Examining NJ's School Funding Formula and Millionaires Tax

Steve Adubato sits down with Brandon McKoy, President, New Jersey Policy Perspective, to discuss NJ’s School Funding Formula, the Millionaire’s tax, and why immigrant owned businesses are important to the state’s economy.

5/25/19 #311

Excerpt:

"Welcome to State of Affairs. I'm Steve Adubato. We are in fact coming to you from the Agnes Varis NJTV Studio in Newark, New Jersey. It's our honor to introduce, for the first time with us, Brandon McKoy, President of New Jersey Policy Perspective, which is an organization that does what? We're a think and do tank that does a lot of policy analysis, particularly around the budget, but also immigration, healthcare, and economic security. And we're in Trenton. And we are providing a lot of analysis on those issues everyday and then talking with our partners and legislators. You are in fact succeeding an iconic figure? Yeah. Gordon MacInnes, a former State Senator, the former head of public television in New Jersey, who was the head of Policy Perspective. And Gordon's been with us many times. So, you know, it's interesting. There are so many issues that are going on, so many things going on in Trenton that have national implications. Mm hmm. Let's go through some of them. Your organization did a 10 year analysis of New Jersey's 2008 School Funding Reform Act. Right? Yeah. It was supposed to move money around, get it where the money needed to go, help urban areas, help communities that have gotten the shaft somehow in state funding, what did you find? I think we found that mostly the places where you see more funding for different schools, and the places where you see less poverty, you see students doing much better. It's kind of you know, really positive to see that New Jersey is keeping its public education system so highly funded and invested in, that this is a major asset for a state like ours. You know we only are in second place behind Massachusetts when it comes to public education quality, and a lot of people come to New Jersey for that. And so we want to make sure that the state continues to invest resources in this very important asset. But did you also look at some suburban communities that have been saying, historically, they're getting the shaft because a disproportionate amount of money is going to communities like Jersey City, an urban area, one of the original... Abbott Districts. Yeah. ...Abbott districts, if I'm not mistaken, in the Abbott Court Decision going back, back, back. But here's the thing. Jersey City is not a poor community across the board and it has economic development going on all over the place, and so it's... my long-winded question is, did you look at the fact that there are some places like Hoboken and Jersey City doing well, called urban, and some other communities struggling that are suburban not all that well? Yeah. And I think..."