Opinion: Step 2 to Fix NJ- Cut Rutgers University State Funding

Nothing against the institution of higher learning that so many New Jerseyans attended, but c'mon, with all of the problems we face as a state, out of control property taxes, failing roadways, trains that can't quite get us where we need to go, an out-of-control addiction crisis, just to name a few... how has Rutgers continued to bill taxpayers for billions?

Every year, the Rutgers budget of $4 billion+ is subsidized by about a billion dollars of your money. That's right, whether you're a family sending a kid there, and still paying north of $20k a year, or you're kids are headed to Community College or a professional trade school, we're all footing the bill. The University spends 49% of the budget on salaries and another 16% on fringe benefits. The state's contribution to the current budget is about $900 million.

As I've promised to do over the course of the next ten weeks, my proposal to cut the subsidy to Rutgers is second on my list of how to #FixNJ.

The first you may remember from last week is Vote 'NO' on local school budget tax/borrow/spend schemes (next one coming up on 9/24). I'd red line veto the funding and phase it out over four years. The first year, they'd give back $250 million, which would be spent on critical items to make NJ competitive for small business again. Tax credits to trade schools and businesses, which hire NJ kids out of those schools.

No more subsidies and tax breaks for hundred millionaires like morally bankrupt, elite insider George Norcross. Instead we'd use the money for middle and working class families so they can survive and begin to thrive in our state.

As far as Rutgers? I've never met a budget in my career, about two decades in business before I ever got into media, that could be cut. Let's start with firing some of the overpaid state bureaucrats that run the University.