Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-25) received the 300-page proposed FY 2023 budget mere minutes before the Assembly Budget Committee voted to advance it on Monday night, Save Jerseyans. It was a similar story in the State Senate where Republicans had 20 minutes to skim the massive document before the budget committee voted on it.
That’s business as usual in Democrat-controlled Trenton, and that’s never more true than budget time.
The end result this time around is a record-setting $50.6 billion budget, one that’s a full $4.2 billion fatter – or 9% larger – than the $46.4 FY 2022 budget signed by Phil Murphy last year. The full legislature will vote on the budget’s fate this Wednesday, forty-eight hours before the deadline to avoid a shutdown.
For a little perspective, spending has now jumped 46% during Governor Murphy’s time in office.
One thing that is missing from the bloated Democrat proposal: serious tax relief.
“Democrats have offered shockingly little tax relief in their budget proposal despite the Murphy administration having $9 billion in tax overcollections and another $3 billion in federal pandemic relief funds sitting in the bank,” said State Senator O’Scanlon (R-13) who serves as the Senate Republican Budget Officer. “We gave them an easy opportunity to support the $8 billion of tax relief that Senate Republicans proposed, but they refused yet again to help struggling families across New Jersey. Their resistance to giving money back to taxpayers immediately as we proposed is absolutely mystifying.”
O’Scanlon proposed an amendment to S-2914 (the Democrats’ silly ten-day school supplies sales tax holiday) but it was immediately tabled by the majority. Had the Democrats allowed the amendment, New Jersey taxpayers would’ve seen $8 billion in tax breaks including $4.5 billion in rebates, $1 billion in school aid restorations, $790 million in structural tax reductions and another $2 billion in blocked increases.
“Governor Murphy and legislative Democrats want to give New Jersey taxpayers scraps, not the real tax relief they need to get through this difficult time,” said Senate Republican Leader Steven Oroho (R-24). “While Senate Republicans have proposed a plan to give back billions to New Jersey taxpayers, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle remain focused on adding billions in pork spending.”
