New Jersey Senate and Assembly budget committees are scheduled to vote Tuesday on the proposed state spending plan. The committees convened hours late at the State House and started business without a budget document. It’s taking a long time for the Office of Legislative Services to compose the budget bill, but that’s not unusual. The document can run to 300 pages.
Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), chair of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, said, “It is our intention today to vote on a budget.”
Democrats control the State House and the governor’s office and this year there’s not much drama expected. Gov. Phil Murphy unveiled a $53.1 billion spending bill in February, and many of the items he proposed should remain true in this document.
No new taxes are expected. And the spending plan is expected to fully fund state pension obligations. The Legislature’s proposed budget will probably increase state aid to education. Separate bills up for consideration include doubling New Jersey’s child tax credit to $1,000 per eligible child. Other measures would expand eligibility and access to two senior prescription drug programs.
Next year’s “Anchor” property-tax rebate program adds an extra $250 for homeowners and renters age 65 and older. The Senate budget committee added that to a bill for a new program called “StayNJ.” It would give seniors who earn less than a half-million dollars a year a property-tax credit of up to $6,500 — and there’s money for renters, too.
But “StayNJ” doesn’t kick in until 2026. And that bothered Republican lawmakers. However, Republicans all voted for the bill, which passed unanimously, because who votes against a tax cut in a legislative election year? As this regular legislative session winds down, Republicans remain very unhappy about what they perceive as a lack of transparency — that they won’t have any time to read the proposed budget before voting on it.
The budget document is expected sometime Tuesday evening. Both Senate and Assembly budget committees are expected to approve the spending plan, with the full Legislature voting on the measure Friday, the budget deadline.
