No one except for the State House Majority (and their special interest enablers) seem happy with the FY 2023 budget process which is expected to conclude with a vote in both the State Senate and General Assembly on Wednesday.
The $50+ billion budget – over $4.2 billion larger than last year’s – cruised through committee votes on Monday with party-line support and no one having read the full 300+ page bill.
“What are Senate President Scutari, Speaker Coughlin, Assembly Budget Chair Pintor Marin & Senate Budget Chair Paul Sarlo hiding by keeping the budget from the public, including duly elected members of the State Legislature?” said NJGOP Executive Director Tom Szymanski. “This opaque process and far-left spending spree is specifically designed to attempt to give Phil Murphy’s fledgling and pathetic 2024 Presidential ambitions a leg to stand on, and it won’t work.”
“Clearly Democrats learned nothing from the beating they took at the ballot box last November, but they will have yet another chance to learn some hard lessons when Republicans win even more seats back in 2023,” added Szymanski.
But it wasn’t just Republicans complaining.
“The transparency failures in the NJ legislative process are a monumental roadblock to democracy,” tweeted Alejandra Sorto, a political operative for the New Jersey wing of the ACLU. “From bills scheduled on the weekend to be heard on Monday, to last minute additions, to zero opportunity to review bills/amendments in order to weigh in. This is unacceptable!”
