It was reported yesterday that Gov. Christie and the New Jersey state legislature were nearing a final deal on the forthcoming budget. As expected, Christie did have to make a few compromises (asking for the moon to start as a negotiating tactic). He didn't make many though, and with this year's deep structural cuts and changes to the budget, and the temporary wealth surtax allowed to expire, this outcome represents a major political victory for the Governor.

The new budget revision restores some funding for the NJ STARS scholarship program and other tuition aid. More importantly, as indicated by the linked Asbury Park Press post, the proposed merger between Rutgers and Thomas Edison State College is history. That also claims that RU is going to lose over $8m in grants, but a quick look at page 14 of the official comparison of changes indicates that those funds were allocated for the "Capital Campus" plan to turn Thomas Edison into a virtual arm of Rutgers in Trenton. Am I missing something here?

In other campus news, PSEG head Ralph Izzo was named to a one year term as the new Board of Governor's chair at yesterday's BoG meeting. Izzo replaces the outgoing chair William Howard. Faculty unions protested the board meeting in light of a planned salary freeze stemming from the sizable cuts (nearly $100 million dollars for Rutgers) to Higher Ed aid in the 2011 budget. Suffice it to say, there will likely be more difficult fiscal decisions ahead barring Congress passing another relief package for state governments.

edit: the $96 million actually takes into account the salary increases.