Christie seeks fewer federal dollars for tourism ads

Published February 3, 2014
By Michael Symons and Bob Jordan

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie’s administration has made a sharp cut in requested Superstorm Sandy federal funding for this year’s tourism ad campaign after criticism that it overpaid for 2013 ads that starred Christie.

The state wants to use $5 million from the federal Sandy recovery package for a 2014 tourism campaign after spending $25 million last year. East Rutherford-based MWW has an existing three-year contract to handle the work.

New Jersey also proposes to use a significant portion of its next allocation of federal Sandy recovery funds to replenish programs created last year that couldn’t keep up with demand, including $390 million more toward home elevation grants.

Its plan for spending the next $1.463 billion in Sandy recovery block-grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development was released Monday. Although the federal government is calling for the new money to emphasize infrastructure projects, less than 40 percent of the funds, or $535 million, would be dedicated to such programs.

The plan would put $490 million into homeowner assistance programs, including the $390 million for the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation, or RREM, program. That would bring total spending on the program to $1.1 billion to date — but still wouldn’t provide enough money for everyone on the waiting list, so new applications wouldn’t be accepted.

The RREM program has been a source of frustration for applicants, who have complained about complicated and changing rules and a lack of responsiveness. The state’s proposal says that as of Dec. 31, just 246 reimbursement checks had been issued and 902 grant agreements signed. The state last month ended its contract with an outside company it had hired to administer the program.

The state plan also would put an additional $100 million into the Blue Acres buyout program through which homes that have repeatedly been flooded are purchased and demolished; the land is then restored to open space. Almost $110 million in federal hazard-mitigation funds, federal Department of Agriculture and state Green Acres were allocated last year for buyouts in Cumberland and Middlesex counties. The Christie administration has described the effort as a $300 million program that could involve 1,300 homes.

Another $245 million would be put toward rental housing and renters, including an additional $200 million for multifamily housing development; $20 million for grants that fund the rehabilitation or reuse of abandoned or foreclosed homes and lots to fend off blight; $20 million for neighborhood enhancement grants and $25 million for special-needs housing.

The state put nearly $180 million from its first $1.83 billion block grant toward the loans provided through the multifamily housing development program, but all that money has been obligated with nearly $365 million in additional requests unmet.

Critics of how the state allocated its first Sandy block grant remain unimpressed by the second proposal.

Fair Share Housing Center staff attorney Adam Gordon said there is a requirement that half the spending go to low- and moderate-income households, but this plan appears to miss that target. The proposal said that based on estimates and the projected distribution from the first round of funds, at least 50 percent was spent on such homes, businesses or communities.

“The new plan doubles down on Christie’s failed Sandy strategy,” Gordon said. “It provides a road map for more political spending over real relief that meets the needs of people most impacted by Sandy.”

“Many of these programs were not successful,” said Staci Berger, president and CEO of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey. “We should not continue to fund things that do not help people recover, like the failed Stronger Than the Storm ads that so many residents found insulting.

The total cost of the smaller-scale sequel to the Stronger Than the Storm tourism campaign isn’t clear. The proposal calls for spending $5 million in federal funds and says “the state anticipates leveraging multiple funding sources to achieve a timely and effective” marketing campaign. Many of the same efforts as last year would be repeated — TV, digital and radio ads within and outside New Jersey, social media and community events.

“While the state does not envision a 2014 tourism campaign investment on par with the investment in 2013, a meaningful investment is required in 2014 to be responsive to the storm-related needs of the tourism industry,” the proposal says.