Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) blasts Gov. Phil Murphy’s $58.1 billion budget proposal at the Statehouse in Trenton. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Gov. Phil Murphy for months has called for cuts in state spending but offered a bloated budget proposal packed with unnecessary new spending, Republican legislative leaders said Tuesday after the governor’s annual budget address.
The record-high $58.1 billion budget proposal perpetuates the state’s structural deficit and leaves a surplus that would take the state just 39 days to burn through, said Sen. Anthony Bucco (R-Morris).
New programs like Stay NJ, a tax break for seniors that will cost more than $1 billion a year when it’s fully phased in, just add to that structural deficit, Bucco said.
“This next governor is going to be left with an enormous hole to fill. And you know what they say: When you’re in a hole, stop digging. Well, this governor keeps going deeper and deeper and deeper, and it’s going to be that much harder for the next governor to be able to move that program forward,” Bucco said.
Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) and Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Warren) blasted Murphy’s plan to expand funding for free preschool, saying some districts still don’t have full-day kindergarten while others struggle with insufficient state support that has forced them to cut staff, extracurriculars and more.
They also objected to new or expanded taxes and fees Murphy has proposed, including on firearms, drones, and alcohol.
“Any new tax is a drag on the economy, money out of hard-working people’s pockets that they could be using for other things,” DiMaio said.
The new spending also contradicts the warning Murphy made during his budget address about the “deep uncertainty and anxiety” coming out of Washington, D.C., with threats of federal funding cuts by the Trump administration, said Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz (R-Union).
“They’re deflecting blame on the federal government (for cuts) that haven’t even happened yet, and meanwhile, they’re spending money we don’t have and relying on revenues that won’t materialize,” Munoz said.
Republican leaders last week threatened to sue the Murphy administration if it didn’t stand firm against last-minute budget additions. Such pork spending, which topped $600 million last year, is “based on naked political favoritism,” GOP leaders said then.
Tuesday, DiMaio predicted pork will still swell next year’s budget despite their lawsuit threat, widespread criticism over the structural deficit, and the uncertainty in Washington. The Legislature must finalize the next fiscal year’s budget by June 30.
“We’ve had 20-plus years of the Legislature controlled by the Democrats, the last eight years of one-party rule. And when you have one-party rule, this is what the public loses — it loses transparency, and it loses the negotiations,” DiMaio said. “Because unless you have a Republican governor or Republican Legislature, there is no need for the Democrats to negotiate with the Republicans.”
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