Trenton Dems ram through $46.4B budget before releasing the details

Legislative Democrats raced a FY 2022 budget through committee this week even though it was clear that no one – or at least most of the legislators voting on the bills – had actually read them.

“Democrats in the Senate and Assembly budget committees made an absolute mockery of the concept of open and transparent government yesterday,” said state Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) who serves on the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee. “They posted and voted upon budget-related bills that hadn’t even been written yet. 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.”

The Senate Budget Committee voted on a $114+ million supplemental appropriation for FY 2021 despite the fact that the committee and the public hadn’t yet seen the bill. The committee thereafter okayed a $46 billion appropriations act for FY 2022 even though the 280-page bill had only been posted moments beforehand.

Things were no different over on the Assembly Budget Committee.

Assembly members Serena DiMaso (R-13) and Hal Wirths (R-24) objected to votes on bills concerning the FY 2022 $46.4 billion budget proposal.

“There’s no way physically anybody could have read these or gone through them,” said Wirths. 
 
“You can’t release a bill you haven’t read, right?” said DiMaso.

The deadline to pass a budget is June 30th, a full week away.

“Governor Murphy and Trenton Democrats clearly feel empowered to circumvent our constitutional legislative process and make all of the important decisions in a back room shielded from public scrutiny,” added O’Scanlon. “This entire budget process has been the most shameful, willful disregard for government transparency that Trenton has ever seen. Unfortunately, Governor Murphy and the Democrats currently in charge of the State House are unlikely to do anything to fix this broken process. Hell, they created it.”

Matt Rooney
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MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.