Today, Senate Republican Budget Officer Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) sent a letter to Governor Murphy requesting the Murphy Administration place Newark under State oversight in return for the $52 million of Transitional Aid given to the City.
Newark’s budget is being belatedly adopted next week for the year ending December 31, 2025 and will have unsustainably spent down a $78 million City surplus that existed as recently as December 31, 2022.
An excerpt from the letter reads:
“At a recent meeting of the Local Finance Board, Newark financial advisors acknowledged the City’s structural imbalances. They also indicated the City had no plan for how to repay the State for successive bailouts that have been classified as loans, which is hardly surprising since the City won’t make its first loan repayment due under last year’s ‘loan.’
Supervision and oversight is not something to be feared by a local government with severe financial stress and impending insolvency. As you know, formal supervision and oversight results in the appointment of a State monitor who not only protects against unsustainable spending, but helps the City improve its operations, secure Federal and State regulatory relief, and pursue merit-based grant opportunities.”
You can read the full letter here.
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