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CAPUTO & TUCKER RELEASE DATA ON CHRISTIE’S SCHOOL AID CUTS TO 28TH DISTRICT

Christie, Once Again, Protects the Rich While Asking Everyone Else to Sacrifice

Assembly Democrats Ralph Caputo and Cleopatra Tucker (both D-Essex) on Wednesday noted a nonpartisan analysis shows Gov. Chris Christie’s budget vetoes will cost the newly configured 28th Legislative district roughly $21 million in school aid.

The Democratic budget supported by Caputo and Tucker would have delivered significant increases in aid to many of the towns in the newly configured 28th District, but Christie sliced this funding via his line-item vetoes.

At the hands of the Governor’s budget axe, Bloomfield will lose $9.3 million, a 33 percent cut in aid, Nutley will lose $3.6 million, a 36.5 percent cut in aid, and Essex County Vo-Tech will lose $7 million, a 26.6 percent cut in aid, and Belleville, in the current 28th district, will lose $12.3 million, a 34 percent cut, according to an analysis prepared by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.

“Many towns in our district are already struggling to cope with the Governor’s massive cuts from last year and now they’ve just been delivered a double whammy,” said Caputo. “At every turn in the road, he has chosen to protect the richest in our state while hanging working and middle class families out to dry. In the end, it’s our children who will pay for these poor decisions as the quality of their educational environment is continuously constrained.”

“For the second year in a row, this Governor has revealed his true priorities through his budgeting decisions,” said Tucker. “He can go on and on about how we can’t afford this and there needs to be ‘shared sacrifice.’ But the fact of the matter is that he is sitting on a healthy surplus and protecting the wealthiest residents in New Jersey, while our children and low and middle income taxpayers remain the only ones sacrificing.”

Democratically supported legislation would have provided increased funding for suburban schools through a two-year surcharge imposed upon 16,000 millionaires. Christie vetoed that legislation, marking the second time he has protected tax cuts for millionaires.