NEW JERSEY – All Teachers would receive $1,500 Retention Bonus Under Senator Michael Testa’s bill, paid for with state money currently earmarked for Illegal Immigrants.
“Every year during budget season, large numbers and abstract concepts are routinely thrown about. We hear a lot about “property tax relief” and “fully funding schools.” Numbers become so large, they lose all meaning and significance. It can be challenging to truly comprehend the difference between $1 million, $10 million or $100 million without some context,” Testa said.
New Jersey is planning to spend over $200 million this year in benefits for immigrants who entered this country illegally. This includes taxpayer-funded legal services to contest deportations and detentions. It also includes free healthcare in some cases, Testa said.
While most people are welcoming and support legal immigration, there’s no public appetite –and rightly so– for New Jersey to uniquely roll out the red carpet and offer some of the richest taxpayer-funded services to people who come to the Unites States unlawfully. These generous benefits, that other states do not provide, make New Jersey a magnet state for illegal immigration while adding to an already out of control affordability crisis for our citizens who foot the bill. That is exactly what Governor Phil Murphy and his administration are doing– and without clearly explaining the cost to taxpayers, Testa said.
“As an example, two years ago, Governor Murphy rolled out a new program with a $5 million appropriation to extend free Health care to minors who are here illegally. New Jersey taxpayers pay 100% of this cost because States have long been prohibited – even under Democrat Presidents and when both houses of Congress were controlled by Democrats — from using Medicaid funds to provide benefits to illegal immigrants. Just 24 months later, the cost is exceeding $100 million, with no end in sight as illegal border crossings continue to grow every month,” Testa said.
“At the same time, New Jersey is struggling to attract and retain classroom teachers. New Jersey needs to change its priorities,” Testa said.
Instead of rewarding illegal immigrants with taxpayer-funded benefits, we should give that money to our teachers to thank them for their hard work and show that they are appreciated. New Jersey has roughly 117,000 teachers. That would be over $1,500 to each and every one of them, Testa said.
Now $1,500 isn’t going to change someone’s life, but it would certainly help the teachers who increasingly have to pay for basic classroom supplies out of their own pocket. It would also signal that New Jersey is starting to correct its misguided priorities. Instead of putting illegal immigrants first, we would be putting our students, teachers and taxpayers first, Testa said.
The New Jersey Budget is over $55 billion and growing every year. There are plenty of other changes that my Republican colleagues and I have proposed to make the budget fairer and stronger for New Jersey residents and businesses that we hope Democrats, who set the State’s policy agenda, will consider. But rewarding teachers, instead of lawbreakers, is a good start, Test said.
