Yesterday, on Sunday, the New Jersey Legislature unveiled a small $358.8 million supplemental spending bill with aid for hospitals, towns and World Cup. It is expected to pass into law by tomorrow.
Two things jump out: 1) the secretive, murky, rushed budget process for spending items sometimes labeled as ‘pork projects’, and 2) the small size of this spending bill relative to other federal and private spending in the state lately. This is less than 1% of our state’s budget and a small fraction of our state’s projected surplus cash flow. While some of the spending is likely to benefit South Jersey, including Cooper health care system, a full list of identifiable projects by county or municipality has not been published yet.
This post is not meant to be critical of the bill or the projects, but rather to highlight the crazy ways that our government works to get things done.