How Trump's budget would really hammer N.J.

By Jonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

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President Donald Trump's first full budget, covering the 12 months beginning Oct. 1, relies on large cuts to domestic spending and tax cuts primarily for corporations and wealthy Americans in order to increase spending on defense and border security and balance the budget within 10 years.

And it would really hammer New Jersey.

The spending cuts are targeted at programs helping the neediest Americans, including food stamps and Medicaid. Transportation and environmental expenditures also are on the chopping block.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) called the Trump budget "cruel and unusual punishment."

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Copies of President Donald Trump's fiscal 2018 federal budget are laid out ready for distribution on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo | Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Trump's director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, said the administration wanted to ensure that federal funds are spent on programs that work and go to people who really need the help.

"We looked at this budget through the eyes of the people who are actually paying the bills," Mulvaney said at a White House briefing. "For years and years we’ve simply looked at a budget in terms of the folks who are on the back end of the programs, the recipients of the taxpayer money, and we haven’t spent nearly enough time focusing our attention on the people who pay the taxes."

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Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) is shown in a file photo.

Trump can make all the proposals he wants, but it will up to Congress to decide how many of them actually become law. A New Jersey lawmaker, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) will play a major role as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

"It is our job to analyze the request, go through each and every budget line, question every witness, and demand spending justifications on behalf of the taxpayers who are footing the bill," Frelinghuysen said.

Here are some of the proposed cuts to New Jersey:

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Children could lose health care

Around 35,000 children in New Jersey could be in danger of losing coverage under changes Trump has proposed to the Children's Health Insurance Program to save $5.8 billion.

The budget would reimburse the state for kids up to 250 percent of the poverty rate instead of the current 350 percent.

“The state would have to replace those lost federal dollars or cut eligibility,” said Ray Castro, director of health policy for New Jersey Policy Perspective.

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Families could lose health care

The budget assumes that the House Republican health care bill is the law of the land. That bill would leave 500,000 more New Jersey residents without coverage than under current law.

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An Amtrak train. (Jeff Goldman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

No money for Gateway tunnel

Trump made no changes to his initial plan to fund only those projects with contracts already in place under the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Program, also known as "New Starts." The Gateway Tunnel project under the Hudson River is not at that stage and therefore would be ineligible for funding under the program.

"I'm going to fight with every fiber of my being to make sure New Jersey and New York get money for this project and I have some pretty powerful allies," said U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

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Cuts to Medicaid

Breaking a campaign promise, Trump proposed $610 billion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years and another $250 billion in savings from repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, including savings from ending its Medicaid expansion.

About 1.6 million New Jerseyans receive Medicaid.

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Cars splash their way through the flooding on 10th Street off Meadowlands Parkway in Secaucus in May. (Margaret Schmidt | The Jersey Journal)

Flood insurance premiums could rise

Trump's budget calls for the National Flood Insurance Program, up for renewal this year, to bring in an additional $8.9 billion in revenue over 10 years.

Menendez, who sits on the Senate Banking Committee with jurisdiction over the program, said he's concerned that the Trump administration will want to collect that much more money from policyholders, especially from those who currently pay subsidized rates because they own older homes. About 35 percent of New Jersey homeowners enrolled in the flood insurance program pay the lower rates.

Policyholders also would be asked to shoulder the $190 million cost to map flood zones. Currently, the Homeland Security Department pays the cost.

"New Jerseyans survived Sandy, and we can’t allow this man-made storm to wipe out what they have left,” Menendez said.

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Food stamp costs shifted to states

Spending on food stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, would be reduced by $191 billion over 10 years, and states would have to start picking some of the cost.

Beginning in 2020, states would have to fund 10 percent of the program, rising to 25 percent in 2023.

New Jersey received $1 billion under the program in 2015 to help 1 million families, according to NJPP.

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Chemical safety

The Chemical Safety Board, which investigates accidents at chemical facilities, would be marked for elimination. The board was designed to make recommendations on how to prevent similar accidents from occurring, but the Trump administration said it overlaps with other agencies.

The board enjoys bipartisan support from the New Jersey congressional delegation.

"The impact is safer workplaces and communities and reduced liabilities for business," the lawmakers wrote recently wrote to the chairman and top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee on interior, environment and related agencies urging lawmakers to fund the board. "For example, in New Jersey, fire code officials have been trained about the hazards of combustible dust."

Signing the letter were Reps. Donald Norcross (D-1st Dist.), Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.), Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.), Josh Gottheimer (D-5th Dist.), Leonard Lance (R-7th Dist.), Albio Sires (D-8th Dist.), Bill Pascrell Jr.(D-9th Dist.), Donald Payne Jr. (D-10th Dist.) and Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-12th Dist.)

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The Curtis Specialty Papers Superfund site straddling the border of Milford and Alexandria Township. (Stephen Flood | The Express-Times)

Less for Superfund cleanups

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6th Dist.), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the Trump budget "would disproportionally hurt New Jersey" by its $330 million cut in the Superfund program.

New Jersey has more Superfund sites than any other state.

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Less help for cities, no heating aid for the poor

When Trump first outlined his budget in March, he called for eliminating community development block grants, which go to urban areas for housing and economic development. New Jersey and its localities received $81 million in community development block grant funding last year.

He also proposed eliminating the Low Income Heating Assistance Program, known by its initials as LIHEAP, which helps poorer Americans, including those in the Northeast, help pay for their winter heating bills. The program helps nearly 300,000 homes of elderly and disabled people in the state. New Jersey received $116.3 million last year in aid.

Those cuts remained in the budget released Tuesday.

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As seen from the Philadelphia side of the Delaware River, the "Victor" luxury apartment building is on the Camden Waterfront near the Ben Franklin Bridge. (Matt Rainey | The Star-Ledger)

A program that helped Camden

The budget ends the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, program, which provided $16.2 million last year for Camden to rebuild a network of streets north of the Ben Franklin Bridge in an attempt to enhance economic development in the area.

Another $16 million went for relocating utilities and building a staging area for construction materials in preparation for replacing the Portal Bridge.

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Read more about Trump's budget

N.J. residents face higher costs, loss of tax break under Trump budget

Trump's budget slams N.J. more than most states on Medicaid

Sandy showed need for gasoline reserves in Northeast. Trump wants to sell them off.

Trump wants to close military bases, but N.J. Joint Base may be spared

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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook

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