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Category: New Jersey Politics

Philly and Camden may need federal aid, but the politics of FEMA are getting messy

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker are assessing whether they’ll need to ask the federal government for help following recent storms in Philadelphia and Camden as President Donald Trump rejects more disaster aid from blue areas.

Camden residents said they witnessed the worst flooding in recent memory just two days after celebrating Independence Day.

Less than a week later, in parts of Philadelphia and Montgomery County, at least four storms called microbursts caused fallen trees, leading to electrical outages and road closures.

Sherrill and Parker have both signaled they anticipate seeking federal emergency aid, but first they need to see if there’s enough damage to qualify. New Jersey is still trying to get aid for a snowstorm that took place just one month into Sherrill’s term — a request that Trump denied — and Pennsylvania has faced several Federal Emergency Management Agency request rejections in recent years.

Sen. Andy Kim, a South Jersey Democrat who serves as the ranking member on the subcommittee that oversees FEMA, recently led a group of senators accusing the Trump administration in a letter of a “significant partisan disparity” in federal disaster aid.

“Right now, there’s no predictability with this administration, and that’s just scary when you’re dealing with disaster response,” Kim said in an interview Wednesday.

Here is what to know about federal emergency aid at this moment.

How does FEMA aid work?

First, local officials work to assess the extent of the damage after a storm and report it to the county, which works with the state to assess the damage. If the disaster has caused more harm than the local and state government can address, the governor can request the president declare a major disaster. That’s required to unlock public FEMA aid.

Individuals can only apply directly for FEMA aid if the president approves individual assistance as part of a disaster declaration.

Residents should report damage to their insurance companies and begin the claims process as soon as possible and report damage to the Office of Emergency Management, said Joseph Walsh, a sergeant first class with New Jersey’s Office of Emergency Management.

“There are technical things we need to meet,” Sherrill said during her visit to Camden after the storm. “I think we probably will, but we’re collecting that now.”

Sean Higgins, a Sherrill spokesperson, said in a statement Wednesday that the governor’s team “has been working around the clock to ensure communities have the support they need and we will ensure that New Jersey applies for any and all help that we qualify for.”

In Philadelphia, Dominick Mireles, the city’s director of emergency management, said earlier this week that the city is figuring out the “financial price tag” of the damage, a process that will continue in the coming weeks. Then the city will determine what may be needed — and what it’s eligible to receive — from state and federal resources.

“This might be something above and beyond what we can navigate on our own,” Mireles said.

Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen shows New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill visuals of the recent storm in Camden on a tablet on Tuesday.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

Has Trump denied FEMA aid to Pennsylvania and New Jersey?

New Jersey is in the process of appealing a FEMA rejection for Winter Storm Hernando from February of this year, Walsh said.

The rejection was part of a $227 million denial in disaster aid requests from four Democratic-led states, along with New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Higgins said more than $84 million of that pool represented costs from New Jersey municipalities and counties.

“Without that aid, our local governments will be stuck with the costs of an unprecedented snowstorm that didn’t care about political boundaries. … Sherrill will continue to fight for every dime that New Jerseyans are owed, regardless of political party,” Higgins said in a statement.

FEMA data also show a 2018 rejection for a severe storm and flooding event in New Jersey during Trump’s first term. Walsh said the state requested aid for several counties even though the damage did not meet the threshold for federal assistance.

The data show that Pennsylvania faced denials from the Trump administration during his first term for a winter storm in March 2017 and storms and landslides from February to April 2018, following a close 2016 win for Trump in Pennsylvania during Democrat Tom Wolf’s gubernatorial administration. After losing the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden, Trump on Nov. 18 rejected requests for aid in Philadelphia and surrounding counties for the August 2020 Tropical Storm Isaias.

Pennsylvania’s appeal for the 2017 storm was rejected for not meeting the “severity and magnitude” for a disaster declaration, and an appeal for the 2018 incidents were rejected for being “separate and distinct” and not meeting the required threshold, according to documents from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

The state did not appeal the rejection for damage from Isaias.

The commonwealth also faced rejections during Biden’s administration following flooding in July and September 2023, and a snowstorm in November 2024 after Trump flipped back Pennsylvania.

Sen. Andy Kim and other Democratic senators have asked for a meeting with FEMA to discuss disaster assistance.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

What is Andy Kim accusing Trump of?

Kim said Wednesday that Trump has been treating government money like “his own personal slush fund.”

“These are about families that are struggling, and you can’t punish them because of political retribution,” the senator said.

He was joined by 16 members of the Senate Democratic caucus in writing a letter last month to Russell Vought, the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, citing a Politico report that said Trump’s second administration rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47 years that FEMA has existed.

Trump has approved 23% of disaster declaration requests from states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators, compared with 89% of requests from states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators so far during his second term, and Democratic-led states also had longer wait times to find out the decision, the report said.

“To be clear, this reporting suggests that in the wake of disasters, as President, President Trump, who has the sole authority to grant or deny this assistance, may be punishing Americans who live in states with Democratic Senators and Governors, by denying access to disaster relief funding,” the senators said in the letter.

FEMA did not respond to a request for comment on the letter. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson has previously told news outlets that “there is no politicization” in Trump’s disaster relief decisions and that he “provides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration has before him.”

The senators contended there are specific approval criteria and called for more transparency on the administration’s process.

In response to their letter, the budget office told the senators to talk to FEMA, so they sent the letter to FEMA to ask for a meeting and are awaiting a response, Kim’s office said Wednesday.

President Donald Trump has touted FEMA funding for states with candidates he supports.Julia Demaree Nikhinson

What has Trump’s approach to FEMA been?

The president previously called for the dismantling of FEMA, a stance his own advisers have rejected. But a council of Trump appointees more recently suggested big changes to the agency.

In the meantime, the president has attempted to use the agency to advance his agenda.

A report by House Democrats found the Trump administration improperly diverted resources from FEMA by sending staffers to help with immigration enforcement, Trump’s hallmark policy.

His administration also recently threatened to withhold FEMA terrorism prevention money for states that don’t run their elections the way the president wants them to.

During his first term, Trump opposed disaster funding for Puerto Rico and said he wanted more aid to go to Texas and Florida, according to news reports.

Recently, Trump touted FEMA funding for states with candidates he supports.

But the administration’s efforts haven’t always succeeded.

Pennsylvania and New Jersey were part of a lawsuit against the Trump administration for cutting certain FEMA funding meant for preventing harm from natural hazards through infrastructure upgrades. That program, called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC), has since been reinstated. As a result, Pennsylvania was awarded nearly $838,000 for recovery from the 2024 Tropical Storm Debby.

Trump signed BRIC into law during his first term, but during his second term FEMA criticized it for being too “focused on ‘climate change’” under Biden.

Kim said he has advocated for the program’s expansion to help prevent damage from major weather events before they happen.

“This is not a shock that Camden had the flooding that it did,” he said. “We’ve known for a long time that their drainage and sewage and other types of efforts to mitigate flooding are just not to the level that is needed for the people there.”

July 16, 2026
Burlington County was left out of a new free shuttle bus launch in South Jersey. Here’s when and why that’ll change.

Burlington County was left behind when a new free shuttle bus for South Jersey launched in June. That is going to change in September.

The South Jersey Transportation Authority (SJTA) announced June 1 that a free shuttle bus program called South Jersey Connects was launching that day with routes in all seven southern counties: Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem — and Burlington.

But as the other routes launched, the promised Burlington County route never began. On the authority’s website, it is still marked as “coming soon.”

That is because until recently, the transportation authority was not actually authorized to operate in Burlington County. The county considered operating its own route for the program but ultimately agreed to have the authority run it instead.

But that required legislation.

South Jersey lawmakers had proposed bringing Burlington County into the authority back in the 2022-23 legislative session, but it was not until the South Jersey Connects program was about to launch this year that legislators had the wherewithal to actually hit the gas pedal in Trenton.

“We worked in partnership with our county commissioner, then the administration of Burlington County, and just realized we just couldn’t pull that off,” Sen. Troy Singleton, a Burlington County Democrat, said in an interview. “And speaking with the administration, they were like, look, we feel more comfortable running this through the SJTA, and we already had this legislative vehicle, so that’s when it took on a greater sense of urgency.”

The bill to bring Burlington County into the SJTA passed the Assembly in mid-May and was approved by the Senate just a few days before the June 1 announcement. But Gov. Mikie Sherrill did not sign it into law until the night of the budget deadline — a month after the program had been announced.

“The timing just didn’t work out,” Singleton said.

The Burlington route is expected to start in September, said Dominic D’Amico, director of transportation services at the SJTA, but a start date has not been announced.

The new shuttle’s path has been finalized but has not been shared publicly. D’Amico said in an interview that, like the other routes that launched June 1, it will connect with NJ Transit’s existing infrastructure and the region’s “eds and meds.”

Burlington County Commissioner Felicia Hopson said the new shuttle will enhance the NJ Transit River Line and help residents access jobs, appointments, stores, and schools.

“Stretching 820 square-miles, Burlington County is New Jersey’s largest county, making transportation essential but also challenging for residents without motor-vehicles,” she said in a statement.

The idea of South Jersey Connects emerged from the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey’s advocacy after former Gov. Phil Murphy implemented the 2.5% Corporate Transit Fee on businesses to fund NJ Transit in 2024.

The project was granted $5 million for an 18-24 month pilot, and the future beyond that is uncertain. The South Jersey chamber unsuccessfully requested more money for the effort in this year’s budget, and proponents of the project are hoping to show that it is worth the investment during next year’s budget negotiations.

The summer launch so far has been a little slow, which is to be expected, according to D’Amico.

The authority has seen about 600 one-way trips in the first month of the program, he said, a number he expects to go up as people learn about the routes and as school starts in the fall. He wants to see the service hit at least 5,000 one-way trips each month.

“It takes some time to spread the word, for the marketing campaign to reach the social media platforms, getting brochures delivered to each facility — all those types of things factor into what is a normal slow start,” he said.

“It could be worse, it could be better,” he said.

Why wasn’t Burlington County part of the SJTA before?

Sherrill said in a statement that Burlington County deserves to be part of the authority as “a vital part of the region.”

The reason Burlington County has not been included in SJTA is not because anyone was denying the county is part of South Jersey. Rather, the agency was set up to replace an entity that oversaw the Atlantic City Expressway, which does not go into Burlington, said David Zappariello, the authority’s director of communications.

Along with adding Burlington County to the authority’s coverage zone, the new law allows Sherrill to appoint another member to its board. Members of the board represent the region as a whole, not their home county, Zappariello said, and there is already a Burlington County resident sitting on the board.

Assembly member Alex Sauickie, an Ocean County Republican who also represents part of Burlington County, voted against the bipartisan legislation because it did not also add Ocean County to the authority.

“I just don’t like it when you’re picking winners and losers for political reasons,” he said.

Assembly member Andrea Katz, a Burlington County Democrat, said none of the South Jersey Connects routes will touch her district, where she has concerns about transit deserts. But she is hopeful about public transit expanding in the region and the county getting a seat at the transit table.

“Burlington County now being included means that we’re going to get to have that voice,” she said. “We’re going to get to not be the one stuck in the middle there. We’re going to start to get our own access to public transportation.”

July 15, 2026
EMR will reopen Camden facility after recent fire, following judge’s ruling

The EMR scrap metal recycling plant will reopen after Camden suspended its operations following a late May fire, the latest in a string of fires in recent years.

The decision fell to Camden Superior Court Judge Stephen J. Polansky on Wednesday after the Camden City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday against a settlement that would have allowed EMR to reopen under certain safety precautions. EMR had sued Camden for suspending its junkyard license last month for the facility, where Camden officials say there have been more than a dozen fires in the last six years.

Shortly after the hearing, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s office announced that she signed a bill into law aimed at increasing safety in the scrap metal industry led by Assembly member Bill Moen, a Camden County Democrat. He introduced the bill after a four-alarm fire in February 2025 at EMR.

The court fight to open EMR

The judge said EMR can open its doors only if it follows a list of safety precautions. The company’s legal team told The Inquirer that it had already fulfilled those requirements and is ready to open as soon as the judge submits his order.

“We intend to open and operate in accordance with the judge’s order, which directly incorporates the recommendations of EMR’s third-party fire expert,” Joe Balzano, CEO of EMR USA, told The Inquirer after the hearing Wednesday. “EMR is the only scrap metal recycling facility in the state of New Jersey that has a facility-wide fire suppression system installed and operating.”

Among the required precautions are a 24-7 fire watch, fire suppression system testing, and procedures for scanning material coming into the facility and responding to fires.

In court, EMR’s legal team argued that the city did not have the authority to suspend its license without proper hearing or notice, and that the company has undergone irreparable harm as a result. It has lost millions of dollars, endured tainted industry relationships, and, as of Wednesday morning, sent more than 300 layoff notices, said Kathleen Campbell, a lawyer for EMR.

The fire took place on May 29, at which point EMR voluntarily shut down its operations. The city issued an immediate suspension notice days later, on June 4. A big question in the courtroom was whether there was enough of an emergency at that point that the city could circumvent its normal due process.

“The city can regulate,” Campbell said in court. “What it can’t do is continue an emergency shutdown when there is no basis for it. The fire is over. The testing that this court authorized is complete.”

She argued that the city is more worried about a “desire to keep EMR closed” than an actual immediate danger.

William Tambussi, the city’s lawyer, argued that the possibility of another fire was enough to present an emergency.

Camden Fire Chief Jesse Flax talks with people during a community meeting for residents, affected by a 2025 fire at EMR, at MJD Fieldhouse Gym on Broadway in Camden on Sunday, February 23, 2025.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

“The city is required and has the right to protect its citizens from the harms that come,” he said in court.

Tambussi said after the hearing that the judge’s decision is still a win for the city because the safety precautions EMR has to follow overlap with what the city wants from the company.

“The judge found that the city rushed the process, which the city doesn’t apologize for,” he said in an interview.

Camden and EMR will meet again in court in August, where they will assess whether EMR has complied. The city can also attempt to shut down EMR through a full hearing process if it finds that the company has violated its terms of opening. The city cannot, however, just shut the company down.

A new law stemming from a Camden County legislator’s fight against EMR

The law Sherrill signed on Wednesday, which goes into effect in a year, will require heat detection equipment, publicly accessible fire safety plans developed with local fire officials, and compliance with certain fire prevention standards. It also requires fire suppression systems that can be remotely operated and limits the height allowed for piles of material.

The legislation is part of a four-bill package Moen has been pushing for in Trenton, but is the only one to make it to the governor’s desk before the summer recess.

“We were met at every step of the way with opposition from a well-funded industry,” Moen said in an interview Wednesday.

Balzano, the CEO of EMR USA, said in an interview Wednesday that he believes his Camden site is mostly in line with what the new law requires. But he said the height limit would be “very detrimental to the industry and probably to the environment,” arguing that it is too broad and applies to scrap metal that is not prone to fires. He said that could have “unintended consequences” by having scrap metal spread out across more space.

“I fully support the premise of it,” said Balzano, who has pointed to lithium-ion batteries as a source of scrap metal fires.

Moen emphasized that while the issue of scrap metal fires has become particularly important in Camden, it is not restricted to the city’s borders. Scrap metal sites in Vineland and Newark, for example, have also seen fires in recent years.

“This will be the first step in hopefully many of the state bringing greater transparency, accountability, and an expected level of responsibility for these scrap facilities,” Moen said.

July 8, 2026
Poverty in New Jersey is three times higher than the federal measure, experts say

Dana Brown-Toure, 52, says her life is in a place “somewhere between drowning and surviving.”

A former health aide living on disability benefits, Brown-Toure contends with diabetes that threatens to blind her, while rising bills continue to overwhelm her. Brown-Toure shares an arduous existence with her two children, ages 8 and 21, in the house they rent in Camden, made harder by her former husband’s recent stroke, which hampers his ability to contribute money.

Still, despite their troubles, the family takes in enough money to place Brown-Toure just above the official federal poverty level.

That the U.S. government does not consider her to be living in poverty is hard for Brown-Toure to believe. “Life’s a struggle,” she said Monday. “I would say this feels below the poverty line.”

So would the Poverty Research Institute (PRI) of Legal Services of New Jersey, a statewide legal aid nonprofit that has released a new report asserting that the actual rate of poverty in the state is about triple what the U.S. government calculates.

That means, the report says, the official number of residents living in poverty in New Jersey in 2024 — the latest statistics available — was close to 3 million, rather than the federal figure of 859,000. Brown-Toure did not want her exact income to be disclosed, but the federal poverty level for a family of three such as hers in 2024 was just over $25,000.

A person living below the official poverty level can more readily qualify for various assistance programs, such as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Medicaid, Head Start, and school meals. The problem, experts say, is that even people with incomes that are twice the poverty rate need help, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The government “severely understates poverty for high-cost states like New Jersey,” PRI director Shivi Prasad said.

New Jersey’s cost of living ranks third-highest among states, behind California and Hawaii, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis in the Department of Commerce. It also has the highest real estate property taxes in the United States, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit that analyzes tax policy. The average annual tax bill in the state exceeds $10,000, compared with a national average of around $3,119, the foundation said.

As the issue of affordability continues to plague Americans, thrusting many deeper into poverty, it’s becoming clear that the government‘s methods to measure deprivation are inadequate, PRI explains.

The report, released in June and titled “2024 Poverty Data at a Glance: How the Federal Measurement Falls Short for New Jersey,” says that “the hard reality is that poverty remains deeply entrenched with millions left behind — a paradox for a state considered among the wealthiest in the nation.”

The PRI measures what it calls True Poverty Level, described as the minimum income working families need to afford basic necessities without any public or private support, without making tradeoffs such as eating less to make rent payments.

The basic flaw of the official federal poverty level, according to the PRI and other experts, is that it is a simplistic standard based on computations from 1964.

“It’s a super-inadequate measure, like the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour,” said Laura Napolitano, a sociologist at Rutgers University-Camden. “We’re looking at a dated calculation that’s been unchanged for years.”

Back in the mid-1960s, poverty thresholds were derived by taking the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s calculation for the minimum cost of food, then multiplying it by three to account for other family expenses. The thinking was that food was one-third of a family’s budget. Each year, the poverty level is updated to keep up with inflation, but the equation has remained the same for more than 60 years.

Importantly, Prasad said in an interview, as the decades have gone by, the federal poverty level has not accounted for the actual costs of housing, childcare, food, transportation, healthcare, and other aspects of everyday life. And the federal poverty level does not allow for geographic differences in cost across the nation. For example, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan ($5,746) is vastly higher than it is in Omaha ($1,441), according to Apartments.com.

“We look at all these realistic costs to see how much a family really needs to make it,” Prasad said. “We want to see how much you’d need to survive on your own, without help from the government or from family.”

To determine how much basic survival costs in New Jersey, Prasad noted that an average monthly rent in the state is around $1,800 for a two-bedroom apartment. That would make a year’s rent more than $21,000.

Now look at childcare, Prasad said, where the maximum monthly rate that can be charged for a toddler is $1,417, according to the New Jersey Department of Human Services, which comes to around $17,000 a year.

With rent and childcare adding up to almost $40,000 annually, even if you are making $50,000 — almost twice the federal poverty rate for a family of three — “you really don’t have enough to survive,” Prasad said.

And that says nothing about skyrocketing food costs, she added. The Food Bank of South Jersey reported that over the last four years in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, and Salem Counties, the number of meals distributed to compensate for increasing food expenses grew by 34%.

“More of our neighbors are turning to us amid an affordability crisis that’s hitting a high-cost state like New Jersey harder than poverty measures may show,” Jane Asselta, the food bank’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

For a more detailed analysis of the area the food bank serves, Prasad focused on South Jersey data for The Inquirer. In Burlington County in 2024, the true poverty rate was 27.2%, Prasad said. Similarly, Camden County’s true poverty rate was 38%, while Gloucester County’s sat at 29%. All rates as calculated by the PRI were more than three times the federal poverty levels for the counties in 2024, figures show.

Ultimately, Brown-Toure said, no matter how the government classifies poverty, the one constant she endures is that life’s hardships are wearing her down.

“I’m feeling depressed,” she said. “I miss working and my weekly paycheck. And the dream I once had to own a house is all gone.

“There’s a lot of struggle right now, a lot trauma. It’s hard. And the hardship never stops.”

July 8, 2026
Gov. Mikie Sherrill says fighting data centers is part of her response to extreme weather during Camden visit after flooding

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill climbed onto an emergency water vehicle in Camden on Tuesday with Camden Fire Chief Jesse Flax. That vehicle, called the High Water One, was used by local emergency responders on Monday to rescue 14 people from the flooded streets of Camden, Flax said.

The vehicle had arrived in the city one week earlier, just in time for what officials said was the worst flooding they had ever seen in the city, including from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“I’ve never seen this in my whole career,” said Flax, who has worked in the city for three decades. “I’ve seen bad fires, I’ve seen a lot of different things. But I’ve never seen it flood in this capacity.”

The new High Water Rescue vehicle that was used in the recent rainfall and flooding at the Fire Administration Building in Camden on Tuesday.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

No one was reported injured among 1,000 calls to emergency services.

Sherrill thanked emergency responders and comforted Maria Perez, a Camden resident recovering from surgery who worked with her neighbors to fight the flooding by “telling them what to do and keeping them calm.”

“I wanted them to keep plastic bags on their feet, too, because you don’t know what’s in that water. … I’m so glad that we had such a great team,” Perez, a member of the Camden schools advisory board, said in an interview.

The governor’s visit came just a little more than an hour after she signed legislation in Salem County aimed at data centers. She said that very work can help prevent strain on the power grid during future storms and that the electrical grid is “top of mind” for her.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill, left, speaks with Maria Perez, center, and Sen. Nilsa Cruz-Perez, right, at the fire house in Camden on Tuesday.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer

“We are seeing these extreme weather events more and more and more frequently,” said Sherrill, who was dealt a historic snowstorm just weeks into her term and has recently seen a deadly heat wave. After her stop in Camden, she went to a BJ’s Wholesale Club store in Monmouth County where a roof fell in from Monday’s flooding.

One of the bills Sherrill signed into law on Tuesday creates a new ratepayer class and rate structure for data centers that is meant to ensure they pay for their own energy. Another creates more oversight for utility companies’ grid upgrades to try to save money.

“We’ve set them aside in a separate class of utility users, so that if we have storms like this, they will be first impacted, not normal rate payers,” Sherrill said.

Data centers have caused concern on both sides of the aisle in South Jersey, with towns including Medford taking steps to block their development locally. But according to county spokesperson Dan Keashen, Camden did not have widespread power outages during the storm, just a handful that were rectified the same day.

Oscar Parra makes his way to his car in the flooded parking lot at the Ferry Avenue PATCO station in Camden on Monday amid a flash flood threat for the region.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

So what about the damage in Camden?

Sherrill said residents should report damage through the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management so the state can calculate how much federal assistance to request.

“There are technical things we need to meet,” she said. “I think we probably will, but we’re collecting that now.”

American Red Cross workers in Camden on Tuesday were providing cleaning supplies like mops, bleach cleaners, gloves, and tarps — as well as snacks and water, said Diane Concannon, the organization’s communications director for the New Jersey region.

“Flooding is horrible for any family … because everyone wants to be able to save everything,” she said.

While the rain was intense, it cleared up quickly because the city has maintained its sewers so well, Sherrill said.

“They have done a really good job here in Camden with some of these resiliency efforts,” she said. “It’s why this wasn’t worse.”

July 7, 2026
Camden is a winner in New Jersey’s $60.7B budget. Who are the losers?

Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed the New Jersey budget for fiscal year 2027 Tuesday night, shortly before the clock ran out on the constitutionally mandated deadline.

The budget ranks as the largest in state history, but Sherrill also contends it is the most “fiscally responsible” in decades in part because it fully funds the state pension program and doesn’t come with widespread tax increases for residents.

Lawmakers approved the budget on Tuesday after adding millions in legislative add-ons Sunday night, a move that countered Sherrill’s earlier vows to change the culture in Trenton. But she softened her stance as the deadline neared and she conceded that lawmakers know their districts best.

South Jersey Democrats defended the spending, which Republican lawmakers criticized as “pork.”

“I know sometimes it gets disparaging names, but I think one of our responsibilities as elected officials is to be responsive to the needs of our communities,” said Sen. Troy Singleton, a Burlington County Democrat.

But the last-minute shuffle didn’t result in the transparency Sherrill originally promised, with some legislators saying they weren’t sure of the details they were voting on. The budget passed mostly along party lines in the Democratic-dominated legislature. Sherrill and legislative leaders touted record funding for schools and property tax relief programs.

“I know the process needs work,” Sherrill said at a Tuesday night news conference. “It takes too long. It could be much more transparent, but we took steps in the right direction this year.”

Here are some of the winners and losers in the budget.

Camden County Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli, Jr., left, with Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen, right, at SoccerFest26, the World Cup fan fest at Wiggins Waterfront Park in Camden on Friday.Aliya Schneider / Staff

Winner: Camden City and County

South Jersey obtained funding for projects across the region with Camden scoring one especially big-ticket item: $9 million for property acquisition and demolition. The funding is for a county-run program focused on removing vacant, unusable, or otherwise deemed dangerous properties in the city.

Louis Cappelli Jr., the director of the Camden County Commissioners, said in an interview that the county has demolished more than 1,200 residential and commercial buildings over the past decade as part of this effort, mostly with state money. He said the program’s mission is to encourage the city’s redevelopment.

“The city is in desperate need of new housing, especially market-rate housing, and by creating opportunities for development on these properties, we believe we will draw the interest of residential developers to build in Camden City,” he said.

The city of Camden was also allocated $250,000 for a statue of Martin Luther King Jr., which Sherrill promised the city ahead of her inauguration. This project was a priority for the governor, who systematically struck a pen through legislative projects but dedicated funding to the statue in her proposal earlier this year.

Several organizations that serve Camden city and county received hundreds of thousands of dollars in the budget.

The Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers received $500,000 for a program that connects emergency department patients to outpatient behavioral care and $750,000 for a program that helps people experiencing homelessness obtain housing. Joseph’s House, a homeless shelter in the city of Camden, received $600,000, and a separate spending bill also sends $650,000 to a new construction homeownership project.

The budget also allocates $300,000 for job training for youth and young adults, $75,000 for a program dedicated to improving school attendance in the city of Camden, and $25,000 for a new county program that supports formerly incarcerated people reentering their community.

It also includes $3.2 million for structural improvements for a bridge at Route 30 and Somerdale Road and $12.1 million for the Camden County LINK Trail, a planned 34-mile multiuse trail.

Loser: High-income seniors

Senior homeowners who earn between $200,000 and $500,000 a year will no longer qualify for the nascent Stay NJ property tax credit program under the new income cap. They just began receiving checks for the program this year.

Sherrill proposed scaling back the expensive program in her budget proposal earlier this year, which caused some tension because the new program was championed by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, a Middlesex County Democrat and a key budget negotiator.

But Sherrill and legislative leaders found a compromise by giving higher payments than she proposed for those who make less money, and an even lower income limit than she proposed for the program.

Qualifying taxpayers will get refunded up to half their property tax bill up with maximum refunds ranging from $4,000 to $6,500, depending on their income, with those earning more getting less.

Rowan University’s Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

You win some, you lose some: Rowan University

Rowan University is receiving less money than it did this year, but significantly more money than Sherrill initially proposed. At the end of the day it’s a win for the university, which saw significant cuts reversed.

Sherrill’s initial proposal included about $125 million, but legislators brought the total up to nearly $135 million — a drop from the $155 million the state gave the school this year.

Sherrill zeroed out funding for Rowan’s new veterinary school but legislators successfully got $6.2 million for the program — still less than the $8 million it received this year and a far cry from the $20 million the school requested.

State Sen. John Burzichelli, a Gloucester County Democrat, said the money is enough for the school to at least “keep the lights on,” for the veterinary school and the medical school funding is “sound.”

Sherrill also proposed cutting all state funding for Virtua Health College of Medicine and Life Sciences. Legislators restored $2 million to the program — half of what it received this year and much less than the requested $12 million.

The Rowan-Virtua Child Abuse Research Education and Service Institute (CARES) program, which provides medical and mental healthcare to children who have experienced abuse, had all its $1.85 million funding restored after Sherrill initially zeroed it out.

In anticipation of the governor’s proposed cuts, Rowan sent employees layoff notices and announced the closure of its Vineland office. A union representing CARES employees has called on Rowan to reverse these changes.

But Rowan spokesperson Jose Cardona said the university “will evaluate next steps and very soon determine the most responsible path for operations, staffing, and long‑term sustainability.”

The bill that passed alongside the budget with funding from this fiscal year sent nearly $15 million going to Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and support to Cooper University Hospital. That bill also sends $5 million to Cooper University Healthcare’s South Jersey cancer program, which got an additional $27.4 million in the new budget.

Winner: Parents

Legislative leaders secured a 25% increase in the state’s child tax credit program, which is claimed by 217,000 tax filers with children, according to the governor’s office.

The expansion, which will be in place over the next three tax years, bumps each tax credit tier by 25%. So, for example, a household that previously got the highest tier of $1,000 will receive $1,250 and households that got $800 will get $1,000.

Sherrill, a former member of Congress and mother of four, said she saw positive impacts of the national tax credit, “giving parents more money for childcare and summer camps, so their kids can thrive while they’re at work.”

Gov. Mikie Sherrill talks with state Sen. Troy Singleton (D., Burlington) as she arrives to meet with the South Jersey business community for a fireside chat event hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey in Mt. Laurel Monday, March 16, 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Loser: Businesses

What Sherrill touted Tuesday night as closing “corporate loopholes” and asking employers “to pay their fair share in healthcare,” the business community saw as an attack.

The budget includes Sherrill’s proposals to introduce new fees for businesses with at least 50 employees on Medicaid, an effort that was led in part by Assembly member Carol Murphy, a Burlington County Democrat, in the legislature. It also imposes limits on two methods businesses use to deduct losses from their taxes.

Hilary Chebra, the director of governmental affairs for Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey, criticized these policies, as well as a bill passed by the legislature that bans food surveillance pricing as it’s written.

“Employers aren’t reacting to a single tax increase or one new regulation,” she said. “They’re responding to all of it at once.”

She said these measures will have more severe consequences in South Jersey for small and family-owned businesses that compete with businesses in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Tom Bracken, the president & CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, said businesses were given “minimal support” and that the budget did not focus on supporting economic growth. He said the policies Sherrill championed in the budget “send the wrong message” to employers that New Jersey should be working to attract.

“The negative financial and reputational consequences of these policies will make it more difficult for New Jersey to be competitive — and competitiveness is essential if the state economy is going to grow,” he said.

July 1, 2026
New Jersey’s Tom Kean ends his months-long absence from Congress, saying he was being treated for depression

U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who had not been seen since March in Congress or in his competitive New Jersey district, said Tuesday that he had been hospitalized to treat depression.

“I believe I owe an explanation to the people of New Jersey’s 7th District,” Kean, a Union County Republican, said in a five-minute speech in the House chamber on his first appearance on Capitol Hill in more than 100 days.

“I was given the diagnosis of depression. … It is physical, it is emotional, and until you experience it yourself, it’s difficult to fully understand how powerful this illness can be.”

Kean’s district could determine control of the U.S. House next year. The two-term Republican and son of a former governor is widely seen as New Jersey’s most vulnerable incumbent as he faces Democratic nominee Rebecca Bennett.

Addressing his nearly four-month absence from public life, Kean said he hadn’t believed treatment would result in a long-term hospital stay. But, he added, “there is no timeline for recovery, only the work of getting better one day at a time.”

He said that during his treatment, he began to understand how long “depression had been affecting my life.” Kean added that when he initially told people, he had hoped to return in a matter of weeks, “I believed it.”

Kean, 57, has not voted on a bill since March 5. Throughout that time, his office cited vague health issues without any specificity, even though Kean was facing a tough election in a swing district that includes parts of North and Central Jersey.

Kean flipped his district in 2022, ousting then-Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski by roughly 3 points after redistricting pushed the seat toward the GOP. Kean won reelection by roughly 5 points in 2024 in a strong year for Republicans.

But now, with President Donald Trump polling poorly in the wake of high gas prices and an unpopular war, Republicans realize that keeping their majority in the midterm elections will be a challenging fight and that Kean’s absence had become a campaign trail issue.

In attacks during Kean’s long absence, his Democratic challenger, Bennett, called him a “coward” for missing votes while accepting his House salary. “You are failing us, and you do not deserve to represent us in Washington,” she said.

Bennett said in a statement she was “relieved” that Kean is well and wished him good health. But, she added, Kean was “failing our community long before this absence,” citing his support for Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which made cuts to Medicaid.

In a statement congratulating Kean for his “courage” while excoriating Bennett for her “reprehensible” remarks during Kean’s absence, New Jersey GOP state committee chair Christine Giordano Hanlon said Tuesday that Kean’s “strength is measured by the willingness to face adversity.”

Kean, who previously served 19 years in the state Senate, including 14 as the Republican Party’s leader, returned home last week.

Kean is not the first lawmaker to seek treatment for depression. In a very similar personal battle, Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) was absent from the Capitol after a six-week hospitalization for clinical depression in 2023 — though unlike Kean, Fetterman’s office at the time disclosed the reason for his hospitalization.

Fetterman, whose treatment for depression followed a 2022 stroke, details the experience in his memoir, Unfettered, which was released last year. In the book, Fetterman says he should have quit the Senate race he won that year.

“Because of the way the brain works in depression — you are always searching for a way to hate yourself — I began to wonder if some of my opponents’ insults were true,” Fetterman wrote in the memoir.

Staff writer Aliya Schneider contributed to this article

June 30, 2026
Kean set to speak at the Capitol after mysterious absence

WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom Kean Jr., the New Jersey Republican who disappeared from Congress and the campaign trail in March with almost no explanation, is set to return to the Capitol on Tuesday and address the mysterious health condition he says has kept him away.

Kean, a 57-year-old seeking a third term in a competitive district, has missed more than 100 votes since he was last seen in public more than 100 days ago. His reemergence will be closely watched after months during which he and his staff refused to disclose anything about where he was or what was keeping him away.

Their silence has built Tuesday’s return into a major reveal after a prolonged cliffhanger. Even last week, when a reporter for The New York Times found Kean at his home in Westfield dressed in a suit and tie around 8:45 p.m., he declined to offer any explanation, saying: “I’ll talk to you next week.”

In the absence of official information, his own colleagues have speculated wildly about Kean’s condition, privately raising an array of possibilities for his long and unexplained absence.

Could it be rehab for a stroke, heart condition or addiction issue? Was it a case of plastic surgery gone awry? Might he reappear on Capitol Hill as a woman? (His brief appearance at home last week put at least some of that speculation to rest.)

Kean has said only that he is dealing with a “personal medical issue,” and until recently offered no timeline on his return, only vague assurances that when he did come back, he would be fully recovered and transparent about what he had been through.

Kean’s office also did not provide any detail Monday about his return, though CNN reported that he planned to give a speech on the House floor. He also was scheduled to participate in a fundraising reception Tuesday evening in Washington, according to an email obtained by the Times that confirmed an earlier report by Politico.

His chief of staff, Dan Scharfenberger, did not respond to calls and emails about the congressman’s planned schedule for Tuesday. A spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson said they were leaving the details of Kean’s return to him.

Kean has invited some Republican officials to participate in a 2 p.m. conference call Tuesday, according to multiple people who were invited. The people said they expected he would have to address the health issue in some way.

With an election in five months, Kean’s months of mysterious silence have tested the limits of what the public will tolerate in terms of privacy for its leaders.

Presidents traditionally release the results of their annual physicals and disclose what medications they are taking, although they are not legally required to do so. But members of Congress typically provide no information to the public about the state of their health or their fitness to fulfill their duties.

Voters tend to be forgiving about the health ailments of their leaders. And some lawmakers in the past have tried to turn their own medical challenges or experiences with mental health, alcohol or addiction into a way to relate to voters who may be struggling themselves.

So Kean’s decision to keep his constituents and his colleagues in the dark for so long has largely been viewed as inexplicable.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

June 30, 2026
Rowan’s vet school can ‘keep the lights on’ under tentative state budget deal, and other South Jersey program updates

Rowan University’s nascent veterinary school will get enough funding to “keep the lights on” under the tentative New Jersey budget deal, according to one South Jersey lawmaker.

It’s among several South Jersey programs with a fate tied to the negotiations ahead of the state’s June 30 budget deadline.

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill proposed completely slashing state funding for the state’s only vet school in her budget proposal rolled out in March.

The Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine was created with state support and its first class just finished its first year. On top of training the next generation of vets and conducting research, the South Jersey institution provides veterinary services to the region and helps address a large animal vet shortage.

Since the four-year school only has had only one 75-student class paying tuition so far, the prospect of losing all state funding was potentially devastating.

The state legislature will vote Tuesday on a budget that allocates $6.2 million to the school, a lower number compared to the $8 million it got this year (and much lower than the $20 million it had requested). But the amount will be sufficient enough for the vet school to survive, said Sen. John Burzichelli, a Gloucester County Democrat.

“Will they keep the lights on? Will they continue to grow? I’m confident they can,” he said in a Monday interview.

Veterinary students at Rowan University’s Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine interact with a group of less than-a-week-old kids (baby goats) brought in by classmate Cana Patterson (back to camera, second from right).Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Burzichelli said he and other supporters of the school were trying to allocate $12 million to the school to provide “more resources as they grow out.”

Rowan spokesperson Jose Cardona declined to comment because the deal has not been signed into law.

Vet school under attack

The legislature is expected to approve the budget Tuesday, the final day before the new fiscal year begins on July 1. Sherrill has the power to veto items in the budget before signing it into law.

As part of her March proposal, Sherrill warned that legislators must provide cuts to equal out any spending they want to add to the budget, a stance she softened more recently.

On Friday, she said in Camden that because of cuts she identified with legislative leaders, there’s money for lawmakers to “really push into their local projects.” The state’s revenue forecasts have also gone up.

Sherrill announced last week that she came to a budget agreement with legislative leaders with a price tag of $60.7 billion, the same rounded figure she proposed earlier this year.

Then, on Sunday, legislators advanced a budget with $15 million more than Sherrill’s proposed total earlier this year.

Sherrill has repeatedly touted her budget proposal as” the most fiscally responsible budget New Jersey has seen in years,” though it’s the largest in the state’s history.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill delivers her budget address Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2026, in the Assembly Chamber at the New Jersey State House. Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin (left) and Senate President Nicholas P. Scutari (right) are behind her.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Funding restored for child trauma care in South Jersey

Sherrill’s original proposal also zeroed out funding for a program that provides medical and mental health care to South Jersey children who have experienced abuse in her budget proposal earlier this year. But the legislature restored funding to the same level as the current fiscal year at $1.85 million.

Rowan is closing a health center for abused children because of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s proposed budget

The Rowan-Virtua Child Abuse Research Education and Service Institute (CARES) has locations in Stratford in Camden County and Vineland in Cumberland County. Rowan informed employees of layoffs across both locations and said the university would be closing down the more rural Vineland location as a result of the cuts.

Cardona, the Rowan spokesperson, declined to say Monday whether the Vineland center will remain open and if the layoffs will be reversed. He said it’s “premature to comment on a budget that has not been approved.”

Dio Tsitouras, the executive director of the American Association of University Professors Biomedical and Health Sciences union — which represents CARES employees — said the union is awaiting “an announcement from Rowan that rescinds all layoffs and indicates that the Vineland office will remain open.”

“We are pleased that the budget the Legislature passed restores critical funding to the CARES program so that our members can continue serving the most vulnerable children of South Jersey,” Tsitouras said.

State Rep. Anthony Angelozzi, a Burlington County Democrat, said his office advocated for CARES, one of dozens of groups at risk of funding cuts that met with his office. He called the program’s work “imperative.”

“There were certain priorities we had to fight for because we are sorta on the ground in our districts in a way sometimes the governor is not,” he said. “There are some programs that legislators realize how profound they are at helping people that the governor may underestimate.”

Staff members observe from back of the room during a workshop at the Hispanic Women’s Resource Center in Camden Thursday, June 11, 2026. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers still at risk

New Jersey has one of the largest wage gaps for Hispanic women in the country. Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers were established by the legislature in the early 1990s to help that disparity, providing employment training and other support to Latinas. Sherrill proposed cutting 80% of state funding for these programs, down to just $535,000 statewide.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill proposed an 80% cut to a program that provides job training and support to Hispanic women

Legislators restored most of that funding in their tentative budget to nearly $1.8 million but program leaders say it’s still not enough, at almost 30% less than this year’s allocation of $2.5 million.

The Latino Action Network Foundation runs these centers in partnership with six nonprofits across 14 sites, including five in South Jersey in Camden, Vineland, Hammonton, Pennsville, and Rio Grande.

Latino Action Network president Javier Robles said that decrease will still cause the closure of centers and reduce job training, mental health services, and English language classes to thousands of families statewide.

“At a time when Latino families across our state are being targeted by the right-wing Trump anti-immigrant agenda, these cuts will only put additional strain on our community,” Robles added.

June 30, 2026
How this property tax relief program for New Jersey seniors could change under the state’s budget deal

A nascent property tax relief program for New Jersey seniors has been at the center of budget negotiations between Gov. Mikie Sherrill and lawmakers as the state’s budget deadline quickly approaches.

That program, called Stay NJ, is expected to undergo changes that would slice the income eligibility by more than half, kicking off seniors that made hundreds of thousands of dollars and started reaping the benefit this year.

The benefit is currently available to seniors making less than $500,000, but that cap would be lowered to $200,000 under an agreement between the governor and legislative leaders, according to reports of closed-door budget talks. Those making less money would be eligible for a larger refund under the arrangement.

The proposal is a compromise between Sherrill, who pushed for cuts to the program, and House Speaker Craig Coughlin (D., Middlesex), a key player in budget negotiations who has championed Stay NJ.

As the name suggests, Stay NJ was created in 2023 to incentivize New Jerseyans to remain in the Garden State by providing refunds to eligible senior homeowners. The program was designed to start payments in 2026, so the very first checks had just begun going out when the first term governor presented her early March budget proposal.

She argued that the state could face a dire financial situation if there aren’t serious cuts.

Here’s what to know about the status of the Stay NJ program.

Is there a budget deal?

Sherrill, Coughlin, and State Sen. President Nicholas Scutari (D., Union) announced Tuesday that they came to a budget “agreement.” The closed-door deal wasn’t made public, and legislators continue to iron out the details ahead of the deadline this coming Tuesday.

They said the budget agreement totals $60.7 billion, the same total Sherrill proposed in March. The governor has touted her proposal as “fiscally responsible,” though it’s still the highest price tag in the state’s history.

The joint statement mentioned few details but cited a handful of measures, including Stay NJ.

The state leaders said their agreement ensures the program “is a sustainable benefit retirees can count on.”

The fate of other programs impacting South Jerseyans is less clear, including Rowan’s veterinary school, a program that provides healthcare to children that have experienced abuse, and resource centers that help Hispanic women get employment.

What is Stay NJ?

The property tax relief program issues refund payments to eligible seniors in quarterly installments. The first Stay NJ payments were issued in February with an average of $600 each, according to the state treasurer’s office.

Under the current policy, eligible homeowners over 65 years old who make under $500,000 a year are eligible to get refunds for as much as half their property tax bills. The refunds are capped at $6,500 in a year.

What did Gov. Sherrill want to change about Stay NJ?

Sherrill wanted to slice the eligibility cap in half so only seniors with an annual household income below $250,000 would qualify.

She also wanted to lower the maximum benefit to $4,000.

“That’s a fairer, more efficient use of taxpayer money,” she said in her budget address in early March.

Stephen Sigmund, a spokesperson for Sherrill, said at the time of her proposal that 90% of Stay NJ recipients would keep their benefits.

The AARP expressed outrage at her proposal as New Jersey seniors struggle with the cost of living. But critics of the program who believe it directs too much state money to higher earners praised her for wanting to rein it in.

So what’s actually changing?

According to reports of the budget agreement, Sherrill and legislators agreed on a compromise.

Sherrill agreed to steer an additional $100 million funding to the program, NJ.com reported.

Meanwhile, legislative leaders agreed to lower the income threshold to qualify for the program to $200,000, even lower than what Sherrill initially suggested.

And as part of the new plan, those earning the least would get bigger deductions, according to the report.

Seniors making $100,000 or less would qualify for up to $6,500; those making between $100,000 and $150,000 would be eligible for up to $5,000, and those making $150,000 to $200,000 would qualify for up to $4,000, according to the report.

Coughlin said at an AARP town hall that Sherrill’s proposed cap across the board of $4,000 was “too low,” and that he would “stand up for Stay NJ,” New Jersey Monitor reported earlier this month.

Spokespeople for the governor did not respond to a request asking for confirmation of the plan.

June 26, 2026