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PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS: New Jersey
PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE'S
ACCOMPLISHMENTS: New Jersey
EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
- Unemployment Down to 4.0%:
The unemployment rate in New Jersey has declined from 7.9% to 4.0% since 1993.
- 433,300 New Jobs:
433,300 new jobs have been created in New Jersey since 1993 -- an average of 57,138 per year, compared to an average of 53,575 jobs lost per year during the previous administration.
- 435,000 New Private Sector Jobs:
Since 1993, 435,000 new private sector jobs have been created—an average of 57,363 jobs per year, compared to an average loss of 56,875 private sector jobs per year in the previous administration.
- 30,000 New Construction Jobs:
30,000 construction jobs have been created in New Jersey since 1993 -- an average of 3,956 jobs per year. In contrast, an average of 12,775 construction jobs were lost each year during the previous administration.
- 24,000 to Receive a Raise:
Approximately 24,000 New Jersey workers benefited from an increase in the minimum wage—from $4.75 to $5.15 -- on September 1, 1997. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have called on Congress to raise the minimum wage by an additional $1.00 over two years.
- Poverty Has Fallen:
Nationally, the poverty rate has fallen from 15.1% in 1993 to 11.8% in 1999, the lowest level since 1979. In New Jersey, the poverty rate has fallen from 10.9% in 1993 to 8.2% in 1999. [Census Bureau]
- A $500 Child Tax Credit to Help Families Raising Children:
To help make it easier for families to raise their children, the balanced budget included a $500 per-child tax credit for children under 17. Thanks to President Clinton, the Balanced Budget delivers a child tax credit to 784,000 families in New Jersey.
- Home Building Up 5.9%:
Home building has in New Jersey increased by an average of 5.9% per year since 1993, after falling by over 17.4% per year during the previous four years.
- New Jersey's Families Reap Benefits of Deficit Reduction:
Public debt is on track to be $2.4 trillion lower in 2000 than was projected in 1993. Debt reduction brings real benefits for the American people -- a family in New Jersey with a home mortgage of $100,000 might expect to save roughly $2,000 per year in mortgage payments. Reduced debt also means lower interest rates and reduced payments on car loans and student loans.
- 2.4% Growth in Commercial and Industrial Loans and Leases: Since 1993, New Jersey has experienced a 2.4% annual growth rate in commercial and industrial loans and leases. In contrast, commercial and industrial loans and leases fell 10.1% annually during the previous administration.
EXPANDING ACCESS TO EDUCATION
- Over 14,400 Children in Head Start:
14,443 New Jersey children were enrolled in Head Start in 1999. In FY00, New Jersey will receive $104.9 million in Head Start funding, an increase of $40.4 million over 1993.
- More High-Quality Teachers With Smaller Classes for New Jersey's Schools:
Thanks to the Class Size Reduction Initiative, New Jersey received $27.4 million in 1999 to hire about 705 new, well-prepared public school teachers and reduce class size in the early grades. President Clinton secured funding for a second installment of the plan, giving New Jersey an additional $29.7 million in 2000.
- $11.1 Million in Goals 2000 Funding:
This year [FY00], New Jersey receives $11.1 million in Goals 2000 funding. This money is used to raise academic achievement by raising academic standards, increasing parental and community involvement in education, expanding the use of computers and technology in classrooms, and supporting high-quality teacher professional development. [Education Department, 12/3/99]
- Over $9 Million for Technology Literacy:
This year [FY00], New Jersey receives $9.1 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund which helps communities and the private sector ensure that every student is equipped with the computer literacy skills needed for the 21st century.
- $180.5 Million for Students Most in Need:
New Jersey receives $180.5 million in Title I Grants (to Local Educational Agencies) providing extra help in the basics for students most in need, particularly communities and schools with high concentrations of children in low-income families [FY00]. This includes $3.1 million in accountability grants, to help states and school districts turn around the worst performing schools and hold them accountable for results.
- $161.8 Million in Pell Grants:
This year [FY00], New Jersey will receive $161.8 million in Pell Grants for low-income students going to college, benefiting 77,593 New Jersey students.
- Expanded Work-Study To Help More Students Work Their Way Through College:
The FY00 budget includes a significant expansion of the Federal Work Study program. New Jersey will receive $17.5 million in Work-Study funding in 2000 to help New Jersey students work their way through college.
- Over 3,700 Have Served in New Jersey through AmeriCorps:
Since the National Service program began in 1993, 3,740 AmeriCorps participants have earned money for college while working in New Jersey's schools, hospitals, neighborhoods or parks. [through 2/00]
- Tuition Tax Credits in Balanced Budget Open the Doors of College and Promote Lifelong Learning:
The balanced budget included both President Clinton's $1,500 HOPE Scholarship to help make the first two years of college as universal as a high school diploma and a Lifetime Learning Tax Credit for college juniors, seniors, graduate students and working Americans pursuing lifelong learning to upgrade their skills. This 20% tax credit will be applied to the first $5,000 of tuition and fees through 2002 and to the first $10,000 thereafter. 120,000 students in New Jersey will receive a HOPE Scholarship tax credit of up to $1,500. 146,000 students in New Jersey will receive the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit. [fully phased-in FY2000 estimate]
- Expanded Job Training to New Jersey's Dislocated Workers:
President Clinton's FY 2001 budget would triple funding for the dislocated workers program over 1992 levels. New Jersey received $45 million in 1999 to help 26,670 dislocated workers get the training and reemployment services they need to return to work as quickly as possible. In FY 2000, New Jersey will receive over $30.8 million to provide job training services for dislocated workers.
FIGHTING CRIME AND VIOLENCE
- Crime Falls 17% in New Jersey:
Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, America has experienced the longest continuous drop in crime on record. Since 1992, serious crime in New Jersey has fallen 17%. Violent crime and property crime have also fallen 19% and 17% respectively. In Newark, between 1992 and 1997, serious crime, as indicated by the crime index, has fallen 30%, with a 34% drop in murder and 36% drop in robbery. [1992 and 1997 Uniform Crime Reports]
- Juvenile Arrests Down in New Jersey:
New Jersey's juvenile arrests have decreased 19% between 1992 and 1997, (as measured by the crime index). [FBI, Uniform Crime Report, 1992 and 1997]
- 4,114 More Police:
The President's 1994 Crime Bill has funded 4,114 new police officers to date in communities across New Jersey. [through 7/00]
- Camden Will Receive Targeted Funding to Hire More Community Police:
Camden was selected as a pilot city for the President's new effort to target high crime neighborhoods. The pilot program will provide full funding for new officers by waiving the usual matching requirements. Camden will deploy new officers to help meet the unique needs of its community, such as combating gangs or targeting drug "hot spots."
- Reducing Crime with Drug Courts:
Working to reduce drug-related crime in New Jersey, the Clinton Administration has awarded Drug Court grants to the communities of Newark and Jersey City. The Administration had previously awarded grants to a number of New Jersey communities including: Elizabeth, Middletown and Paterson. Drug courts use the coercive power of the criminal justice system to combine drug testing, sanctions, supervision and treatment to push nonviolent, drug-abusing offenders to stop using drugs and committing crimes.
- $34.1 Million to Combat Domestic Violence:
Through the Violence Against Women Act, New Jersey has received approximately $34.1 million in federal funds to establish more women's shelters and bolster law enforcement, prosecution and victims' services. [through 9/2000]
- Over $1.7 Million in Grants for Battered Women and Children:
In FY99, New Jersey received over $1.7 million in HHS's Family Violence Prevention Program grants to assist women and children fleeing domestic abuse.
- $10.6 Million to Keep Drugs & Violence Out of New Jersey's Schools:
New Jersey receives $10.6 million in FY00 for the Safe & Drug Free Schools Program, which invests in school security and drug prevention programs.
MOVING NEW JERSEY RESIDENTS FROM WELFARE TO WORK
- 190,181 Fewer People on Welfare:
There are 190,181 fewer people on welfare in New Jersey now than there were at the beginning of 1993 -- a 54% decrease. [through 6/99]
- Child Support Collections Up 56%:
Child support collections have increased by nearly $209 million—or 56% -- in New Jersey since FY92. [through FY98]
- Encouraging Responsible Choices—Preventing Teen Pregnancy in New Jersey:
Since 1993, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have supported innovative and promising teen pregnancy prevention strategies, with significant components of the strategy becoming law in the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act. The law requires unmarried minor parents to stay in school and live at home or in a supervised setting; encourages "second chance homes" to provide teen parents with the skills and support they need; and provides $50 million a year in new funding for state abstinence education activities. Efforts are making a difference, adolescent pregnancy rates and teen abortion rates are declining. And between 1991 and 1997, teen birth rates declined 15.9% in New Jersey.
- $67.4 Million for New Jersey Welfare-to-Work:
In 1998 and 1999, New Jersey received a total of $45.2 million in Federal welfare-to-work state formula grants, helping New Jersey welfare recipients get and keep jobs. In addition, in 1998 and 1999 a total of $22.2 million in competitive grants were awarded to New Jersey localities to support innovative welfare-to-work strategies. Part of the President's comprehensive efforts to move recipients from welfare to work, this funding was included in the $3 billion welfare to work fund in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.
- Helping People Get to Work
: Through the Access to Jobs initiative, the Clinton-Gore Administration is working with communities across the country to design transportation solutions to help welfare recipients and other low-income workers get to and from work. Mercer County, Essex County, Burlington County, Hunterdon County, Middlesex County, Hudson County, Bergen County, Ocean County, Meadowlands County and Camden County have received a total of 1.66 million this year to fund innovative transit projects.
INVESTING IN NEW JERSEY'S HEALTH
- Health Care for Over 75,600 Uninsured New Jersey Children:
In 1997, President Clinton passed the largest single investment in health care for children since 1965 -- an unprecedented $24 billion over five years to cover as many as five million children throughout the nation. This investment guarantees the full range of benefits that children need to grow up strong and healthy. Two million children nationwide have health care coverage thanks to the President's plan, including 75,652 in New Jersey. [HHS, Health Care Financing Administration, FY99 SCHIP enrollment data]
- Helping Nearly 130,000 New Jersey Women and Children with WIC:
The Clinton Administration is committed to full funding in the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). In FY99, New Jersey received $75 million in total WIC grant funding, helping 129,799 women, infants and children in need receive health and food assistance, over 2,000 more than in 1994. [through 8/99]
- More Toddlers Are Being Immunized:
As a result of the President's 1993 Childhood Immunization Initiative, childhood immunization rates have reached an historic high. According to the CDC, 90% or more of America's toddlers received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines in 1996, 1997, and again in 1998 —surpassing the President's 1993 goal. In New Jersey in 1998, 97% of two-year olds received the vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis; 95% received the vaccine for polio; 96% received the vaccine for measles, and 94% received the vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae B, the bacteria causing a form of meningitis.
- Funding for HIV/AIDS Assistance Programs:
In FY 2000, New Jersey will receive over $12.8 million in Ryan White Title II formula grants. This funding provides people living with HIV and AIDS medical and support services. Also through the Ryan White Act, New Jersey will receive $28 million for state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which help those without insurance obtain much needed prescription drugs. There has been a tenfold increase in ADAP funding in the last four years, up from $52 million in 1996 to $528 million in 2000. [HHS, Health Resources and Services Administration, 4/7/00]
- Tobacco Plan Will Cut Smoking and Premature Deaths by 46% in New Jersey:
The Clinton Administration's tobacco proposal, combined with the recently enacted state tobacco settlements, will cut youth smoking and resulting premature deaths 46% in New Jersey by 2004. Between 2000 and 2004, 91,700 of New Jersey's youth will be kept from smoking and 29,300 will be spared a premature tobacco-related death. [Treasury Dept., 2/99]
- 3,820,000 Americans in New Jersey Cannot Be Assured They Have Patient Protections:
Even if New Jersey enacted all the protections in the Patients' Bill of Rights, 3,820,000 people in New Jersey cannot be assured they have the comprehensive patient protections recommended by the President's Advisory Commission. This is because the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) may preempt state-enacted protections. That is why the President has called on Congress to pass a federally enforceable patients' bill of rights so that everyone enrolled in managed care may have a basic set of protections. Notably, 1,920,000 New Jersey women are in ERISA health plans and are therefore not necessarily protected. Women are particularly vulnerable without these protections because they are greater users of health care services, they make three-quarters of the health care decisions for their families, and they have specific health care needs addressed by a patients' bill of rights.
PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT
- 34 Toxic Waste Sites Cleaned Up:
Since 1993, the EPA has completed 34 Superfund toxic waste clean-ups in New Jersey. This is more than four times the number of sites cleaned up in New Jersey during the previous two administrations combined. [through 3/1/00]
- Nearly $19 Million in Safe Drinking Water Funding:
This year [FY00], thanks to President Clinton, New Jersey will receive nearly $19 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to provide low-interest loans to municipalities to build, improve, and prevent pollution of drinking water systems.
- Revitalizing Brownfields Projects in New Jersey:
As part of the Clinton-Gore Administration's efforts to clean up Brownfields, the EPA has awarded grants to counties and communities in New Jersey—Atlantic City, Long Branch, Paterson, Camden, Newark, Jersey City, Perth Amboy, Elizabeth, Trenton, Hudson County, Middlesex County, and Morris County—for environmental clean-up and economic revitalization. These projects are intended to jump-start local clean-up efforts by providing funds to return unproductive, abandoned, contaminated urban properties to productive use.
SPEARHEADING URBAN RENEWAL EFFORTS
- Revitalizing New Jersey's Communities:
Camden was designated an Empowerment Zone in December, 1994 and was awarded $21 million to create more jobs, housing, and economic opportunity for city residents. Additionally, Newark was designated an Enterprise Community, and was awarded $3 million for similar efforts. In 1999, Bridgetown/Vineyard was designated a New Urban Empowerment Zone and Newark/Elizabeth was named a Strategic Planning Community.
- Expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Will Help Develop 2,300 To 2,700 New Affordable Housing Units in New Jersey Over the Next 5 years: Last year, the President and Vice President pushed for a 40-percent expansion in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. This year, the President and Vice President will try again to enact tax incentives to develop affordable housing. In New Jersey alone, this proposal would mean an additional 2,300 - 2,700 quality rental housing units for low-income American families during the next five years.
PROVIDING DISASTER RELIEF
- $182.9 Million in Federal Emergency Assistance:
Since 1993, New Jersey has received $182.9 million in disaster relief. This includes over $77.9 million in assistance for Hurricane Floyd in 1999; $2.7 million for severe winter coastal storms, high winds, and flooding in 1998; and $33 million in assistance to recover from the Blizzard of 1996. [FEMA, 2/29/00]
EXPANDING FUNDS FOR TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT
- Nearly $2 Billion in Federal Highway Aid:
Since 1993, New Jersey has received nearly $2 billion in federal highway aid, including $7.5 million for emergency relief in response to natural disasters. These funds have helped generate 80,785 jobs. [through FY99]
- Over $142 Million in Aviation Funds:
From FY93-FY99 New Jersey received over $142 million in Airport Improvement Program funds to help build and renovate airports, and, when necessary, to provide funds for noise abatement to improve the quality of life for residents who live near airports.
- Over $2.3 Billion in Transit Funds:
New Jersey has received over $2.3 billion in Federal Transit funds since 1993.
- Saving Lives and Property:
In 1999, the United States Coast Guard saved 75 lives and nearly $16.4 million of property in New Jersey.
October 2000
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