Legal gun ownership could become more costly in New Jersey, for both buyers and retailers, if lawmakers go along with Gov. Phil Murphy’s latest push to raise more cash for the state’s annual budget.

A total of 10 fee increases related to the buying and selling of guns in New Jersey are among a series of revenue raisers Murphy is asking lawmakers to approve to help balance a nearly $56 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

They include, among others, doubling the cost of an individual’s firearms purchaser card, from $50 to $100, and hiking the cost of a gun retailer’s license, from $50 to $500, according to a summary prepared by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services.

In all, the proposed fees are projected to generate about $4 million in revenue if lawmakers decide to go along with Murphy’s plan, according to the OLS summary.

Under the state Constitution, lawmakers can codify Murphy’s budget plan unchanged or make alterations to revenue and expenditure items as they draft an annual appropriations bill that must be approved and sent back to the governor before the start of the next fiscal year.

In response to the proposed gun-fee increases, some Republican lawmakers in recent weeks have been raising concerns that they could be perceived as “penalizing” legal gun ownership in New Jersey.

“The governor seems to be targeting — no pun intended — legal gun owners,” said Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (R-Monmouth) during a recent budget hearing in Trenton.

After several years of emphasizing affordability concerns during a period of high inflation, Murphy, a second-term Democrat, this year proposed a number of tax and fee hikes as he seeks to increase overall state spending by more than $1.5 billion year over year.

Raise and roll back

Among other proposed revenue raisers written into his fiscal year 2025 budget, Murphy wants to raise corporate taxes on the state’s most profitable businesses and begin rolling back sales tax exemptions offered to those buying electric cars.

A back-to-school sales tax holiday would also be canceled, and the state would begin charging a new fee on warehouse traffic, according to budget documents.

A complete list of the proposed gun-fee increases was not included in the Budget in Brief released by the Murphy administration in late February. Instead, that document only included a short reference to “modest increases to … firearm permit and license fees.”

But the full list was included in detailed budget documents prepared by the OLS prior to state Attorney General Matt Platkin’s appearance before the Assembly Budget Committee last month.

‘Personally, I don’t think it’s fair to go after some person who goes to the range once a week, and tag them, when you have overwhelming gun violence by guns in criminals’ hands and also gang activity.’ — Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (R-Monmouth)

In addition to hiking the fees for firearms purchaser identification cards and retailer licenses, Murphy is also proposing to increase the fee for a permit to carry a handgun from $200 to $400.

That fee was last increased in 2022 as part of a broader package of gun reforms enacted by Murphy and fellow Democrats who control the Legislature.

Corporate and wholesaler application fees and the cost of conducting background checks are among the other fee increases being proposed by the governor this year, according to the OLS.

Shootings, gun homicides down

Addressing concerns about gun violence has been a key concern for Murphy since taking office in early 2018. And according to the Budget in Brief, overall shootings in New Jersey have declined by 33% since 2021, and gun homicides have dropped by 25% over the same timeframe.

But among the concerns raised by Scharfenberger during the recent hearing was whether hiking fees on law-abiding gun owners would have any impact on the ongoing efforts to reduce rates of gun violence in New Jersey.

“Personally, I don’t think it’s fair to go after some person who goes to the range once a week, and tag them, when you have overwhelming gun violence by guns in criminals’ hands and also gang activity,” Scharfenberger said.

In response, Platkin said he would defer to the governor’s office when it comes to discussing the details of Murphy’s proposed budget. But he went on to defend the administration’s overall handling of the issue of gun violence during the exchange with Scharfenberger.

“It’s not like we’re not also going after illegal crime guns,” Platkin said during the hearing.

“We have been driving it down through targeted enforcement, breaking up [gun] rings, thanks to the State Police building the most robust statewide intelligence sharing network of any state agency, anywhere in the country,” he went on to say.

“That work is having an impact — passing laws like the Legislature has to disrupt gun-trafficking networks. We know that the vast majority of guns used in crimes in New Jersey did not [originate] here, and we will continue to break up that iron pipeline, in partnership with state and local and federal law enforcement,” Platkin said.

— Chart by Genesis Obando