The most certain part of Gov. Phil Murphy’s final budget is the uncertainty of it all.
On the one hand, the record $58 billion spending plan acts like everything’s fine, funding a tax relief plan aimed at seniors, $800 million for NJ Transit operations, schools fully funded and lots of progressive priorities. But, on the other hand, a president who could turn a polite election-year state spending plan into a nightmare scenario.
“Congress is talking about a budget resolution that could potentially have huge cuts to Medicaid, to nutrition assistance, SNAP, and those would hit directly in New Jersey homes but they also hit the New Jersey budget,” said Peter Chen, a senior analyst with New Jersey Policy Perspective, a progressive think-tank.
“We get almost $13 billion in Medicaid funding from the feds every year, so even a small decrease in how much money we get would have a huge impact on the state budget,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) was blunter. “Eventually this state is going to hit the fiscal cliff and quite frankly, if it wasn’t for COVID, we would’ve been here sooner,” he said. “But this governor has been able to use those funds in the last few years to spend more and more. Unfortunately, spending the money in the way it has been spent is a missed opportunity.”
The governor’s budget plan next goes through legislative review, through the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
[Editor’s note: This article was updated with the correct party affiliation for state Sen. Anthony Bucco.]
