NorthJersey

Priorities in the first proposed federal budget unveiled by President Donald Trump are easy to spot. They include the military, veterans’ programs and a crackdown on illegal immigration. However, the cuts to help pay for those increases in the Trump blueprint, including a $54 billion uptick in defense spending, would come at a steep cost to valuable domestic programs that have direct impact on people’s lives.

If nothing else, the Trump budget plan should be an eye-opener regarding exactly how federal tax dollars are spent. Certainly, there may be waste in some levels in government, and yet there are programs in place with long histories of supporting working families, protecting the environment and, in general, striving to make life better in our communities.

As it stands, New Jersey could see funding cuts for the arts, hazardous waste cleanups, heating assistance, legal services for the poor, as well as university and medical research. The elimination of federal community development block grants, in particular, would be devastating for low-income communities across North Jersey and would also mean the loss of the popular Meals-on-Wheels program that has been a godsend for thousands of seniors and homebound residents.

Paterson City Councilman Andre Sayegh, who called the Trump cuts to CDBG money “ill-advised” and “shortsighted,” said the federal grant money in Paterson goes a long way to aid numerous non-profit groups and programs that help Paterson residents, including everything from the Boys and Girls Club and its after-school programs; to City Green, a neighborhood beautification program; to Oasis, a haven for poor women and children. He said losing these grants would represent “a setback for the city.”

Another area where Trump’s budget cuts would be felt locally would be through the diminution of the scope and capability of the Environmental Protection Agency, especially in regard to the Superfund program that helps clean up the nation’s worst toxic sites. Trump has proposed to cut money to the Superfund program by 33 percent, to $762 million from $1.1 billion, as a way to rein in administrative costs.

Trump’s cuts would be heavy on sites that don’t have a deep-pocketed polluter and instead rely on taxpayer money. This includes Garfield’s Superfund site, a so-called “orphan site” where cancer-causing chromium has contaminated water under more than 300 homes and businesses in the southwestern part of the city for 35 years.

In addition, at the state level the Trump outline calls for more support for public charter schools and an increase in funding for vouchers that could benefit New Jersey’s Catholic schools and yeshivas. It also calls for increased funding to fight opioid abuse, a cause that Gov. Chris Christie has championed.

Missing from the Trump plan is any significant support toward the so-called Gateway project, which includes building a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River to replace the existing century-old tunnel used by thousands of NJ Transit riders.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, said the cuts that Trump is proposing to a program called New Starts in the Transportation Department would eliminate the project and "send a catastrophic ripple effect that will cause irreparable harm to our regional and national economies."

Other entities vitally important to the quality of life of average North Jersey residents slated for the chopping block include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts. Rep. Leonard Lance, a Republican from Hunterdon County, said he supports cutting federal spending but called “penny wise and pound foolish” the proposal to eliminate the Endowment for the Arts and cut Justice Department grants.

Lance and the rest of the New Jersey delegation, both Democrats and Republicans, need to give these budget numbers a closer, harder look in coming weeks and as more details emerge about what exactly they will entail. Still, on first glance these cuts in the federal budget would be widely devastating to ordinary New Jersey residents and the government resources upon which they depend.

The loss of CDBG money in particular and the vast array of programs and urgent local needs that depend on it in both Bergen and Passaic counties, would be near catastrophic and hard for municipalities and non-profits to sustain.