget hearing posted for this Wednesday, Feb. 17
     2-12-10 News Coverage: Governor Christie's message on actions to address current fiscal year state budget deficits
     FY2010 Budget Solutions - PRESS PACKET
     School Aid Withheld Spreadsheet
     State Aid 2010 Reserve Calculation and Appeal Procedures
     State Aid Memo (2-11-10) 2 pgs
     2-11-10 Gov Christie address to Joint Session of the Legislature on state budget and current year aid reduction remains scheduled for today
     2-10-10 'Schools are likely targets for NJ budget cuts'
     2-9-10 News article posted this morning notes potential for large loss of current year school aid
     2-8-10 'School leaders around N.J. wait and worry over state aid figures'
     1-28-10 School Surplus plan to supplant State Aid in this year gaining probability
     1-21-10'N.J.'s Christie won't rule out layoffs, furloughs to close unexpected $1.2B deficit'
     2005 Archive
     1-18-10 Advance news on 'Christie as new Governor'
     GSCS to speak at Tri-District 'Open' meeting in Monmouth on January 27
     12-15-09 GSCS is working with the Christie Transition Team
     11-29-09 Ramifications - News of NJ's fiscal realities
     Codey bill allows Budget Message to be delayed until March 16, 2010
     6-26-09 Executive Director to GSCS Trustees; Wrap Up Report - State Budget and Assembly bills this week
     6-26-09 NJ State Budget Passed late Thursday night
     6-19-09 a.m. GSCS 'Quick' FYI - State Budget Vote delayed to Thursday, June 25
     6-18-09 Deocrats say they have the votes to pass the State Budget today
     6-16-09 News from Trenton on State Budget in Senate and Assembly Budget Committees yesterday
     APPROPRIATIONS ACT FY2009-1020 as introduced
     A4100-S2010 Appropriations Act 'Scoresheet' and Language Changes released
     5-14-09 GSCS Heads Up - State Aid payments to be delayed into next Fiscal Year
     5-19-09 Treasurer David Rousseau announces additional round of cuts to Gov's proposed State Budget FY2009-2010
     4-5-09 The Record, Sunday April 5, Front Page Opinion
     Latest Title 1 'preliminary' funding under the ARRA 3-09
     Latest website filing by the USDOE on Title 1 funding
     3-13-09 Information to Districts re: Federal Stimulus- Additional Title 1 and IDEA funding information still not ready for distribution
     3-11-09 CORZINE BUDGET ADDRESS: STATE FUNDING FOR SCHOOLS A LITTLE MORE NOT LESS - FEDERAL TITLE 1 & IDEA INCREASES YET TO BE COUNTED - STATE SCHOOL AID FIGURES ON DEPT OF ED WEBSITE 1:30 TODAY - RELATED ARTICLES, MORE...
     3-10-09 GOVERNOR TO DELIVER STATE BUDGET MESSAGE TODAY - SCHOOL AID FIGURES TO BE RELEASED BY THURSDAY LATEST
     2-24-09 State Budget & Stimulus News of Note
     2-23-09 S-15 (Buono) Pension Deferral bill up for a vote in the Sentate today
     2-19-09 Federal stimulus - information re: Education funding in 'State Fiscal Stabilization' part of the package
     2-18-09 Corzine announces more cuts, more deficit
     NJ District listing, Title One & IDEA under federal stimulus law
     2-3-09 Corzine to unveil new cuts when he offers 2010 budget
     1-23-09 Schools get an eduction in thrift
     1-17-09 GSCS EMAILNET & SCHOOL FUNDING OVERVIEW
     1-16-09 Today's news notes state budget waiting on Obama stimulus package
     1-15-09 HEADS UP - Budget Message date to be delayed now to March 12
     1-14-09 Meeting with Mayors, Corzine warns of cuts
     1-9-09 State Senator requests education committee hearing on potential school funding cuts
     12-28-08 NY Times 'Pension Fight Signals What Lies Ahead'
     11-25-08 Perspective piece criticizes recent Supreme Court Abbott decision
     6-24-08 State Budget passed yesterday, as did the School Construction, Pension Reform, and Affordable Housing bills
     6-23-08 A2873-S1457 School Construction bills up for vote today, along with State Budget FY09
     6-20-08 State Budget stalls, school construction is one obstacle
     A2800 - Proposed State Budget bill released 6-17-08
     6-17-08 Legislature and Governor agree on State Budget FY09
     GOVERNOR'S PROPOSED BUDGET Fiscal Year 2009...INFO
     Office of Leg Services Analysis of Gov's Education budget FY09
     GSCS & NJ Spec. Educ.Funding Coalition on STATE FUNDING FOR EXTRAORDINARY COST FY09 issues & beyond
     6-9-08 GSCS Quick Facts: TRENTON FOCUS THIS WEEK
     3-19-08 GSCS Testimony on State Budget for Fiscal Year 2008-2009
     2-26-08 Governor Corzine's Budget Message for Fiscal Year 2008-2009
     6-29-07 Lots of news affecting NJ, its schools and communities this week - STATE BUDGET signed - LIST OF LINE ITEM VETOES - US SUPREME CT RULING impacts school desgregation - SPECIAL EDUCATION GROUPS file suit against state
     6-14-07 Revisions to State Budget filed today
     4-4-07 N Y Times, front page 'NJ Pension Fund Endangered by Diverted Billions'
     3-15-07 State eases at risk aid restrictions & 25% members of NJ Senate retiring (so far)
     3-13-07 GSCS Testimony on State Budget FY'08
     GRASSROOTS SPEAK UP re State Aid for FY07-08 & Recent Legislation that can negatively impact school communities
     Hearings Schedule for State Budget FY07-08
     3-1-07 Emerging Devil showing up in the details
     2-27-07 GSCS welcomes that state aid increases for regular operating districts helps lower & some middle income districts - will persevere to see that the state extends its share of support to education more fully to all districts
     2-23-07 News Articles re Gov's Budget Proposal
     2-22-07 GSCS EMAILNET re Gov's Budget Message
     2-22-07 Gov's Budget Message Link & Related News Articles
     2-22-07 GSCS Press Release: Governor Corzine's Budget Message today
     2-22-07 Governor Corzine's Budget Message today
     2-16 to 2-19 New Articles of Note
     2-14-07 GSCS letter to Gov Corzine & Commr of Education Davy - Request for State Aid FY0708
     NJ Assembly Session FY06 Budget Debate Majority Leader Joe Roberts standing
     7-12-06 Column on State Budget legislator items
     7-11-06 Appropriations Act bill
     7-9&10-06 State Budget news articles -wrap up & news analyses
     7-9-06 Sunday New York Times
     7-8-06 FY07 Budget approved - 19.5 in spec ed grants stays in
     7-7-06 Afternoon Friday - budget document awaiting
     7-7-06 EMAILNET - AGREEMENT ON STATE BUDGET REACHED, impt 'details' still being finalized
     7-7-06 AGREEMENT ON STAE BUDGET REACHED, impt 'details' still being finalized
     7-3-06 Roberts, Codey & Corzine still not on same page
     6-30-06 State Budget news - as the dissonance must be resolved
     6-29-06 GSCS 'QUICKNET FYI' Update on State Budget for FY 2007
     6-29-06 Mirroring the elements, State Budget looking like a 'natural disaster'
     6-25-06 State Budget issues:legislative branches conflict - news articles
     6-14-06 Assembly Minority Budget Leader Joe Malone's Op Ed
     Editorial on benefit of using UEZ surplus for spec educ aid for this year
     6-12-06 EMAILNET - Extraordinary Special Education student aid; FY07 Budget 'crunch' is on; news clips
     Weekend News Clips re Property Tax & School Funding issues
     GSCS 15th Annual Breakfast Meeting Program Info Update
     5-16-06 EMAILNET Action in Trenton
     5-10-06 EMAILNET
     5-10-06 A Lot is going on - Major News fromTrenton
     5-9-06 Supreme Ct freezes aid & Asm Budget Comm grills DOE Commissioner
     News articles
     TRENTON RALLY PROPOSED (late morning) Thurs JUNE 8
     3-28-06 GSCS testimony before Assembly Budget Comm today
     Legislative Calendar during State Budget FY07 process
     4-17-06 EMAILNET
     4-16-06 Star Ledger editorial & article re Gov v. Abbott from 4-15-06
     40-16-06 Gannett & Asbury Park Press on School Budget election issues
     4-16-06 Sunday NY Times Metro Section, front page
     Governor Corzine takes steps towards major policy initiatives.
     3-28 & 4-3-06 GSCS FY07 testimony before Senate & Assembly Budget Comm
     Grassroots at work - Ridgewood Board member testimony of FY07
     4-8-06 Corzine Administration files brief with Supreme Court re Abbott funding
     4-7-06 The Record
     3-31-06 AP 'Budget idea puts onus on income taxes, businesses'
     3-29-06 EMAILNET State Budget FY07 Hearings Update
     3-24-06 EMAILNET FYI Update on Gov Corzine's Budget FY07
     3-24-06 Schools learn who wins, loses in Corzine budget
     3-23-06 Corzine says some Abbotts can raise taxes
     3-22-06 News Article sampling on Governor's Proposed FY07 Budget
     3-22-06 EMAILNET Governor Corzine's Budget Message
     Governor's 3-21-06 Budget message & hard copy links
     3-15-06 News articles on FY07
     3-10-06 Star Ledger 'Time is ripe for poorer districts to contribute.
     EMAILNET 3-9-06 to South Jersey districts
     3-7-06 More articles on the Gov's Budget Summit and School Board members fo to Trenton
     3-7-06 Articles on Gov's Budget Summit and School Board members off to Trenton
     3-4-06 Star Ledger Interest groups to address budget
     3- 4-06 Trenton Times Likey state aid cuts frustrating districts
     3-3-06 EMAILNET Budget Discussions begin in earnest
     7-14-05 EMAILNET Record article & today's editorial re politics & inequity in school aid and S1701: Update
     Check it out - The Press of Atlantic City 7-6-05 Education Funds lie in Budget Fine Print
     3-1-06 EMAILNET State Budget FY07, Health Benefits
     2-24-06 Trenton Times - Higher schools taxes needed
     School Budget Guidelines released 2-21-07
     2-11-06 Trenton Timesn'NJ State Budget has little wiggle room'
     2-1-06 EMAILNET GSCS Advocacy FY07 Budget; On the Homepage Today
     FUNDING HISTORY - May 27 1998 - Education Week article re Abbott V - funding above parity
     2003 GSCS letter to legislators
     Star Ledger 6-29-05 Bid to Save Tax Rebates Imperils NJ Budget
     Rebate Debate on Budget for FY06
     Public Information available at New Jersey website
     S2558 Bill to provide $19.9M in Abbott aid to additional districts
     GSCS Advocacy for State Budget FY06
     GSCS Testimony: State Budget Fiscal Year 2006
7-9-06 Sunday New York Times
"Six Days that Shook New Jersey" an in-depth overview on the machinations that went into putting the FY07 State Budget to bed.

July 9, 2006

Six Days That Shook New Jersey

TRENTON, July 8 — When the clock read 12:01 on July 1, Gov. Jon S. Corzine was at his desk at the State House, Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr. was across the street having a drink at the Trenton Marriott, and New Jersey was only hours from the first government shutdown in its history.

For the next six days, and largely out of public view, the state's elected leaders boxed over Mr. Corzine's demand that the sales tax be increased to 7 percent from 6 percent to put the state on sounder financial footing.

One Assembly Democrat from South Jersey tried to remove three North Jersey colleagues from the crucial Budget Committee because they refused to align themselves with Mr. Roberts, who himself is from Camden County in the south. Caucus meetings seemed awkward as some lawmakers clustered in cliques based not on the usual factors of friendship or geography, but by their stand on the budget.

The impasse led to scenes that were bizarre even by Trenton's relaxed standards. Mr. Corzine, a former co-chairman of Goldman Sachs and a multimillionaire, slept in a cot in his office for three straight days, going to Drumthwacket, the governor's mansion in Princeton, to shower.

And for three consecutive mornings, starting on Tuesday, Mr. Corzine demanded that legislators convene at 9 a.m. so that they could listen to him push his budget as fiscally responsible. Senate President Richard J. Codey called it "home room."

"We never thought it through," said Assemblywoman Joan M. Quigley, a Democrat from Hudson County, who was a strong supporter of Mr. Corzine's budget. "No one had Plan B. Nobody had an endgame to this. I would call my husband and say, 'It's like we're still in Iraq, with no way to get out.' "

Not until Thursday afternoon — when Mr. Corzine walked casually past a throng of surprised lobbyists and reporters and into the office of Mr. Roberts — did it become apparent that the impasse over the governor's $31 billion budget would soon be over. Along the way, the brinkmanship idled tens of thousands of workers, cost the state of millions of dollars in revenue and threw New Jersey's traditional political alliances into disarray.

Mr. Roberts had protested the tax increase, saying that he felt that the government could cut enough spending to make up for the $1.1 billion that the increase was projected to generate.

While Mr. Corzine said that he was amenable to a compromise suggested by Mr. Codey to dedicate half of the new revenue to property tax relief, Mr. Roberts did not budge.

At 9:30 on July 1, after the deadline for the budget came and went, Mr. Corzine signed an executive order stating that he had to authorize the orderly shutdown of government because the state had run out of money. The next day, Mr. Corzine met with Mr. Roberts, Mr. Codey and about 20 other legislators and staff members at Drumthwacket.

By then, it had become clear that Mr. Corzine had in Mr. Codey a reliable ally — something that could not have been guaranteed last year, when Mr. Corzine, with tens of millions of dollars of his own money at his disposal, essentially pushed Mr. Codey, then the acting governor, out of the governor's race.

"He and I have become very close," Mr. Codey said in an interview in the Senate at 4 a.m. on Saturday, as the budget bill was being debated.

On Monday, Mr. Roberts issued a belligerent news release, calling for Mr. Corzine to identify the legislators who supported his proposal. A few hours later, Mr. Corzine demanded that the entire Legislature meet at 9 a.m. the next day — known to the rest of the country as the Fourth of July.

His speech on Tuesday lasted 20 minutes, and was greeted by applause two times — when he entered the Assembly chamber, and when he left. The atmosphere was still mutinous, as symbolized by a flier, circulated by the Assembly Democrats, which criticized Mr. Corzine's proposal and asked, "Why are we here?"

Assembly Democrats still felt optimistic that they would prevail. Yet when a group of them, led by Mr. Roberts and Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, of Mercer County, met with Mr. Corzine, they encountered a man unwilling to make any concessions.

"The governor seemed to be in a state of denial," said one person who attended the meeting.

In a meeting later of the Assembly Democratic caucus, both Ms. Watson Coleman and Mr. Roberts seemed frustrated by Mr. Corzine's hard-line stance, according to people who heard the speeches.

They said that Mr. Corzine refused to make concessions and did not play politics as usual. And in a dramatic moment, Mr. Roberts asked his members for a show of hands of support for Mr. Corzine's sales tax proposal; only 15 out of 49 did. But that strategy rubbed some members the wrong way; someone grumbled that it seemed uncomfortably reminiscent of "Twelve Angry Men."

One of the most memorable moments came when Mr. Roberts held a news conference in the late afternoon, at which he defiantly declared that the sales tax proposal was "dead."

Mr. Codey wondered at first whether Mr. Corzine would have the stomach to fight on, given the public's distaste for additional taxes and the resoluteness of the Assembly opposition.

"He's become a stronger leader, each day, and he's determined to do what he perceives is the right thing to do," Mr. Codey said. "It was a metamorphosis, right before my eyes."

On Wednesday morning, Mike Donilon, a political consultant who was in charge of Mr. Corzine's campaign commercials in 2000 and 2005, showed up at the State House at 8 a.m., at the behest of the administration.

He was in town to discuss a possible television campaign to push Mr. Corzine's budget, and his mere presence raised the stakes even more.

At an Assembly Democratic caucus meeting later, the discussion "got the most personal and raucous," said one of the members, who did not want to be identified because of the lingering bruises from the debate. There, Assemblyman Herb Conaway, from Burlington, a strong ally of Mr. Roberts, demanded that three of his colleagues on the budget committee — Ms. Quigley, Assemblyman Joseph Cryan of Union County, and Assemblyman William D. Payne of Essex County — be removed because they did not back Mr. Roberts.

"I said, 'Just settle down,' " Mr. Roberts said in an interview. "Let's not talk about this now."

Still, Mr. Roberts and his allies, including Assemblyman Louis D. Greenwald of Camden County, the budget committee chairman, pushed ahead with their own budget, which did not contain a sales tax increase. But with the hearing shown live on television in the small hours of the morning, things got out of hand.

First, the committee, which has eight Democrats and four Republicans, heard testimony from two passionate labor leaders, Robert McDevitt, president of Unite-Here Local 54, which represents casino workers, and Carla Katz, president of Communications Workers of America Local 1034, which represents state employees. Both criticized the alternative budget.

Then, Mr. Cryan, a Democrat who has strongly backed Mr. Corzine, formed a bloc with the Republicans and three other Democrats, thereby signaling that Mr. Greenwald's proposal had no chance.

"After what people saw in that committee, it was obvious that the fight was unsustainable from that point on," said State Sen. Thomas H. Kean Jr., a Republican from Union County.

Many legislators and others viewed that meeting as the turning point. Afterward, Mr. Greenwald and other legislators opposed to Mr. Corzine's plan went to the Marriott for a drink, and looked dejected, according to two people who were there.

While that was going on, Mr. Roberts had in hand a new compromise proposal from Mr. Corzine that would allocate half of the new sales tax revenue to easing the state's property taxes, at least for one year, and perhaps longer. It expanded upon a proposal that Mr. Codey had first made on June 21.

On Thursday, after Mr. Corzine's third speech in as many days, in which he disclosed his latest compromise, things began to change quickly. At some point, Mr. Roberts got on the phone for perhaps 45 minutes with George E. Norcross III, the powerful Democratic leader from Camden County.

"You could see the pressure on him," said one State House official who attended some of the meetings, about Mr. Roberts. "He was really wearing it."

About noon, Mr. Corzine walked though a crowd of lobbyists and reporters to Mr. Roberts's office, in what was interpreted as a sign of deference. At 1:30 p.m. State Senator Bernard F. Kenny Jr., a Hudson County Democrat and a Corzine ally, came out of the governor's office, after a meeting with the three leaders and others.

"The Assembly Democratic caucus broke up," Mr. Kenny declared. "The votes weren't there."

The legislators went to their own caucuses to discuss the deal. And when Mr. Roberts announced the compromise to his members, "there was a standing ovation," he said, and a sense of relief.

At 4:45 p.m. — almost 137 hours after the deadline had passed — Mr. Corzine, Mr. Roberts and Mr. Codey emerged from the governor's office to announce that the end was finally near.