Starting in Trenton we tackle the ongoing discussions on a $60.7B Budget being stress-tested by Tax Relief, Transit Demands and Health Care Costs while Scutari works behind the scenes in pushing back Environmental and Flood Protections that benefit Developer-Donors.
We move to shaky employment data with meager progress in a state unemployment number that tracks behind the rest of the nation along with deep job losses in a key sector.
This week saw the launch of our series that investigates the ~$1.7M annual school funding gap created by Berkeley Heights PILOT developments and why the Township’s narrative on withholding school funds doesn’t add up.
Our school budget analysis moves forward with reviews of the full preliminary budgets from Chatham and Millburn. We also continue our Municipal Budget series with a look at Summit’s full preliminary budget and highlight the absence of any budget information on Mountainside’s Introductory budget agenda.
The Berkeley Heights CMS Sports Complex/Park has another bad week as resident and BOE Rep Joly asks basic questions the Township can’t appear to answer and a former Recreation Commissioner’s question that lead a Council-member to decline responding without an Attorney – Laura summarizes the most recent set of issues to plague the project.
Meeting summaries for the week include Summit’s Council and BHPSNJ’s BOE Meetings both on 04/21.
Top Three Articles for March…
Luxury Living, Boutique Retail and the Quiet Erasure of Working and Middle Class NJ
NJDOE’s Ghost Deliverables: No Evidence for Adaptive Test Accuracy One Year into Rollout
928 Units and a $16.6 Million Bill- Monday’s Berkeley Heights Council Meeting
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