The fiscal experts also urged the state to move quickly to adopt a sales tax on Internet purchases - a proposal that is currently moving through the legislature - and to maximize federal 50-50 matching funds by using the Medicaid program to cover health and behavioral health services in county juvenile detention centers. The group criticized New Jersey for lagging behind other states in expanding e-government and consolidating information technology services, as well as in shifting the developmentally disabled from expensive state institutions to home- and community-based care. But on reflecting, it’s not so much like a tsunami as it is like global warming” - a problem that goes unnoticed because the damage is incremental. Tom Ridge’s Cabinet, noted that “last year, we were talking about a crisis with a sense of urgency. Tom Kean who later served in Pennsylvania Gov. In releasing the Facing Our Future report, Houstoun, the treasurer under Republican Gov.

Future SplashDespite major savings from last year’s pension and health benefits overhaul, New Jersey’s state, county, and municipal governments and school districts will be taking in $13 billion less than they need to maintain services at current levels five years from now, according to a study by a blue-ribbon panel of former state officials and foundation leaders conducted for the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers.įormer State Treasurers Feather O’Connor Houstoun and Sam Crane, Rutgers University Public Policy Professor Ray Caprio, and CNJG President Nina Stack spoke for a bipartisan group of 19 policy experts yesterday when they warned that New Jersey would have to cut government services by as much as 20 percent over the next five years unless government officials at all levels are willing to change the way they provide services - including such core services as education and police protection.

A thousand cuts 2012