TRENTON, New Jersey — Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette told state lawmakers Tuesday that federal funding cuts by the Trump administration should concern them.
But DEP is also dealing with state-level belt tightening, even as his agency’s firefighters are stretched thin and as federal interest in environmental protection and money for pollution controls are waning.
Gov. Phil Murphy’s budget proposal would cut DEP’s state budget to $495 million, an 8 percent decrease when adjusted for quirks in the budgeting process, according to the Office of Legislative Services. Federal funding, which supports infrastructure projects and a tenth of the agency’s personnel budget, is facing drastic if uncertain cuts.
LaTourette tried to make the best of the Trump administration’s slashes to federal spending and Murphy’s own cuts, saying during the afternoon hearing that “flat is the new up and, in this budget, down is the new up.”
