Trump Denies Federal Beach Aid to Jersey Shore GOP Strongholds

Some of New Jersey's most reliably Republican shore towns are now facing an abrupt loss of federal beach replenishment funding. This will be the first time in nearly three decades they've been left off the list. I wonder what could have changed in that time.

That's right, for the first time since 1996, the federal government has allocated NOTHING, nada, zip, zilch, for beach replenishment projects, canceling work slated for Avalon, Stone Harbor, Ocean City, and other coastal communities in New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.

In a normal year, not whatever we're living through now, Congress usually allocates $100–200 million to combat beach erosion. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers then dredges and deposits sand on eroded beaches in states like New Jersey, with state and local governments covering a small share of the cost. The federal government pays most of it — until now.

That project added nearly 700,000 cubic yards of sand to the beaches. This year, however, the Army Corps said its Philadelphia District, which oversees southern New Jersey, will get no funding for 2025.

The cuts hit the hardest on the same Republican-leaning towns that handed Donald Trump his 2024 reelection. In Cape May County — home to Avalon, Stone Harbor, and Ocean City — Trump won 58.7 percent of the vote against Democrat Kamala Harris's 39.5 percent, flipping the county from Democrat in 2020.

Steve Rochette, a spokesman for the Army Corps, said the Philadelphia District had two projects eligible for funding in 2025 but now, neither of them will proceed.

"This is the first time in 29 years this has happened," said Scott Wahl, Avalon's business administrator. "That means Avalon will not get a hydraulic fill. You're looking at tens of millions of dollars." It'll be fine though. I'm sure that taxes can be raised on residents to cover the government handout.

Avalon and Stone Harbor have historically relied on federal help for sand replenishment. In 2023, the federal government paid nearly $29 million for a project that placed hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand along their beaches. Without that aid this year, Avalon resorted to scraping 39,000 cubic yards from other areas of its own beach at its own expense — the infusion was only a small fraction of what was needed.

Wahl said the shore communities are willing to contribute but cannot cover the full costs alone. "Other towns don't even have enough sand to move around," he told the Inquirer.

Dan Ginolfi of the American Coastal Coalition said the limited number of dredging contractors and tight environmental windows mean projects need to be precisely timed. "If we can't get those projects done in a certain amount of time," Ginolfi said, "it increases the demand on the dredgers. The cost of dredging is already sky-high, and that just snowballs."

Howard Marlowe, the coalition's founder, added: "New Jersey could afford to do one or two projects, but it can't afford to do all the ones that need to be done."

These coastal towns, many of which strongly supported Republican candidates last fall, will remain without the federal dollars they've depended on for decades.

Well, I guess they shouldn't have voted for the guy who promised to stop all of those "federal handouts". Also, I don't know if this is related, but currently, 11 New Jersey beaches are under swimming advisories for high fecal bacteria levels. Is America great yet?