Highlands Impact Aid Now - Regional Rally for Fairness
- Highlands Impact Aid Now
- 16 hours ago
- 2 min read
Highlands Impact Aid Now - Regional Rally for Fairness
March 7th 2026 I 1pm I Jefferson Twp HS.
JEFFERSON, NJ – Highlands Impact Aid Now along with Jefferson Twp Schools
Superintendent Howe, Mayor Wilsusen (Jefferson), Mayor Dale (West Milford), Mayor Landis
(Ringwood), Mayor Freda (Kinnelon), and Mayor Rossi (Vernon) will present the Highlands Impact Aid Now - Regional Rally for Fairness featuring legislative representatives, community leaders, and influential alumni.
Residents from across the New Jersey Highlands will converge in a mass mobilization to demand an end to the "Highlands Trap." The coalition, Highlands Impact Aid Now, is calling on Governor Mikie Sherrill and the State Legislature to fix a broken funding formula that forces local homeowners to subsidize the drinking water for 70% of the state’s population while Highlands residents bear the burden of shrinking tax base and school systems buckling under the weight of inflationary costs.
The movement is demanding fairness from Trenton through:
1) Legislation to codify Highlands Impact Aid - a mechanism to stabilize communities most
affected by the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act. These communities are
prevented from nearly all growth in order to protect water quality for over 6Million New
Jerseyans.
2) Urgent funding to bridge the projected deficit and prevent catastrophic cuts to Jefferson
Township Schools athletics and co-curricular activities.
Key Facts
● NJ Highlands exports 840M gallons of water daily to NJ (Highlands Council Update - Oct 2025).
● Land-use restrictions stops all growth and development on 400k acres of preservation area
and limits additional 400k acres of planning area, which is up to 100% of the most severely
impacted towns. Stagnated growth does not allow the towns to keep up with inflationary
pressures. (https://dep.nj.gov/wlm/lrp/highlands/#Terms)
● While the state predicted and admits current significant economic stress on these towns, the state is failing to provide meaningful aid to stabilize these communities.
● A similar watershed in NY State, servicing NYC residents, provides approximately $165M
annually in local taxes to stabilize their impacted communities.
● The 2018 School Funding law (S2) has dramatically cut school funding to many highlands
districts, with cumulative losses in many districts exceeding $40M each.
● Highlands towns fund a significantly higher percentage of their own school costs than the
average NJ district. (70%+ funded locally, while the state average is ~50%).
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About Highlands Impact Aid Now Highlands Impact Aid Now is a grassroots coalition demanding a "Fair Deal" for the communities that protect New Jersey's water supply. Representing families and taxpayers across the Highlands region, the organization advocates for legislative solutions to restore school funding and municipal aid lost to state-mandated land-use restrictions. We believe that 70% of New Jersey shouldn't drink for free while Highlands families pay the bill.
