NJ DEP Defends Budget Cuts, Pushes Faster Permitting

New Jersey’s environmental agency faces a $2.8 million cut to conservation education programs while getting $4.3 million to speed up permits that currently take 18 months just to clear their first hurdle.

Acting DEP Commissioner Ed Potosnak defended Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s proposed $1.3 billion departmental budget before the Senate budget and appropriations committee Tuesday in Trenton, saying years of flat funding have left the agency unable to hire staff or upgrade technology fast enough to keep pace with permitting demand.

“That’s a year and a half of taxes you would pay just to find out where you can build on a property,” Potosnak said. “So many projects depend on that, and the 18-month average means that many are taking longer than that.”

The numbers tell a blunt story. Sherrill’s $60.7 billion budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 sets aside $4.3 million specifically to modernize permitting and expand DEP staff who handle those applications. Wetland development permits are the particular bottleneck, with 18 months as the average time just to complete the first stage of approval. Getting that process down to a reasonable timeline would help developers, municipalities, and environmental review alike, Potosnak said.

Sen. Douglas Steinhardt (R-Warren) welcomed the permitting push and didn’t soften his view of how the state got here. “One of the things that I think New Jersey does well is red tape and bureaucracy,” Steinhardt said. “For some years, there have been issues at the DEP with permit backlogs, which hamper economic development.” He called the streamlining effort “a welcome change,” according to New Jersey Monitor.

Sherrill signed an executive order on her first day in office in January directing state agencies to make regulatory processes faster and more transparent. The $4.3 million permitting investment flows directly from that directive.

But committee members pushed back hard on what Sherrill left out.

The New Jersey School of Conservation, a state-owned facility in Stokes State Forest in Sussex County, gets zero dollars in Sherrill’s plan. Zero. The school received $2.8 million in the current budget and serves students and teachers from marginalized districts year-round. Former Gov. Phil Murphy tried twice to gut its funding, proposing cuts to $800,000 and then $500,000 in back-to-back budget cycles, and the legislature restored the money both times. Sherrill didn’t propose a reduced number. She proposed nothing.

Steinhardt called the school “a really amazing place” and pressed Potosnak on the cut. Potosnak said he couldn’t comment on the specific line item.

That kind of answer didn’t satisfy lawmakers who’ve already fought this battle before. The DEP’s full budget breakdown shows a department stretched thin across environmental monitoring, permitting, land management, and climate initiatives, all while federal support from EPA programs has grown less reliable. Committee members made clear they expect the School of Conservation funding to reappear before the June 30 budget deadline.

The permitting overhaul has real stakes for Central Jersey and Shore communities where warehouse projects, residential developments, and infrastructure work routinely stall in wetlands review. New Jersey’s wetlands permitting rules require applicants to navigate multiple agency touchpoints before a single shovel breaks ground, a process that builders and environmental advocates both say has grown unmanageable. Cutting 18-month delays would accelerate legitimate projects without changing the underlying environmental standards that protect those wetlands.

The Senate budget and appropriations committee has until June 30 to pass a budget. The DEP hearing Tuesday was the department’s first formal appearance before the panel this cycle, and it won’t be the last. Lawmakers left the hearing with the same question they’ve carried through multiple Murphy budgets: whether Trenton will finally give the state’s environmental agency the staffing and technology it needs to do the job, or keep forcing it to choose between protecting what New Jersey has and processing the permits that let the state grow.