New Jersey
NJ’s new budget is coming. How will state finances affect your taxes?
3-minute read
Gov. Mikie Sherrill addresses affordability crisis in NJ: video
Watch new Gov. Mikie Sherrill on state affordability: “Too many people are working too hard and still falling behind.” Jan. 20, 2026 at NJPAC, Newark
Gov. Mikie Sherrill is set to present her first state budget proposal in a Tuesday, March 10, address to the New Jersey Legislature. It’s clear the proposal will make some hard choices as state finances face major headwinds.
Late last month, Sherrill said her budget plan will include some “tough choices” because of the looming uncertainty of a structural deficit for state finances.
The governor explained that if projections stay on the current path, the state would have a structural deficit of about $3 billion by the end of June, when her proposed budget would be in the final stages of negotiations with the Legislature.
Uncertainty due to federal funding cuts, along with the end of pandemic relief funding, has already forced Sherrill to consider all of her options when crafting her plan for New Jersey’s fiscal year 2027.
The governor wouldn’t give particulars about what to expect in her upcoming fiscal plan but instead said she is “setting the table so people can anticipate that this is going to be a tough budget season.”
What does a structural deficit mean for New Jersey taxpayers?
A structural deficit, simply put, means New Jersey spends more than it earns.
Among the costliest tax relief programs in the state’s history, Stay NJ was introduced legislatively in the run-up to the fiscal year 2024 budget and received funding for three years without paying anything out.
The first Stay NJ checks are being sent out to qualifying New Jersey seniors, but the accumulated $1.2 billion covers only the first six months of the program for this year. Roughly $900 million will need to be added to the line item in Sherrill’s first fiscal plan to maintain the program.
The law that created Stay NJ requires full pension payments, full school funding payments and a surplus of at least 12% to be built into the budget as prerequisites for funding the program. The surplus was not 12% when the budget was signed during the last two years, but budget language allowed for a work-around.
Sherrill would not commit to requiring the prerequisites before she would be willing to sign a budget bill in late June.
Increasing costs for the State Health Benefits Program, which is already a contentious topic, could also be a concern for the new governor, as payments are about $2 billion annually and the 10% increase needed in this year’s budget added more than $180 million.
How does New Jersey’s budget process work?
New Jersey’s $58.8 billion budget for fiscal year 2026 is the largest in history and is set to expire at the end of June.
The plan for fiscal year 2027 — which will run from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027 — is a major factor in how New Jersey state government will function by dictating which state departments and programs are funded.
After Sherrill’s address in March, her proposed spending and revenue plan will be analyzed and shaped in the Legislature through the spring. Negotiations will heat up as the current fiscal year winds to a close in June. If the budget cycle is normal, a final budget bill will land on Sherrill’s desk hours before the current fiscal year ends at 11:59 p.m. on June 30.
Though it would be unlikely — given Democratic control of both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office — in the event the budget bill does not get signed, state government shuts down. There have been two shutdowns in state history: for 10 days in 2006 and three days in 2017.
Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com
New Jersey
Command and Control | FEATURE | New Jersey Devils
Command (6-1, 187 pounds) plays for Orebro’s junior club in the Swedish Hockey League. With the U20 Nationell team in 2025-26, he posted 17 goals and 44 points in 30 games while adding 13 points (5g-8a) in 14 playoff games. Command finished with three goals and seven points in seven games for Sweden as the top-line center in the World Under-18 Junior Championship to help his country win gold.
Command made his professional debut with six games played in the SHL while his draft stock soared late in the year.
Though Command had a good conversation with the Devils at the Combine, he was still surprised to hear his name called.
“I was just surprised and happy. Emotions all over the place,” he said. “So grateful for the people who helped me there.”
And of course, he shared his selection with his family, those who helped him get to this point.
“It means for me, pretty much the world,” he said of sharing the experience with his family. “It’s not me who’s getting drafted, it’s them also. So, I’m just happy for them also.”
Command’s family even got a chance to join him through a portion of the car wash. You know, where was asked to smile. But don’t let Command’s serious demeanor fool you. Smile or not, he’s ecstatic about how everything played out.
“As you can imagine, pretty much the best feeling for me I’ve ever had,” he said. “So, very, very happy. Very, very happy.”
And as far as his message to the organization and Devils fans, he had this to say with full-throated confidence.
“You made a good choice,” he said. “I’m happy to be here. I don’t think there’s more to it.
“I’m just getting started.”
New Jersey
New Jersey Supreme Court requires transparency for facial recognition evidence
Just like humans may err in recognizing faces, facial recognition technology (FRT) is not without its flaws. Multiple defendants have blamed the technology for wrongful arrests as more and more law enforcement agencies rely on the technology to identify suspects. Meanwhile, limits on its use vary from state to state and city to city.
A ruling this week regarding a murder case in New Jersey, however, forces law enforcement to disclose how this technology is used in criminal investigations in the state.
In State v. Tybear Miles, New Jersey’s Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors must disclose how FRT was used to identify defendant Tybear Miles, who had been charged with “first-degree murder and weapons offenses.”
The case stems from a 2021 fatal shooting in Jersey City. A day after the shooting, officers showed a confidential informant, who did not witness the incident, CCTV footage from a nearby location. The informant identified two males by their street names and Instagram usernames, according to the ruling. After the informant identified one of the males as “Fat Daddy,” police ran a photo from “Fat Daddy’s” Instagram page through a facial recognition module, which identified Miles as a potential match.
The ruling notes that the state provided the defendant with two different FRT searches as part of discovery. One search, according to the ruling, “returned a list of ten possible ‘matches’ to the probe image of [the] defendant, with [the] defendant ranked as the eighth ‘match’ on the list of ten.” Another search “returned a list of ten possible ‘matches,’ with five different images of [the] defendant ranked in the first five positions.”
Miles’ sister and ex-girlfriend both identified Miles from videos and still images from other nearby surveillance footage, according to the ruling. The ruling states that “no witness identified defendant as the shooter; there were several people near the victim while he was shot twice; and all of the police interviewees were shown video footage and still photographs from approximately ninety minutes before the murder and seven minutes before the murder.”
Miles’ defense demanded details about how FRT was used in the case, and the trial judge ordered prosecutors to hand over 13 items, citing precedent from an earlier case requiring prosecutors to hand over FRT discovery items, reported the New Jersey Monitor.
In Wednesday’s ruling, the New Jersey Supreme Court partially upheld the lower court order, reported Reuters. Justice Douglas Fasciale wrote that the state is required to produce “discovery identifying the FRT tools and materials the State used in its investigation,” including the name and manufacturer of the software and publicly available information about its error rates. The state must also turn over items such as the original photograph used in the probe as part of discovery. The ruling does not, however, require the state to produce the “source code of the FRT algorithm and any similar proprietary information applicable to the FRT utilized by the State,” but, if warranted, a defendant could pursue a discovery request for the proprietary information.
“The right to a fair trial is guaranteed under the Federal and State Constitutions, and due process compels the State to disclose evidence favorable to an accused,” asserts the ruling.
The New Jersey Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed an amicus brief in the case, praised the ruling, and one of its attorneys called it a “major victory for civil liberties,” adding it is “one of the first state high court rulings of its kind.” Some states, including Maryland, Montana, and Washington, require law enforcement agencies to disclose the use of FRT to defendants before trial, but few laws and court rulings provide guidance about how the technology is used in the criminal justice system. Regardless of Miles’ guilt or innocence, the ruling is an encouraging sign that more states may recognize the need for transparency regarding FRT as law enforcement increasingly relies on the technology to track and identify suspects.
New Jersey
1 injured after vehicle hits tree in West Deptford, NJ
Friday, June 26, 2026 3:44AM
WEST DEPTFORD, N.J. (WPVI) — A serious crash is under investigation in West Deptford, New Jersey.
Chopper 6 was over the scene near Ogden Station Road and Foxton Court around 8:20 p.m. Thursday.
Authorities said a vehicle crashed into a tree.
At least one person was injured, though the extent of those injuries has not been released.
Officials have not said what led to the crash.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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