Assembly and Senate budget committees plan hearings Thursday with days left for lawmakers to negotiate an annual spending plan. Exact figures are still being worked out, but Gov. Phil Murphy proposed a $58 billion plan to start.

Lawmakers tell NJ Spotlight News core pieces of the budget proposal will make it into the final bill, like full payments into the public worker pension system, the state’s school funding formula and the Anchor property-tax relief program. So will some of the new taxes Murphy pitched to pay for the increased spending and an agreement to find health care savings for state worker benefits that reportedly caused an impasse over the last several days.

In this Q&A, John Reitmeyer, NJ Spotlight News budget and finance writer, discusses the latest details and how likely federal budget cuts could throw a wrench in the plan. The interview has been excerpted and lightly edited.

Briana Vannozzi, Anchor:  Can you bring us up to speed about where things stand and whether it looks like they’ll get this done by the deadline?

John Reitmeyer: So right now, we’re waiting for a spending bill to be formally introduced. There is a hearing scheduled tomorrow in the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee to go over what looks to be a spending bill, although it’s still pending introduction, as well as several pieces of tax legislation that would need to be passed along with the budget to do some of the things that Governor Murphy proposed back in February when this whole process started.

And so we’re at this point in the process where we’re waiting for lawmakers to what we call drop the spending bill, to approve it in committee and then to vote on it in both full houses. And that all has to be done basically before Monday turns into Tuesday next week, because that’s the start of the next fiscal year. And the state constitution requires a new annual spending plan to be in place every year on the first day of the fiscal year.

BV:  So you mentioned taxes. There’s about $1 billion more that Governor Murphy proposed. What do we know at this hour today about what taxes lawmakers are willing to put through? Reminder, they are all the members of Assembly who are on the ballot this November and which taxes does it look like are going to be on the cutting room floor?

JR: Really good question. So, we haven’t had anyone come out and say anything definitively yet. But if we look at the agenda for that hearing that’s going to be held tomorrow. There are some tax hike bills that are on the agenda. So not a guarantee that they get passed. But at this point in the process, if they’re on the agenda, it’s pretty likely that they will.

Included among these bills is a proposal to hike the per-pack cigarette tax in New Jersey. There’s also a bill that would hike the state tax on liquid nicotine that’s used for vaping devices. There’s also a bill that calls for increasing the fee, the state levies on high-dollar real estate sales. Right now that fee kicks in at $1 million and more in terms of the price of the property.

A new tax would be established what looks like to be a higher rate on sales over $2 million. And then there’s also a bill that would change the rate the state levies in terms of taxes on online gambling and sports betting. That’s also on the agenda. So we’ll see what gets through this meeting. And we would expect an Assembly budget committee meeting to be held as well.

So those are some of the tax hikes based on the governor’s proposal from February. The biggest amount of money. So there’s that $1 billion you referred to. It doesn’t look like the governor is going to get all $1 billion. And as you noted, it’s an election year for the Assembly. So that shouldn’t come as a surprise. There’s a reluctance to hike taxes to that degree during in an election year.

But the state spends more than it takes in in revenue annually. And the governor wants to narrow that gap. And the big money tax increases would be high-dollar real estate sales and the tax levied on online gambling and sports betting. So if they make it to the finish line, that will give a lot more money to cover what’s been proposed as a record level of spending.

BV: Let me jump in, John, because I only have a minute left and I want to ask you about this. There is still, though, going to be a deficit based on your reporting. Are there any concessions that we know of that lawmakers are having to negotiate right now with the front office in terms of other savings they’re going to have to find in order to make this all work?

JR: Well, it’s a structural gap. And so that’s been filled in recent years by draining down surplus. The surplus is a big issue this year because there are a lot of changes happening at the federal level that could shift a big cost onto this state. And so the key thing to watch as we come to the finish line is going to be how big is that surplus and do lawmakers end up taking money from it to sustain their own spending or they leave a lot on the sidelines in case things like Medicaid and food stamps costs are going to be shipped to fund those programs onto the state.

This story is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.