Hunterdon County Freeholders call on legislators to restore $2.6 million cut to county’s schools

HUNTERDON COUNTY, NJ – Hunterdon County Freeholders have called for state legislative action to restore $2.6 million in state education aid cuts to twenty County school districts included in Governor Murphy’s new proposed budget.

“The Governor presented his second budget of the year on August 25th and, despite this second chance, he still cut school aid to 20 Hunterdon County school districts by over 2.6 million dollars,” Freeholder John E. Lanza said.

“Incredibly, there is no change from the Governor’s school aid cuts presented in February. This, despite the fact that the Governor proposes borrowing $4 billion dollars to support the state budget for nine months, until next June,” Lanza said.

“The Governor’s school funding cuts are also despite the fact that many of our county’s school districts are providing in-school learning, unlike most schools in the state, at a significant cost to those schools in putting in place protections against the spread of the corona virus,” Lanza said.

“These cuts really do seem to be unfair to Hunterdon County school children, taxpayers and teachers, and the school districts that plan to offer in-school education, given the state’s big borrowing plans,” Freeholder Zach Rich said

Lanza, the Freeholder Board’s representative to the New Jersey Association of Counties, said, “The legislature still needs to act on the proposed budget, so we should again mount a lobbying effort directed to the county’s representatives in Trenton, to press for restoration of the funding.”

Rich, a former West Amwell Mayor, said, “I share the frustration expressed by Freeholder Lanza and so many of our school officials in the county and intend to work in pressing our legislators to correct this decision in the final state budget.”