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April 7 to 13
Suicide Rate Up
“From 2000 to 2020, the overall rate of suicide increased 30% and climbed to more than 49,000 deaths in 2022 – the highest number ever recorded in the United States.” That statement opens a report from Pew Trusts. It is a report that could resonate with families in Cape May County.
State data on mortality tables for suicide and self-inflicted injury show New Jersey below the age-adjusted death rate for suicide in the United States, but they also show Cape May County with the highest such rate per 100,000 of population among all 21 counties in the state. The state suicide rate per 100,000 is 7.4. This is for all ages, races and genders from 2018 to 2022. The corresponding rate in Cape May County is 12.7, with the lowest county rate coming from Essex at 5.3.
Suicidal thoughts and attempts are highest in the population ages 18 to 25 years old. They are also significantly higher among Black adults and individuals with less than a high school education. In terms of gender, males are more likely to have suicidal thoughts, with females more likely to attempt suicide. Suicide ideation and attempts are also correlated with lack of employment or those who are divorced or separated.
With an estimated mortality from suicide in 2022 of 49,499, a CDC report says, “Today’s report underscores the depths of the devastating mental health crisis in America. Mental health has become the defining public health and societal challenge of our time.”
The Cleveland Clinic says, “Among children (before age 18) in the United States, 18% thought about attempting suicide.”
According to Pew, what needs to happen is a sharp uptick in screening for suicide risk as a part of provider care. Studies, Pew argues, show that health-care providers understand the value of universal risk screening, but gaps in practice are common.
Moody’s Negative Rating for K-12
Moody’s Ratings has issued a negative outlook for K-12 traditional public schools for 2025. The rating report cites slowing revenue, rising costs and enrollment pressures as contributing to a negative financial picture. The forecast says that districts will face increased challenges, in part because the public sector is placing growing demands on the schools.
Moody’s gave charter schools a stable outlook but noted that while demand is increasing, flat per-pupil funding and high costs associated with capital outlays will work to constrain budgets.
The agency cites the expiration of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief allocations. Even districts that received ESSER exemptions providing more time to spend leftover funds now face the revocation of those exemptions by the new Education Department.
This is likely to be a very difficult funding year for school districts, accompanied by a great deal of uncertainty in federal funding levels. It is not just the loss of ESSER funds that poses a problem. Many districts are left with a growth in staff that was initiated by those funds and now must either be sacrificed or funded from new sources.
According to Moody’s and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, public education employment now exceeds pre-pandemic levels, and compensation growth in K-12 has outpaced the private sector. This is true in the charter schools as well, Moody’s reports. Moody’s also notes that public schools serve a much higher percentage of students with disabilities than charter schools do, increasing the financial burden on the traditional schools.
The report takes note of a slew of federal-level changes that threaten funding. Moody’s projects that few states will be in a position to cover losses of funding from federal sources.
Electricity Demand Up 50% by 2050?
A new report published this month by the National Electrical Manufactures Association projects that data center needs and transportation electrification will lead to U.S. electricity demand growing by 50% by 2050. The report anticipates a 300% increase in data center energy consumption over the next 10 years, along with a 9,000% growth in transportation power consumption through 2050.
The NEMA report is a partial corrective to much of the political debate currently surrounding electricity generation. The big argument at present tends to focus on supply and the fact that demand needs are far outpacing the ability of generators to match that growth with adequate supply. That debate leads to conflict over sources of generation, issues of fossil fuels versus renewables, a recommitment to nuclear power and a need for supply of electricity at levels that would ease the current pressure on prices.
The NEMA report makes clear that even if the supply problem was solved, no easy task, the issue also is that the grid was not designed to accommodate this level of supply growth. The report says the nation faces unprecedented growth in energy consumption and challenges from an aging grid.
Right now there is significant pressure being brought to bear on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to reject a request for an 8% increase in distribution rates made by Atlantic City Electric. It has become an even more popular cause in an election year. The BPU opted to push off deciding on the request when it first came up in February and set April as the time for deciding the issue. As April approached the decision was rescheduled again, this time for August.
The point in all of this is that the 8% request for a rate increase is based on what Atlantic City Electric says is the appropriate recovery of costs for capital investment in the local grid.
If the NEMA report is even partially right, how will New Jersey fund the grid investment that needs to be made? Merely saying no to a rate increase from a stockholder-owned business utility may be politically popular, but it does not ensure modernization of the grid.
Enhancing the resilience and reliability of the grid is going to take investment. A funding mechanism, perhaps one that does not rely only on ratepayers, will be needed.
Week in Review
*With about 150 residents packing the meeting room to voice their opposition to a proposed boat storage yard in their neighborhood, the Lower Township Zoning Board of Adjustment rejected the plan, unanimously.
*The Taxpayers Association of Cape May has formally come out against an introduced ordinance on city pickup of recyclable materials.
*Superior Court Judge Susan Sheppard clarified on the record March 24 that Wildwood Crest has not been prevented from meeting and taking action related to a state aid agreement on the Five Mile Dune beach protection project.
*The state’s Coastal Area Facility Review Act permit for Cape May’s project extending the sea wall from Madison Avenue to Wilmington Avenue came with conditions.
*Hundreds of Cape May County residents turned out for rallies in Court House and Ocean City as part of the “Hands Off” national day of protest Saturday, April 5, against the policies and actions of President Donald Trump.
*Plans for a $2.5 million upgrade of the Clarence Davies Sports Complex in Goshen are near the finish line: The Cape May County Open Space Review Board on March 18 recommended the project for approval at the May 13 meeting of the county commissioners.
*A film produced by Montclair State University classmates, including a Lower Cape May Regional High School alumna, took first place in the news category in the Television Academy Foundation’s 44th College Television Awards.
*Avalon was awarded an $84,000 grant from the New Jersey Local Recreation Improvement Grant program for the creation of the borough’s first-ever fitness trail designed for seniors and individuals with physical limitations.
*The Middle Township Committee, working with the Garden Club, has launched a “Hometown Heroes” banner program to honor “those who have put their lives on the line to ensure the safety and well-being of their fellow Americans.”
*Stone Harbor will be able to get its 2025 budget under the state appropriations cap limit without seeking a waiver from the state Department of Community Affairs, a goal the borough chased for months.
*Police arrested a Wildwood man Tuesday, April 1, and charged him with multiple counts of sexually assaulting a child, both in Wildwood and Cape May.
*The Sea Isle City Council has gone on the record in opposing legislation in Trenton that would impose an exception on beach tag requirements.
*Cape May’s longtime project to develop a park out of 38 acres along Lafayette Street, between St. Johns Street and the city’s elementary school and then on to a marsh area along Cape Island, has taken another small step forward.
*The Dennis Township Committee passed the 2025 municipal budget of nearly $5.9 million on Tuesday, April 8, after a public hearing.
*The Wildwood Board of Commissioners has authorized the creation of a boardwalk redevelopment zone that, if approved by the state, would make it easier for property owners to enhance their sites.
*The Middle Township Committee has introduced a $28.3 million general fund budget for 2025 that raises the tax rate for local purposes by 2.8 cents, or 4.7%.
*Lower Township pickleballers will be able to bring their game close to home after six new pickleball courts are constructed between the government complex and the senior center on Bayshore Road.
*When Barbra Streisand released “Don’t Rain on My Parade” in 1968, little did she know that some 57 years later the song would serve as the rallying cry for an 18-year-old cancer survivor who performed at Radio City Music Hall April 8 in the Garden of Dreams Foundation‘s “Dreams of Tomorrow” Talent Show.
Spout Off of the Week
Where there is smoke there is fire. Who ever smelt it dealt it. What came first, the chicken or the egg. The town administration has changed. Have things gotten better or worse both financially, and with treatment of employess? Who is to blame? why? for who? for what? If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it.
Stone Harbor
