NJ Progressives, GOP Blast Lawmakers As Budget Vote Nears

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey’s proposed state budget is drawing fire from both conservatives and progressives, who are accusing lawmakers of breaking a promise to be “open and transparent” as a vote on the $46.4 billion spending plan nears.

Lawmakers in the Democratic-led Senate and Assembly are expected to vote on the state budget Thursday, even though a week remains before the deadline. If it passes both chambers, the spending plan will head to the desk of Gov. Phil Murphy.

See a state presentation about the Fiscal Year 2022 budget here.

The Senate and Assembly budget committees passed their individual spending bills with scant notice, catching many advocates and politicians unaware. The Assembly, for example, approved their version of the plan just 11 minutes after the full text was released to the public. Meanwhile in the Senate, bills that weren't available for review were repeatedly called up.

“What happened [Tuesday] at the State House is truly shameful,” said Brandon McKoy, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, a nonprofit, left-leaning advocacy group.

“Lawmakers voted on some of the most consequential bills of the year — totaling tens of billions of dollars in both spending and corporate tax breaks — without any of the bill language available to the public,” McKoy criticized. “This, after lawmakers promised an open and transparent budget process.”

“Their behavior, in an election year no less, affirms how little they care about good governance and basic democratic principles,” McKoy continued. “At the same time, this should not come as a surprise given the uncompetitive nature of New Jersey’s elections.”

• See related article: NJ Needs To Change Its Weird, 'Biased' Primary Ballots, Advocates Say

Flush with a windfall of federal aid from the coronavirus pandemic, the proposed budget expands some existing tax relief programs in New Jersey. It also creates a new $500 tax rebate for some low- and middle-income households, as well as new tax deductions for college savings, tuition and loan payments.

“I’m proud to join with my partners in the Legislature to make sure that the best state to live in America is more affordable for families,” Gov. Murphy said Monday, trumpeting the tax relief component of the spending plan.

• Read More: NJ Could Up Property Tax Rebates With $10B Surplus
• Read More: $500 Rebate Checks Coming For NJ Residents (What We Know)
• Read More: Free College Tuition For Some, Senior Tax Breaks Coming To NJ

NJ PROGRESSIVES: ‘AN ANTI-DEMOCRATIC BUDGET PROCESS’

On Thursday – the day the Legislature is scheduled to vote on the budget – a coalition of progressive groups plan to gather on the State House annex steps in Trenton.

Members of the For The Many-NJ coalition said they’re taking “direct action to condemn an anti-democratic and opaque budget process” that has left little room for input from constituents.

“As the state emerges from an unprecedented public health crisis, in which racial and economic inequities have worsened, the Legislature has missed an opportunity to fund the pandemic recovery with a state budget that meets the needs of the moment and invests in our communities,” the coalition’s members said in a joint statement.

“For example, the legislature failed to fund relief programs for individuals excluded from federal relief fully, failed to fund NJ Transit fully, and failed to expand subsidies for child care,” they continued.

The coalition includes New Jersey Policy Perspective, New Jersey Working Families Alliance, New Jersey Citizen Action, New Jersey Work Environment Council, Environment New Jersey, Make the Road New Jersey, Anti-Poverty Network of NJ, Clean Water Action – NJ, Lutheran Episcopalian Advocacy Ministry-NJ, BlueWaveNJ, IFPTE Local 194, Hudson County Central Labor Council, Our Revolution Essex, Salvation and Social Justice NJ, Save Our Schools NJ, HPAE, NJ Community Schools Coalition, NJ 11th for Change, Education Law Center, Our Children/Our Schools (OC/OS), Latino Action Network, Community Access Unlimited, New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, Our Revolution Trenton Mercer, and Wind of the Spirit.

NJ REPUBLICANS: ‘IT’S AN ABSOLUTE MOCKERY’

Meanwhile, Republican critics of the budget say there’s too much spending and not enough tax relief for homeowners.

And the speed it’s going through the Legislature isn’t helping, they add.

“That our state's $45 billion, 281-page budget was voted on 11 minutes after it became publicly available for review is offensive, and exemplifies everything that is wrong with Phil Murphy's Trenton,” charged Jack Ciattarelli, his Republican opponent in this year’s gubernational race.

Sen. Declan O’Scanlon of the 13th District also called the budget process this year “shameful.”

“Democrats in the Senate and Assembly budget committees made an absolute mockery of the concept of open and transparent government yesterday,” charged O’Scanlon, a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.

“They posted and voted upon budget-related bills that hadn’t even been written yet,” O’Scanlon said. “Nobody, not legislators voting on the bills nor the public that will be impacted, had any legitimate opportunity to review the legislation, understand it, or make suggestions for improvement.”

Other GOP members began sounding the call about a lack of transparency last week.

In the state’s 11th District, Lori Annetta, a Senate candidate, and Assembly candidates Marilyn Piperno and Kim Eulner, wrote:

"With just under two weeks left until the July 1 deadline, Democrats are prepared to decide the fate of over $11 billion in tax money with zero input from the public … Last year, Democrat lawmakers took less than just 20 minutes to approve over $4 billion to supplement our budget with no input from the public. Now taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars in interest payments for money we did not ask for. Yet, the same lawmakers want the public to trust them with this $11 billion dollar surplus and still won't give them the time of day … Normally, the state treasurer would appear before lawmakers to answer questions and explain the budget forecast. But not this year. Instead, all Gov. Murphy gave lawmakers was a written report. No opportunity for questions. No opportunity for accountability."

“Taxpayers deserve to have a say in how their money is going to be spent,” Eulner said. “Gov. Murphy, [Senate President] Stephen Sweeney and [Assembly Speaker] Craig Coughlin have promised time and again to make the government transparent and accountable, yet these three men have shut the people out of the process consistently.”

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