CAMDEN — The Assembly Budget Committee came to Camden on Monday for a grass-roots listening tour on Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed $30 billion budget.
For 3½ hours, the 12 lawmakers listened politely to testimony from more than 20 respectful citizens representing a variety of interest groups.
The proposed merger of Rowan and Rutgers-Camden universities dominated the hearing despite the fact that the cost does not appear on the 2013 budget and it is unclear if the lawmakers will get to vote on the proposal.
Seven faculty members of Rutgers-Camden asked the Assembly Budget Committee to stifle the proposal precisely because the cost is unknown, but estimated by the speakers to exceed $1 billion.
That figure does not include the annual investment the state will have to make in Rowan to turn it into a prestigious, grant-generating research university, added Drew Humphries, professor of criminal justice. Nor does it include the cost of litigation that is likely follow if the governor enacts a merger through executive order, she warned.
“Robbing Paul to pay Peter is no solution,” said the Haddonfield resident about the wisdom of eliminating the Rutgers brand from South Jersey to boost Rowan’s reputation. “The price tag for realizing these goals seems prohibitive. I firmly believe that partnerships or consortia are more cost effective.”
The proposed merger, which has the full support of Christie and Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, is designed to deconstruct the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey — a sprawling institution with eight schools, 15,000 employees and 6,000 students — and to realign medical education in the state into three regions.
Assemblyman and Budget Committee Chairman Vincent Prieto, D-Secaucus, said he “shared the same concerns” raised at the hearing and that the issue “needed more clarity. Vice chairman Gary Schaer, D-Passaic, dismissed the merger plan as “foolishness.”
Pleas for money ranged from a low of $200,000 from Claire Antonucci, executive director of the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, which provides marine science education to teachers and school children to $ 1 million from Michael Mintzer, CEO of Coriell Institute for Medical Research in Camden.
Kathleen Davis, chief operating officer of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey, congratulated the governor on a budget that is “good for business.”
The proposed budget doubles business tax incentives from $184 million to $347 million.
Decreasing New Jersey’s income tax by 10 percent will make the state more competitive, she said.
Davis commended the Republican administration for reducing the number of state employees 4.3 percent between January 2009 and January 2011
“Reducing spending, passing meaningful public employee pension and benefits reforms, imposing a 2 percent cap on property taxes and interest arbitration, and reducing red tape were accomplished through strong leadership and by putting taxpayers first,”she said.
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
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