The State of New Jersey and Governor Phil Murphy have been working on the new budget for the state. This happens every year around this time but this year is a bit different.
Is $4 Million Enough For The Wildwood Boardwalk?
Coming out of Covid Gov. Muphy has the difficult task of getting our state out of the pandemic state and back to normal.
His press release about this year’s budget goes on today, “Governor Murphy’s budget is not simply about getting New Jersey back to where it used to be, but moving forward to where we need to be by building a new economy that grows our middle class and works for every single family, while asking the wealthiest among us to pay their fair share in taxes.”
The planning for a state budget takes roughly about 2-3 months to get approved. Last year was very unique for our state as we had gotten a revised budget on August 25th 2020. This budget was revised budget was created to help get the state funding for school and another possible shutdown as one was expected for the fall.
That additional money rounded out to a $2.2 billion in surplus, which according to the budget was created to help maintain to “address the very real possibility of another shutdown due to a resurgence of the novel coronavirus.” This amount of surplus will be kept in line for this year just in case covid takes another aim at us in the Spring.
The most important part of his budget meeting, to us down here in the Wildwoods, is an $4 Million promise that would go towards fixing parts of the Wildwood Boardwalk.
Back in September 2019 New Jersey lawmakers made their way to the Wildwoods to get a special tour of the aging sections of the Wildwood. With New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy vetoing a bill that would help fix these issues South Jersey lawmakers are stepping up to propose $40 million bill.
If you want to read about that plan click the link below.
In that plan it called for the replacement of most of the boardwalk. Unfortunately this bill was rejected by Gov. Muphy.
We had gone under the Wildwood Boardwalk to film and showcase some of the damaged sections. (You can watch that video at the bottom of the article).
Now on this recent budget plan he put aside $4 million for the boardwalk.
So the question is, is $4 Million enough to help the boardwalk?
This is one question that we have been getting a lot since that article was first posted. Let’s breakdown what we do know.
Cape May Country delivers roughly over 550 million dollars a year to the state. While $4 million is just a tiny number compared to that, it’s a start.
The $4 million will help fix “15 of the most deteriorated and heavily used sections of the boardwalk between 26th and Oak, and Lincoln to Montgomery Avenues” according to Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron.
Since last April’s wind storm that destroyed a few sections of the Wildwood Boardwalk, Byron has been working on a robust plan on how to fix our boardwalk on a budget.
The orignal plan to fix and replace the Wildwood Boardwalk was about to top 70 Million, the city knew that this would be too costly. Instead Bryon came up with the plan to rehabilitate the boardwalk.
As the press release says “The city believes its rehabilitation program is the most practical and affordable approach to sufficiently upgrade the boardwalk.”
Knowing that other sections of the boardwalk need some help, the city will look toward a few different grants.
The city needs roughly about $13 Million more to help repair the other sections of the boardwalk in less need of immediate attention.
At the end of the day if Byron’s plan works, we will have a fully rehabilitated boardwalk at no cost to our tax payers.
This is a plan I think we can all get behind!
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