Promises administration will address issues vital to region
CAPE MAY COUNTY — When Mikie Sherrill became New Jersey’s governor earlier this year, southern New Jersey legislators had one hope from this new candidacy: more open communication.
District One Assemblymen Antwan McClellan and Erik Simonsen have spoken on the lack of communication they’ve experienced from previous administrations.
Sherrill acknowledged that the disconnect between the New Jersey administration and southern New Jersey municipalities was at the forefront of her mind when campaigning, and it continues to be now.
“As I decided to run for governor, it was important to me to get down to South Jersey,” Sherrill said. “I kept hearing over and over, ‘we feel forgotten, and we want to see you more,’ so I made it my mission to be present.”
Sherrill has developed strategic plans and new positions in her administration to create communication channels in southern New Jersey when she can’t be present here.
McClellan has seen representatives from Sherrill’s team more often than in previous years in Cape May County and already believes that a new door has opened between Cape May County and the governor’s office.
“She’s allowed her administration and commissioners to be readily available when we call,” McClellan said. “That’s a little different than we’ve had in the past, and we’ve been able to have a lot of fruitful conversations with her administration.”
Sherrill appointed Kelly Doucette as the state’s first Chief Operating Officer to ensure that departments such as Transportation, Environmental Protection and Community Affairs are operating on similar programs and ideals.
Doucette and department commissioners have visited Cape May County on multiple occasions.
However, while Simonsen agreed that communication pathways have been formed, he’s ready to see direct action come out of those conversations.
“I’m optimistic. I think we all are, but talk is cheap until it happens,” Simonsen said. “It’s been eight months; we’ve talked about it and set up the teams, which sounds good on paper, but we need to start seeing action.”
The NJPACT, an environmental initiative spearheaded by former governor Phil Murphy, is one issue on which southern New Jersey is watching Sherrill closely.
McClellan and Simonsen said that the project speaks for District One’s municipalities instead of speaking with them.
In one of his final actions as governor, Murphy signed the Resilient Environments and Landscapes rule.
It’s an important component of the NJPACT, and part of it would adjust flood zoning and regulations. Before the rule, flood standards were based on the Base Flood Elevation. The REAL rule requires properties in tidal areas to be raised 4 feet above the BFE.
As the rule was signed on Sherrill’s inauguration day, she decided to delay it by a year.
According to Sherrill, regulations and laws in New Jersey can’t protect residents if they do not consider each municipality individually.
“When we’re going to pass something, we do a lot of stakeholdering, where we go around and hear from people exactly what the impact of what we want to do is going to be,” Sherrill said. “I think it’s really important as you’re implementing regulations, that you’re doing so in a way that makes sense.”
Education
State funding for school districts is another focal point for Sherrill and the District One legislators.
Sherrill’s 2027 budget included a record-high $12.4 billion in state aid for school districts.
“We spent more in school funding than we’ve ever spent in the state because we had more in my budget than ever before, but that still didn’t scratch the itch,” Sherrill said. “Overall, I think we’re taking a deep dive with the commissioner of education into the school funding formula to see how we can actually make it work for communities to get better results.”
About 400 of the 600 New Jersey school districts will receive funding from this year’s budget, but 167 of those are seeing cuts.
In Sherrill’s budget, she adopted funding caps similar to Murphy’s that limit state aid cuts to 3 percent and increases to 6 percent.
While the goal was to reduce funding fluctuation, the caps are preventing some districts from receiving enough money to balance budget deficits.
Simonsen, who recently retired after 32 years in education, saw flaws in how the funding formula and Sherrill’s budget allocate money to districts.
“We’ve talked too long about revising the funding formula,” Simonsen said. “They have to stop giving all this money to failing schools. When you see the bulk of educational funds going to the poorest achieving schools, then there are problems.”
New Jersey schools are funded mainly through local property taxes, and the state uses the funding formula to provide additional funds.
In this year’s budget, the Newark School District will see the biggest monetary boost with a $60 million increase.
“A lot of the funding goes to some of our bigger school districts with more need,” Sherrill said. “At the same time, we want to make sure that when we’re spending money on school systems, that the outcomes are better. So, in some school districts where we spend a lot of money, we’re still not getting the outcomes we want.”
The funding formula has been the target of major backlash over the years because of how it allocates money and doesn’t look at the larger picture.
“I think it was two years ago when 25 out of the top 50 schools that lost funding were in our district: Cumberland, Cape May and Atlantic County,” Simonsen said.
In Murphy’s 2025-26 budget, Cape May schools saw the largest cut percentage-wise at 27%.
In this year’s budget, Cape May City schools will receive the highest percentage increase of 22%.
While the increase may seem beneficial to Cape May, because of last year’s cut, the city is only receiving about $200,000 of the $1,446,860 in state aid.
“If we are going to see schools feel like they understand how to best use their resources, I think we need to address the funding formula,” Sherrill said.
Supporting local economy
Sherrill recently visited Atlantic City, where she took a boat tour to see the city’s development.
“We really need Atlantic City to have more economic development,” Sherrill said. “It feels like it’s on the cusp, and we really need this kind of core city to be a good economic anchor for the whole region.”
McClellan said he finds it imperative that the administration prioritizes the local economy that already exists in Cape May County.
Throughout his seven years, McClellan has spoken about funneling investment back into the county, which leads New Jersey’s tourism industry.
In 2025, Cape May County recorded $8.44 billion in visitor spending, exceeding the other 20 counties for the first time in more than 30 years.
McClellan wants to see the money generated in District One be reinvested back into the local economy.
“The place to start is with the businesses that are already here,” Sherrill said, “and making sure the business climate is better for them, that they see growth and that they feel like they have inroads into the government when they need things or when they have ideas.”
By JULIA DIGERONIMO/For the Star and Wave
