December 07, 2025
Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com via Imagn Content Services
A new report urges N.J. Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill and the state's other leaders in Trenton to tackle affordable housing, transit gaps, criminal justice reform and other priorities.
With a new governor poised to take the reins in January, a public policy group has issued a roadmap for New Jersey's future, warning that runaway housing costs, public health and educational inequities, and public transportation gaps undermine the potential of many residents.
The Fund for New Jersey convened policy experts, community leaders, and residents for a series of conversations earlier this year to come up with the policy priorities released Wednesday.
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Brandon McKoy, the nonprofit's president, hopes policymakers at all levels, from Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill "down to the dog catcher," regard the report's recommendations as marching orders from New Jersey's 9.5 million residents.
"We listened closely to what New Jerseyans told us," McKoy said. "These recommendations reflect the priorities that surfaced repeatedly and the areas where leadership is needed most."
McKoy's group, which has provided two grants to the New Jersey Monitor, listed seven policy priorities they deemed most urgent:
Officials should step up ongoing efforts to eliminate lead exposure, which can cause developmental delays, behavioral changes, and other health harms, especially in children. As climate risks escalate and the clean-energy workforce expands, policymakers should create a statewide hub to train people for green jobs such as stormwater management and urban forestry.
Officials should revive a ban on trucks older than 2007 from ports operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to reduce diesel emissions in Newark, Elizabeth, and surrounding areas already disproportionately impacted by pollution.
Officials should do a cost-benefit analysis of beach replenishment projects, including climate change considerations. Such work has cost more than $3 billion in federal, state, and local tax funds, according to NJ.com. The feds typically foot the bulk of the bill, but the Trump administration has cut hundreds of millions in beach renewal funds this year.
"It is a losing proposition to keep spending taxpayer dollars to replace sand that washes away in extreme weather," the report says.
Officials can make the criminal justice system fairer by shortening the state's speedy-trial timeline, in which defendants can languish for up to two years in prison waiting for their case to go to trial.
Rather than cracking down on low-level crimes like disorderly conduct, officials should divert such offenders to social services, sparing them convictions that later can block access to jobs, housing, and education, the report says.
They should also reduce barriers that threaten the successful reentry of people who leave prison. That could involve providing transitional housing, eliminating employment restrictions and driver's license suspensions, and funding health care, educational, and vocational programs.
Allowing people with felony convictions to serve on juries also should be a priority, the report says. Excluding them separates them from a civic duty and keeps their lived experience out of jury deliberations.
The state should shift away from a census-based funding model to cover the cost of special education services. That model uses a statewide average to fund special education, leaving districts with more special-education students than average scrambling to close budget gaps.
The state also should spend more on higher education, with the broader goal of increasing the number of residents who earn college degrees. Gov. Phil Murphy cut more than $100 million from New Jersey's colleges and universities in the current budget. That means New Jersey's already expensive institutions could hike tuition to make up the loss, leaving degrees out of reach for low- and middle-income students, according to the report.
Already, fewer than half — about 43% — of New Jersey residents have a bachelor's degree or higher, the report says. And thousands of college students take longer than four years to complete a degree, adding to their debt burden.
McKoy's group recommends reestablishing the state public advocate's office, a watchdog former Gov. Chris Christie abolished in 2010, and making fair housing one of its key mandates.
Christie also dissolved the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission in 2015 by merging it with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. The commission had used regional tax-base sharing, which enabled 14 towns to share the costs and benefits of development. McKoy's group recommends restoring the commission as an independent agency, as well as its tax-base-sharing, to ensure stronger enforcement of environmental standards.
Enacting statewide rent controls and growing the Affordable Housing Trust Fund also should be priorities for policymakers.
The state should repeal the New Jersey Parking Offenses Adjudication Act, which enables officials to suspend the driver's license or vehicle registration of people who don't pay parking fines. That disproportionately impacts lower-income residents, who may be unable to afford parking fines. Losing their license or registration could threaten their jobs, so New Jersey should follow the lead of states including Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Illinois, where lawmakers ended license suspensions over most non-moving violations.
New Jersey's unemployment rate is higher than the national average. And 9% of residents age 25 to 64 don't have a high school diploma or general-equivalency degree — the minimum requirement for many jobs, according to the Kids Count Data Center. Those trends show that the state should provide more and better education and vocational training.
Making child care more affordable would help, the report says. While the state has expanded free preschool, universal child care is "vital for helping families succeed," McKoy said.
"It's really becoming a major, major crisis that's preventing families from being able to be economically stable, let alone successful," he said.
The report also recommends that New Jersey establish a guaranteed basic income, in which low-income families could count on state support for their essential needs.
"It is a crucial safety net addition for today's economy, where full-time work does not guarantee financial stability," the report says.
Baby bonds also would help erase disparities by giving low-income infants a savings endowment they can access at age 18.
The record $58.8 billion budget state lawmakers approved in June contained controversial cuts, diversions, and funding freezes on affordable housing, child care, and opioid settlement funds, among other things, that left angry advocates demanding reversals. At the same time, lawmakers tacked on more than $700 million in last-minute pet projects critics have condemned as pork.
"Budgets are statements of decisions, and every budget has things in it that I would say are driving towards community benefit, and unfortunately, some things that are not," McKoy said.
To ensure better fiscal responsibility, the fund recommended that officials review and reduce the tax breaks the state has increasingly given out to lure businesses to New Jersey.
"The effectiveness of this strategy is being questioned. At present, New Jersey does not monitor tax expenditures closely to control their growth and to determine whether they deliver their intended economic benefits," the report notes.
New Jersey also must restore its "rainy day" reserves, which are meant to cover state operations during emergencies. The state now ranks last in the nation, with just enough money in its rainy day fund to cover two days of operations; Wyoming, in comparison, leads the nation, with enough in its reserves to run the state for 302 days, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Public transit agencies in other states can rely on regular operating funds from the state. NJ Transit's funding, though, is marked by "constant scarcity and instability," the report says.
The agency consequently diverts $400 million annually in federal transit dollars meant for capital improvements to cover budget shortfalls, which contributes to chronic service disruptions, according to the report. Establishing a stable and permanent state funding allocation would improve service.
The group also called on NJ Transit, the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, and the South Jersey Transportation Planning Organization to work together to conduct long-range planning.
"A lack of public transportation options in South Jersey in particular was a major sore spot for folks," McKoy said. "Not only will that help folks have different ways of getting around, but also alleviate traffic on the road."
The report listed several other "emerging" priorities, including expanding government oversight and accountability.
Eliminating or weakening government watchdogs leaves public programs and systems vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse, the report says.
McKoy pointed to lawmakers' current effort to strip the state comptroller's office of its investigative powers. Such an effort goes against what his group heard during their community conversations, he said.
"Folks want to know that the government is properly spending public money and also cracking down on fraud, waste, and abuse," McKoy said. "They talk about the state being expensive and needing to do a better job of officially using funds. So we need to actually invest more in these offices that are providing oversight of government processes."
The report recommends making the state comptroller an independent position, rather than one appointed by the governor and subject to state Senate approval; reestablishing the state Office of the Public Advocate to give residents a stronger voice in holding government accountable; and expanding the Open Public Records Act to reduce exemptions that allow officials to keep records secret. Lawmakers last year instead added new restrictions to public records.
Policymakers also should embrace policies that support immigrants, who comprise 29% of New Jersey's working population, the report says. Strategies could include boosting funding to the state Office of New Americans and creating pathways for immigrants to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities.
The report urges policymakers to expand access to voting by passing same-day voter registration and a Voting Rights Act.
McKoy's group also implored officials to get an early start on ensuring the state's population is correctly counted in the 2030 Census. Federal officials use census data to determine federal funding, so an accurate count is especially important as states endure unprecedented cuts made by the Trump administration, McKoy added.
"The census is the biggest non-wartime effort in the history of the nation, so it requires a lot of forethought," he said. "Making sure we do a good job on the Census is actually really crucial over these next couple of years to make sure that we are getting all of our federal funds possible."
New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com.
