NJ legislature considering $56.6 billion budget; vote expected Friday

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With less than a week before the end of the fiscal year, legislative committees were in Trenton on Wednesday to advance a budget bill.

The Assembly Budget Committee was scheduled to start at 2 p.m. – though it was later updated to 4:30 p.m. − and the Senate at 4 p.m., both were hours late to start as they considered the state’s spending plan for fiscal year 2025 – which runs from July 1 through June 30, 2025.

The bill language was not posted online but documents were obtained by reporters around 8 p.m. The bill was introduced as a $56.6 billion budget, an increase of about $728 million over the governor’s proposal and $2.3 billion more than the fiscal year 2024 budget.

Revenue projects indicate that the state will earn about $54.5 billion in the new fiscal year, meaning the budget functions at a deficit of $2.1 billion. Projects show a surplus of about $6.1 billion.

Not everyone was on board with the plan and the business lobbyists was among the most vocal.

Chris Emigholz of the New Jersey Business and Industry Associate called it a “bad budget,” pointing to the structural deficit in the bill.

“It’s bad for our taxpayers. It’s bad for our job creators. It’s bad for our fiscal responsibility,” he said.

Tom Bracken of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce said that the “business community has run out of patience.”

But advocates like Peter Chen of the New Jersey Policy Perspective spoke in support of the bill.

“This is a budget that leads us on a path towards a better New Jersey, towards a New Jersey where the mighty and powerful are forced to pay what they owe to support the investments that help everyday New Jerseyans,” he said.

State Sen. Declan O’Scanlan, the Republican budget officer, said the “already bloated” budget is worse than it had been with the addition of discretionary spending items.

“The fact that we are massively increasing spending at a time when we have already done so over the last six years of this administration, is in many ways a runaway freight train,” he said. “In just the last week, we’ve added almost $700 million.”

State Sen. Paul Sarlo, the committee chair said that “no budget is ever perfect this is not either quite frankly” but that the process of creating a budget with two branches of government and two houses of the Legislature requires a lot of give and take.

He said there is supplemental spending but that many are “spending priorities” and “one time infrastructure” items and that they are a “very, very small components to this budget.”

Sarlo also candidly announced that he wished the corporate transit fee wasn’t included but he understands the “transit issue is looming and in order to stay competitive and get people to work you need a vibrant transit system.”

“No transit agency across this entire country is solely dependent on ridership,” he said. “Can we do better? We have to do better with transit.”

The bill was ultimately cleared in the Senate along party lines.

Gov. Phil Murphy proposed a $55.9 billion spending plan in February and then handed it off to the Legislature to figure out the details and after months of testimony and negotiations the budget appeared before committee.

Among the other bills to clear committee was a 2.5% corporate transit fee for businesses in the state earning more than $10 million. Details on that bill, sponsored by Senate President Nick Scutari, were scarce as well but the idea was first proposed by Murphy in his budget address in February.

Another bill geared toward providing medical debt relief also cleared committee despite testimony against it. Sarlo said that the bill would pass because it was a non-negotiable priority for the administration.

After clearing both committees, the budget is set to be voted on in full chambers on Friday. The governor has until midnight Sunday to sign the bill.