Credit: (Latino Action Network)The Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers faced a drastic cut in state funding that would have forced two locations to close. But with the new state budget passed last week, most of the funding has been restored, and the group can stay afloat — for now.
The centers are overseen by Latino Action Network and provide mental health care, job-related and language services to Latinas across the state. While former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, completely defunded them in 2010, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has steadily increased funding since he took office in 2017.
So when Murphy earlier this year proposed cutting the group’s state funding from $4 million to $1 million in his 2025 fiscal year budget, that posed an existential threat to the centers. Legislators fought to increase the group’s funding to $3 million in the final state budget. While the centers will now be able to continue their programming, this year’s budget situation highlights an annual anxiety-provoking time when grassroots nonprofits like the Latino Action Network must fight for state money to continue their existence.
The money for the centers is just a sliver of the nearly $57 billion state budget.
“If programs like this have to fight every year, that’s not a good sign,” said Jesselly De La Cruz of Latino Action Network.
Annual budget-related anxiety
De La Cruz said she felt relieved and thankful when she heard the news of their $3 million budget allocation, as did the many women who use the centers’ services.
The good news, for now, is that all centers can stay open, said De La Cruz. Although it may appear that the centers’ funding is $1 million short, last year’s funding was a one-time high of $4 million. This allowed the centers to carry out short-term projects and scholarships, like for their bilingual social worker program, which won’t be renewed.
Under the New Jersey Constitution, state government is required to pass a balanced budget every year. The budget must be adopted by the governor and lawmakers by July 1, which is the start of the state’s July-to-June fiscal year.
Now that the funding clock has been reset, the Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers are already looking at next year’s budget.
However, some states operate under biennial spending plans that feature two-year appropriations. That’s something advocates say promotes more long-range, strategic planning. And longer-term budgeting can also bring more stability to agencies and other groups that regularly receive state government funding.
Latino Action Network, alongside women who use its services, testified before lawmakers in recent months about why the centers are critical. The centers provide everything from financial literacy or job readiness training, to help dealing with domestic and sexual violence, to immigration services and more, they explained.
Vital role
The centers help close the wealth disparities in a state where Latinas face one of the worst wage gaps in the country. A Rutgers University study from 2023 highlighted the need for more state funding for the centers.
“It’s about bridging the wealth gap. So, to us, when this funding is always on the chopping block, it makes me nervous to think about how women are going to be … included in the economy,” said De La Cruz.
Now that the funding clock has been reset, the Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers are already looking at next year’s budget. Among the Latino Action Network’s next steps is to continue putting faces to the budget line items for state officials, said De La Cruz.
The centers are working to create an advisory group of women to advocate for policies and testify before the Legislature. They already have a roundtable with people who use the center’s services who help inform the organization’s policy work, and plan to increase that work to keep their members engaged year-round.
“We’re already starting to organize around the kind of advocacy and education that we need to do, not just with the Legislature, but also with the governor and all the different departments so that they understand the importance of these programs,” De La Cruz said.
