Higher education funding is back on the chopping block in Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposed budget. College and university leaders from around the state testified before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee Thursday, pleading once again for their combined $20 million in operating aid to be restored. Similar cuts to county colleges were proposed in last year’s budget but were ultimately restored.
This year, Murphy has also proposed slashing money for financial aid programs, including the Community College Opportunity Grant and the Summer Tuition Aid Grant, or TAG program which was eliminated in this year’s proposed budget.
Those aid programs help many low-to- moderate income students complete their degrees, said several college presidents Thursday. Members of the Senate committee on both sides of the aisle said they were alarmed by the proposed cuts, especially after hearing testimony from presidents like Dr. Margaret McMenamin, president of Union College of Union County.
“We face many challenges in higher education today, including a $13 million increase in our health care costs for community colleges, ongoing inflation, unprecedented federal policy and funding uncertainty, and now a proposed state budget that would set us back to the funding level we last had in 2005,” McMenamin told the committee. “We ask you to at a minimum restore the $20 million in operating aid that was cut in the governor’s proposed budget.”
Murphy’s budget would spend $58 billion and increase taxes and fees by over $1 billion. Lawmakers have until July 1 to adopt a budget and have Murphy sign it into law.
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