Final State Budget Restores Funding to Rutgers
New Jersey lawmakers passed a record $58.8 billion budget on Monday that restores nearly all of $65 million in proposed cuts to Rutgers University.
Governor Phil Murphy’s original budget proposal cut $2 billion statewide in discretionary spending, including reductions to student aid, operating aid and specific programs at every Rutgers chancellor-led unit.
The restoration of these cuts is due, in large part, to a months-long advocacy effort led by the Rutgers Department of Government Relations. Since March, Rutgers’ state government relations team has met with more than 40 legislators and senior legislative staff to make the case for restoring the cuts.
“Advocacy with our partners across the university and other public universities throughout the state, along with our labor unions, played a pivotal role in this positive outcome for Rutgers,” said George LeBlanc, Rutgers’ vice president of state government relations and fiscal affairs. “Our emphasis on the importance of state funding at a time of uncertainty over the future of federal support for higher education clearly resonated with our friends in the State Legislature.”
The state budget fully restores all proposed operating aid cuts, as well as funding for the Summer New Jersey Tuition Aid Grants (TAG) for 2026, which was slated for elimination. It restores approximately $30 million in support for various programs and institutions at Rutgers, including the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, the Rutgers Cancer Institute, University Behavioral Health Care, the Climate Change Resource Center, the Eagleton Institute of Politics, the NJ Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons (STEP) initiative, the Sheila Y. Oliver Center for Politics and Race in America on the Newark campus, Student Success programs on the Camden campus, legal assistance programs through Rutgers Law School and the Special Needs Dental Clinic at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine.
“We could not be happier with this outcome,” said Gene Lepore, vice president of state government affairs and policy. “We are very grateful to Senate President Scutari, Speaker Coughlin and the many legislators who supported Rutgers in this budget.”
The budget also includes an additional $250 million in capital support for the state’s institutions of higher education for deferred maintenance projects. The allocation of the $250 million will be determined by the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education and the Educational Facilities Authority, which will issue the bonds in the fall of 2025.
The new funding is the result of a joint advocacy effort of Rutgers state government relations and the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities that began in the fall of 2024, Lepore said.
“While we continue to face headwinds in Washington, these results demonstrate a strong appreciation for the value of higher education in New Jersey and in particular for the mission of The State University of New Jersey,” said Francine Newsome Pfeiffer, senior vice president for government relations at Rutgers.
