Hurricane Sandy

State Budget: Feds on Hook for Sandy Recovery

The governor's proposed budget includes about $40 million in Sandy-related supplemental aid.

New Jersey’s recovery following Hurricane Sandy will come, officials and legislators at Tuesday’s budget introduction at the Statehouse in Trenton said, just don’t expect the state to pay for it. In Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed $32.9 billion budget, only about $40 million has been set aside for Sandy-related recovery, all of it coming in the form of supplemental aid. Its intended use will only be as a stopgap during the process of the state’s securing aid for various recovery efforts. The negligible sum will have little impact on the state’s budget, according to New Jersey Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff. Instead, the state will lean on the federal government to cover the costs of New Jersey’s recovery, which is expected to reach tens …

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Budget Cuts Loom as Shortfall Tops $700 Million

Sandy reconstruction, income tax surge will help, but not enough -- says Office of Legislative Services.

Reported by Mark Magyar, NJ Spotlight With New Jersey facing a $705 million budget shortfall that could easily double by June, the Senate Democratic budget chairman Thursday called upon the Christie administration to lay out a plan to close the gap before the size of the deficit becomes virtually unmanageable. “Every month that we delay, the options grow more limited,” Sarlo warned. “Certainly, we don’t want to be where the House [of Representatives] was, falling off a fiscal cliff” at the end of the budget year. David Rosen, budget officer for the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services, told Sarlo’s committee on Jan. 3 that it would be “optimistic” to expect the current $705 million gap not to grow over the next six months. “Every …

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