Republican Assemblywoman Blasts New Jersey's 'Doomsday Budget'

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — As a new fiscal year kicks in for New Jersey, a Republican state lawmaker from the 26th district isn’t pulling punches about what she thinks.

“The state budget that goes into effect July 1 is one of the most irresponsible spending plans in state history,” Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce said, blasting the effort in a Wednesday statement.

DeCroce alleged that the massive, $46.4 billion spending plan – which contains $500 rebate checks for many New Jersey taxpayers – will ironically “set the state for huge tax increases in the future.”

The 26th district includes the following municipalities in Essex, Morris and Passaic counties: Butler, Fairfield (Essex), Jefferson, Kinnelon, Lincoln Park, Montville, Morris Plains, North Caldwell, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Rockaway Township, Verona, West Caldwell, West Milford.

Several high-ranking Democratic Party members, including Gov. Phil Murphy and Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin, who represents Newark and Belleville, have praised the budget's financial relief for taxpayers, college students, seniors and parents.

• See related article: Gov. Murphy Signs NJ 2022 Budget—With $500 Rebate Checks
• See related article: NJ Assembly Leader Says Budget Has 'Tax Relief, Pension Payment'

However, DeCroce and other leading New Jersey Republicans have criticized the budget – the largest in the state's history – as being full of partisan "pork" and uncertainties, especially considering its speedy trip through the Legislature.

According to DeCroce, the new fiscal budget is $46.4 billion – a $6.2 billion increase over last year and $11.7 billion (34 percent) increase since Murphy took office.

“This is not a budget that helps make New Jersey more affordable,” DeCroce said. “This is not a budget that helps New Jersey become more economically competitive. This is a budget that panders to progressive, big spending desires and leaves the majority of people wondering if it is time to leave the state.”

DeCroce threw water on the governor’s claims that the budget helps the middle class by updating the state’s homestead rebate, which is available to only some homeowners. She noted that over the past five years, the average New Jersey property-tax bill has increased by $563, which is more than the rebate received by senior citizens and disabled homeowners who are eligible for the rebate.

“How is that a help to anyone paying $12,000 a year in property taxes?” she asked.

According to the assemblywoman, the state government’s objective should be to give every “hard-working, middle-class family” a tax break – but that didn’t happen this year.

“Instead of spending millions to expand or fund new programs, the state should have used that money to increase municipal aid,” DeCroce said. “But the Democratic legislative majority and the governor held municipal aid flat as costs to municipalities increase.”

“If the Democrats really want to help all middle-class property tax payers in the state that suffers the highest property taxes in the nation, they should increase municipal aid and let the mayors pass along that money as tax relief to the homeowners in their towns,” DeCroce charged.

“But that option was never discussed because there was no debate on the budget,” she said.

LACK OF MONY FOR NJ TRANSIT

DeCroce said that one of the more “head scratching aspects” of the budget is the failure to adequately increase funding for NJ Transit at a time when the state is encouraging people to use mass transit, not cars to reduce greenhouse emissions.

“If you want more people to use mass transit, give them better service, but they are not going to get it with this budget,” DeCroce said, noting that the budget includes a $273 million reduction in the state’s subsidy to NJ Transit.

Ironically, as the state is failing to improve mass transit, the governor is spending $580,000 for the new Office of Climate Change Action and the Green Economy, DeCroce said.

“At best this is a frivolous expenditure to appease the far left,” she alleged. “There is little New Jersey can do by itself to alter global climate change. This is a feel-good measure that will help no one.”

DeCroce said while some people are calling the FY 2022 spending plan an election year budget, the reality is it is a ‘Doomsday Budget.”

“The governor and his party have jacked up spending to more than $46 million – and that number is built largely on borrowing and federal COVID-19 aid,” she said. “What is the Legislature going to do next year when the federal money starts to disappear? Are they going to have the courage to cut spending and set sensible financing priorities, or will they just raise taxes?”

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