The budget for dealing with wildfires has remained unchanged for years
Climate change is stretching the wildfire season in New Jersey. It’s also becoming more unpredictable, and dealing with that changing season comes with a price. State environmental authorities are facing rising costs to fight larger fires, and that’s eating away at financial resources that could otherwise be spent on preventive work.
But the budget for dealing with wildfires has remained unchanged for years, and that leaves state officials trying to stretch their dollars.
An Emmy award-winning journalist, Briana Vannozzi serves as the anchor for NJ Spotlight News, the newsroom of NJ PBS. She's worked in several capacities since joining the news division in 2012, as interim anchor and senior correspondent after years of general assignment reporting as a multimedia journalist. Vannozzi began her television journalism career by cutting her teeth on New Jersey State House politics for New Jersey Network News, and later as a news radio correspondent at FM News 101.9 covering crime and politics in New York City. Her work has taken her to national presidential nominating conventions, Capitol Hill, up and down the East Coast and every corner of the Garden State. She's interviewed every New Jersey governor dating back to Jon Corzine and moderated numerous political debates and forums. Her work has also earned awards from the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists and the Philadelphia Press Association. A Burlington County native, she's honored to be serving and covering her home state and raising her family there.
John Reitmeyer has covered state and local government in New Jersey for more than 20 years, and for the last 10 years with NJ Spotlight News. He primarily focuses on issues related to the state budget, taxes and public finance. Prior to joining NJ Spotlight News, Reitmeyer wrote for The Record of Bergen County, The Burlington County Times and The Press of Atlantic City.
