The Record

 

Critics of Governor Christie’s proposed budget cuts lined up Tuesday at a state Senate budget hearing to explain exactly how the belt-tightening will affect their lives.

 

More than 200 people attended the seven-hour Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee hearing at Bergen Community College in Paramus, and while some offered support for Christie’s budget, most did not.

 

The spending plan seeks to close a budget gap — pegged by the governor at nearly $11 billion — mostly through spending cuts. Many speakers said the cuts will either shift the financial burden to municipal budgets or cause major service reductions. One by one and hour after hour, teachers, parents, healthcare providers and civic leaders, among others, outlined how they and their families will suffer if the proposed changes are approved by the state Legislature.

Marissa Muccio, a pediatric physical therapist, testified that cuts to state education and human services programs will be devastating to children with developmental disabilities whose families would no longer have access to early intervention funding.

 

“Early intervention is from zero to 3 years old,” she said. “It focuses on assisting families whose children have physical disabilities so they can enhance those early years. Those years are critical.”

 

Muccio contends that Christie’s proposal would cut $12 million that normally goes toward early intervention.

 

Fatma Shamsi, whose daughter Sakina receives therapy from Muccio for spinal muscular atrophy, said she had to leave her job in informational technology to care for her daughter. That, coupled with cuts to early intervention, as well as a lack of responsiveness from her health insurance provider, will make her family’s situation much more difficult than it had been, she said.

 

“Within the next year, early intervention will no longer provide services for her,” Shamsi said.

 

State Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, the committee chairman, reminded those in attendance that the budget has not been finalized.

 

“This is not the Legislature’s budget,” he said. “This is a proposed budget by the governor.”

Not everyone criticized Christie, though. Several parents with developmentally disabled children praised the governor’s plan to move more disabled children and young adults into group homes from state institutions.

 

Deborah Legutko of Ringwood has two adult sons with autism and said she is grateful to Christie for “protecting the services for people with developmental disabilities.”

 

“While this is a step in the right direction, it does not go far enough,” she said. “There are thousands of people like my son Frankie who want to live and participate in their community, but who are trapped in an institution.”

 

Education advocates, as well as many municipal leaders, were not as charitable in their descriptions of Christie.

 

Barbara Keshishian, president of the New Jersey Education Association and a former New Milford math teacher, described Christie’s proposed cuts as devastating and said they will result in class sizes of up to 40 students per class, as well as the elimination of programs in districts statewide.

 

“He’s not just targeting abuse,” she said. “He’s targeting the heart and soul of the education system itself. He’s taking a hatchet to the entire budget.”

 

Keshishian offered a suggestion for Christie: Reconsider his tax cut to people earning more than $400,000 annually.

 

“For them, he gives a tax break,” she said. “The ones who work in our school systems — they’re not the ones making $400,000 a year.”

 

Paramus Mayor James Tedesco asked why the governor wants to repeal the Sunday-closing law for businesses in Bergen County, but is not trying to reform the system of binding arbitration that gives police and fire unions an advantage when negotiating contracts.

 

“Without that, I’m still tied to allowing police and firefighters large amounts of money which we can’t support,” Tedesco told the committee.

 

Magalye Matos of Englewood, a student at Bergen Community College, stood at the back of the room, holding a handwritten sign that read, “Don’t balance the budget on the backs of kids.”

Matos said the extensive cuts to education spell disaster.

 

“I’m here as a parent,” said Matos, a community activist in Englewood, where her 5-year-old son attends school. “We’re going to pay for this in the long run. This is why our students are falling behind other countries all around the world.”

 

Yisela Barragan, a 21-year-old student at Bergen Community College who said she works three jobs, said a reduction in a scholarship program would put an even heavier burden on her and her family as she plans to transfer to Ramapo College next semester.

 

“I might have to take out loans,” she said. “I might have to look into more scholarships.”

 

Originally available at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/032310_Senate_public_hearing_on_Christies_proposed_budget_begins.html