Editor-in-Chief Dhiren Shah sits down with Orange Township Director of Planning Valerie Jackson to talk about the impact of Gov. Chris Christie's budget on the Orange Urban Enterprise Zone.
Dhiren Shah: What difficulties will you face due to the budget?
Valerie Jackson: The governor's budget proposes to not fund UEZ projects and administrative staff for Fiscal Year 2011. What does that mean to Orange? The UEZ is a very important program to economic revitalization for the City of Orange. The projects currently funded by the UEZ include litter collection done by Department of Public Works workers. They clean up the commercial areas in the City of Orange. The Police Department has 11 people funded by the UEZ who police the commercial quarters, and the equivalent of two people on my staff is funded as well. So the implication for Orange is that we do not have funding for 21 people.
That puts us at about $1.3 million that we're losing in Fiscal Year 2011 for those projects. Other projects don't get funded either. We do marketing for projects in our Urban Enterprise Zone, so those won't get funded either. We won't get funding to do retail support programs, like Home for the Holiday. So those kinds of programs and projects as a result of the governor would not be available to us. They are very important.
DS: What about the effects for 2010?
VJ: He basically took, as of December 31, any available money form the UEZ program. At that time, we had $1.3 million in funding available. That funding was earmarked for police and litter, and our events to promote the business in the UEZ.
DS: Why was the money not spent?
VJ: Our projects have dates that they end on. The litter control project ends on May 31st, and so the money would have been available to fund litter collection starting June 1st. We were holding it aside so that we the project needed, we could fund it again. Our project would have been heard in April by the UEZ authorities, would then have been approved, and then implemented on June 1st.
DS: How much funding was received in 2009?
VJ: A couple of million. At the end of 2008, we had $2.2 million available for funding. With the UEZ, you are adding to the balance every month, where revenue starts to increase. We actively increase the number of business in the UEZ program to increase funding for UEZ projects. On average, we would only have $1 million instead of $2 million.
DS: Do you have any message of Local Talk's readers?
VJ: The message is please, please; let your legislators know the importance of the Urban Enterprise Zone. Mayor Hawkins, in his speech to the Orange Chamber of Commerce, encouraged all businesses and business owners to please send letters, contact state senators, assemblypersons, and the governor and let them know how important the Urban Enterprise Zone program is to the City of Orange.
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