State-funded centers that provide employment resources and other services for Latinas would see an 80% cut under Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s proposed budget, a change that would force three centers to close and eliminate services for thousands of Latinas across eight counties.
The proposed funding slash has the Latino Action Network Foundation, which administers the program, sounding the alarm.
“The human cost of this proposal cannot be overstated. Reducing the funding to this level would effectively dismantle the bridge to the middle class for half the women we serve,” said Jesselly De La Cruz, the foundation’s executive director.
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Sherrill’s budget proposal calls for $535,000 in state aid for Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers, a cut of more than $2 million for the programs, which depend on state dollars. The cut, if approved by state lawmakers, would reduce the program’s annual reach from more than 9,000 women to less than 2,000, and eliminate programming in Passaic County and South Jersey, De La Cruz said.
The centers, established by state legislation in 1991, currently operate in 11 counties. They provide a variety of services, including financial literacy workshops, job training, English language services, small business development, domestic violence intervention, and some mental health services.
De La Cruz said part of the reason these centers were founded was to help close the wage gap. Latinas in New Jersey have the second-largest wage gap in the nation, according to a 2023 study from Rutgers’ Center for Women and Work and funded by the Latino Action Network Foundation.
The Garden State is home to more than 2.2 million Latinos and Hispanics, representing nearly a quarter of the population.
The state Department of Labor oversees one-stop career centers statewide, but De Le Cruz said Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers do more because “these programs are part of strengthening families and children.” She noted they offer class teaching everything from legislative advocacy to small business ownership to tailoring.
Sherrill, a Democrat who took office in January, has proposed a $60.7 billion spending plan that is now in the hands of lawmakers. Though it increases overall spending from the current year’s budget, it offers cuts to multiple programs that Sherrill said are needed to narrow a multibillion-dollar budget gap. Lawmakers must return a finalized budget to Sherrill for her signature by July 1.
Sherrill told lawmakers in March that if they want to see added funding for services and programs, they should suggest other items in the budget that should be cut to keep spending level.
The proposed cut to Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers comes as the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement has intensified across the country, including New Jersey. That’s increased demand for the services the centers provide, said Paola Marin, deputy director of Community Affairs and Resource Center, one of the Hispanic Women’s Resource Centers that has offices in Asbury Park, Lakewood, Freehold, and Long Branch.
“The stress and discrimination, the racial profiling, it has been horrific,” she said. “We’ve had calls from clients who call and say, ‘Hey, I had an appointment with you, but I’m not going to be able to make it because ICE is here today, and they just took a friend of mine or my husband,’” she said. “Even to pick up their kids at school is a huge thing. We’re definitely getting very creative [with] what we can do to continue serving our people.”
Ana Jezidzic, program director at Community Affairs and Resource Center, said the centers are not open just to Latina women.
Jezidzic recalled a client whose husband, a 9/11 first responder, was sick with cancer, and the woman came to the center with a stack of unopened bills and foreclosure documents she didn’t understand, having never managed household finances. Staff helped her navigate the paperwork, enroll in English classes and computer courses, and eventually help her kids apply to college. She pointed to this story as a reason why people should look at this funding as “an investment, not an expense.”
“Cutting this funding is like cutting the branch you are sitting on,” Jezidzic said. “Eventually, you’re going to fall down. We are investing in people, in their education, and what that’s going to bring to the community, to the society.”
This isn’t the first time the program has faced a budget fight. Funding was eliminated under Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, when he first took office, and it took six years to restore it after a bipartisan push from lawmakers. Sherrill’s predecessor, Phil Murphy (D), also proposed some cuts that were reversed before final budgets were passed.
But advocates and workers say this year’s proposed reduction is much larger than they’ve seen before.
A spokesperson for Sherrill did not comment on the proposed cuts. Her administration has said in response to other cuts that it is addressing a $3 billion structural deficit and making more than $700 million in reductions to state spending.
De La Cruz said while she understands the state needs to find places to save money, the proposed cuts to the centers undercut Sherrill’s positions on immigration. The governor has used her office to counter the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort, including by signing a law limiting New Jersey cops’ ability to cooperate with federal immigration agents and suing the federal government over its plans to open a migrant detention center in Roxbury.
“Without these programs, there are limited resources for families to call and people to help them figure out what to do immediately after a detention, when you’ve lost a breadwinner,” De La Cruz said.
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