It’s easy to say that the gravy train of COVID money has run out. As everyone knew it would. And that organizations should be forced to make it on their own.
That’s what will happen if the New Jersey budget (due to be settled by June 30) zeros out all discretionary and noncompetitive grants — as Gov. Phil Murphy has said he wants to do.
Doing this, however, will have some unexpected consequences. In many cases, it will mean economic impact that goes far beyond just the organizations that are losing their funding.
Consider the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program — an organization at the heart of a sector every politician seems to want to help grow these days.
For starters, know this: NJMEP does more than just aid and assist the more than 10,000 manufacturing companies in the state (a bigger number than most realize). It partners with other organizations (think higher education, chambers of commerce and state agencies such as the New Jersey Economic Development Authority) on workforce development programs.
Simply put, it creates jobs with programs that always seem to report a more than 10:1 return on investment.
Among those programs is the highly touted Manufacturing Voucher Program (or MVP), which is run by the EDA and already has provided nearly $50 million to more than 325 manufacturers. Its success has been so great that Murphy said he wants to create a third phase of the program.
Which makes the idea of gutting all funding to NJMEP even more confusing.
So said Peter Connolly, the CEO of NJMEP.
“The governor is saying one thing but doing another,” he said.
Like all organization leaders, Connolly was expecting a cut in funding. What was $2.5 million in 2023, dropped to $2 million in 2024. And, just to put it into perspective — that was $2 million of a $56.6 billion (as in “B”) budget.
As Connolly tells it, all organizations knew there were challenges coming.
“I don’t mind a haircut, but I can’t go bald,” he said.
Connolly obviously is worried, but he remains hopeful.
For starters, NJMEP is not the only organization in this predicament. Among numerous others, the Small Business Development Centers were zeroed out, too. Another key workforce development force, the community colleges, saw their funding slashed, too.
The state can’t cut all these workforce programs, can it?
Connolly is hopeful that key members in the Legislature and the Manufacturing Caucus — most notably co-Chairs Sens. Linda Greenstein (D-Cranbury) and Michael Testa (R-Vineland), along with Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-Hillsborough) — will be able to fight the good fight.
Zwicker said he’s ready. One of the smartest elected officials in the state calls it a no-brainer.
“MEP is such a huge success for the state,” he said. “It provides an incredible return on investment that not only provides economic revenue but jobs.
“A time of such insanity in the federal government is the exact time we should be investing in things that we know have an incredible return on investment — we should be doubling down on manufacturers.”
Zwicker noted that the reach and impact of NJMEP programs is deep.
“They help startups and small businesses modernize — which keeps them going,” he said. “And they do it by helping to create some of the businesses of the future. Think of the work they do with autonomous vehicles or warehouse robots.”
Then, there’s this: Manufacturing and advanced manufacturing not only create good-paying jobs, but good jobs with career leaders.
“We have to support manufacturing,” Zwicker said.
At a time when funding is so tight, NJMEP is a place where $1 often turns into $10 — if not more. But NJMEP needs that first dollar.
Connolly broke down the situation.
“MEP doesn’t make enough money to support all the programs it provides to the industry and New Jersey communities,” he said.
And now it’s looking at zero funding from the federal government, where — despite President Donald Trump’s push to restore manufacturing, he appears ready to cut all funding to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, which helps support the 50 MEPs across the country.
Connolly said he’s hopeful the Legislature and the governor will see the light. If not, he may have to shut his off.
“If all of our funding is cut, we’ll have to close by January,” he said. “We’ll literally have to shut the doors and turn off the lights off.”
