CREST HAVEN – The county commissioners on June 10 once again took up the subject of President Donald Trump’s “one, big, beautiful bill,” which contains large federal funding cutbacks, among them provisions that opponents say will strip many New Jerseyans of medical and food benefits.
The outcome was about the same as the last time the matter was brought up, two weeks ago.
Commissioner Will Morey, during the time allotted for commissioner comments, said the only item he had was to follow up on the discussion two weeks ago when residents asked the commissioners to press federal officials to reconsider support for the bill, which would eliminate about $1 trillion in federal aid for programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
And as they did two weeks prior, the commissioners were reluctant to express any opposition to the bill, saying there probably would be changes to the measure. Commissioner Bobby Barr said the bill, which has passed the House of Representatives and is now in the Senate, would obviously be changed.
“The House bill, I think we can safely say, is not going to pass as is. And some of my sources that I’ve been working on say that there will be some pretty substantive changes to this at the very least,” Barr said. “So we’ll keep our eye on that.”
The consensus of the commissioners, minus Morey, was to wait before making any comments.
But Morey said, “I do think it is something that we should take some action on.”
He suggested at least three times that the commissioners hear the county director of social services, Donna Groome, talk about error rates for federal aid, which was a topic in the discussion two weeks earlier. Groome ultimately did get a chance to speak.
Commissioner Melanie Collette said at the May 27 commissioners meeting that the error rate for social services was just under 40%, based on information she received from Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s office. Collette revised her statement on June 10 to say that the error rate to which she was referring was based on a USDA report for 2023, and it referred specifically to the SNAP program. SNAP in New Jersey had a 35.7% error rate in 2023, which was reported in the Herald a week prior.
But Groome said that the percentages can sometimes be misleading. She offered an example of five people receiving $200 in SNAP benefits each month, for a total of $1,000 for the household. She said if one person was found to receive $100 too much, the error rate for the household would be 10%. Groome described this as a moment-in-time calculation error.
She said other error data had nothing to do with numbers but with the type of information required by, for example, the federal government. She promised an up-to-date report when the state releases new data at the end of the month.
The discussion on June 10 also focused on perceived insults suffered by commissioners. Commissioners Collette and Andy Bulakowski defended Barr, saying he works harder than anyone to protect the rights of citizens and the disabled; members of the public had taken exception to Barr’s statements regarding people politicizing issues, such as services for the disabled, to advance their agenda. Carolyn Rush, a Democratic candidate for the Assembly, said at the May meeting that the fight for services is political.
Bulakowski said he took exception to some members of the public throwing up their hands and walking out as Barr began to speak May 27. Collette echoed that sentiment; however, it seemed that incident happened after a resident introduced the notion of race into her comments, and Collette said the woman had the “audacity” to insert race into the discussion.
Immediately a man stood up and said, “(Collette) said she had audacity,” and was going to leave until others pleaded with him to stay.
On June 10, Rush defended that woman’s statement from two weeks ago, in which she said she was a Jewish woman in America and compared her fears to those of Black citizens.
“She got very emotional and said that she doesn’t recognize her own country any longer,” Rush said. “She said she has never been so fearful as she is right now to be a Jewish woman in America.”
Rush said the woman went on to say something to the effect that, if she were a Black person, she would be afraid as well, and then the woman made a reference to slavery.
“That was the extent of her comments. She said nothing about Melanie Colette. Melanie Colette just heard the words ‘Black person’ and ‘slavery’ and decided she was talking about her. I do not believe that was [the speaker’s] intent,” Rush said.
Colette said on June 10 that she believed the woman “was addressing me personally” and “referred to me as soulless and attempted to weaponize my race in order to score political points.”
Rush said it might be worthwhile to listen to the recording of the May 27 meeting to make sure no one was being misrepresented.
In another matter on which discussion began in May, on June 10 Hailey McFadden thanked the commissioners for reporting on some of their department business. McFadden said at the May meeting that the commissioners, during their comment period, mainly speak about fundraisers and events, and congratulate each other on awards.
Bulakowski took the opportunity to explain that the commissioners, who often attend some of the same events or meetings, would simply “be very redundant in reporting on some of the departments we have.” He said they tend to reference different events, and that it means a lot to those who wanted them to show up.
“I just wanted you to understand that sometimes it may sound like we attend a lot of things, we do. We get asked to over 700 different events a year, and we try and do our best with attending them all,” he said.
The commissioners did not indicate that they would be commenting on the federal funding cutbacks bill or that they would be urging New Jersey’s federal representatives to oppose it. Morey said he would like to hear more from his colleagues at the next meeting.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or call 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
