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NJ lawmakers OK a $54.3 billion, rush-job budget criticized as full of math errors
By
Nancy Solomon
Published Jun 30, 2023
Modified Jun 30, 2023
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Kyle Mazza/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
By
Nancy Solomon
Published Jun 30, 2023
Modified Jun 30, 2023
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Gov. Phil Murphy Friday signed a $54.3 billion budget for the new fiscal year, passed by the state legislature just hours earlier — on the last day before any further delays would have triggered a state government shutdown.
The rushed proceedings caused confusion about whether the budget math is actually correct and left out any possibility of meaningful public review or comment.
“We've been told that there are substantial technical problems with the bill, that the math doesn't add up, and there will have to be substantial corrections,” said Peter Chen, a senior policy analyst with New Jersey Policy Perspective, a progressive think tank that focuses on budget policy and priorities. “Wednesday night, the budget committees voted on a budget that no one had seen, with a score sheet that might as well have been written on the back of a cocktail napkin.”
Chen says it’s not uncommon for the legislature to clean up the budget bill after the fact, but described this year’s rush job as particularly egregious.
“One of the biggest problems is we can't be sure that this is actually the budget,” Chen said.
By pushing through the budget at the last minute, legislators left little opportunity for the members of the public, or the press, to read the budget. Legislative committees voted through the budget Wednesday night with no public comment — barely meeting a deadline to let the spending plan come before the full legislature Friday and avert a shutdown.
“This is a serious problem for transparency and the democratic process. The whole idea behind the budget should be that this is the public's money, and the public deserves to have a say in how it's spent,” Chen said. “And instead, what happens is we have the public hearings first, then at the 11th hour, the budget bill appears, and then it's voted on with little to no public comment.”
Gov. Phil Murphy presented his budget proposal to the legislature four months ago, beginning the process of negotiations with legislators over a final plan. But the budget, as well as several other bills, was ultimately fast-tracked through the legislature this past year.
“What is surprising in this case is that suddenly the budget, which is perhaps the biggest piece of legislation the state legislature will be dealing with in any given year, fell prey to those previous dynamics,” Benjamin Dworkin, director of the Rowan University Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship, said. “You gotta get this done by midnight tonight [Friday], so there are extenuating circumstances when it comes to the budget.”
The budget includes funding for a few new policy proposals. There’s $100 million to set aside for a property tax cut for seniors that would go into effect in 2026; ultimately that measure is expected to cost $1.2 billion per year in future budgets. There’s also an additional $200 million tax credit for film production companies, which adds more money to an existing program that incentivized Netflix’s plan to redevelop Fort Monmouth into a 290-acre production studio. Also, the budget has funds to double the child tax credit for families that earn up to $80,000 annually.
“The entire legislature, but especially the Democrats, since the election of 2021, have been focused on affordability,” Dworkin said. “That has been the mantra of everybody working in and around Trenton and state government in New Jersey.”
Expanding the child tax credit was one of Murphy’s priorities. It will now be $200 to $1,000 per child under the age of 6.
Chen, of New Jersey Policy Perspective, supports the tax credit but would have liked to see more programs like that prioritized over programs that favor the wealthy, such as corporate tax breaks, or the end of the surcharge corporations pay when they earn more than a million dollars in profit. The child tax credit will cost $120 million a year while the film tax credit will cost the state an additional $200 million.
“Who should the state be giving money to? Netflix or low income families and children?” Chen said. “I think I know who I’d pick and seeing the size of the programs flipped is a serious concern for us.”
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Politics
Nancy Solomon
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