Assemblyman Andrew Macurdy Announces Bill to Improve State Budget Process

Macurdy’s first bill as a legislator would require the State to forecast the budget’s long-term trajectory

SUMMIT, N.J.—Newly elected Assemblyman Andrew Macurdy announced the first bill of his tenure in the Legislature, a measure to improve the state budgeting process.  The “Long-Term Budget Outlook” Act would require the State to publicly analyze, for the first time, the trajectory of its budget beyond just the next fiscal year.  The Act focuses scrutiny on how forecasted revenues and expenditures line up over the subsequent three fiscal years—and the size of any structural deficit—if the State continues along its current path.

Under the Act, the State Treasurer would be responsible for submitting this long-term forecasting of the Governor’s budget proposal to the Governor and the Legislature during the spring budget season.  The Treasurer would submit the first report at the same time as the Treasurer’s budget testimony to the Legislature, and a second update simultaneous with the Treasurer’s testimony later in the process when more information on tax revenues is available.  The analysis requires an optimistic, pessimistic, and baseline projection for each fiscal year.

Macurdy gave the following statement regarding the forthcoming bill:

No business budgets only one year into the future, the way our State currently does. Other jurisdictions use long-term forecasts, and we too should publicly grapple with the future implications of our current budget decisions—two, three, four years down the line.  I believe this bill is common-sense government that will lead to better budget outcomes and protect the future for our next generation.

New Jersey’s budget of nearly $59 billion last year featured a structural deficit—expected revenues were below expenses by about $1.2 billion.  That was nothing new, the State has long run structural deficits in the billions of dollars.  As Macurdy highlighted in an op-ed last year, at least sixteen states employ a similar long-term forecasting analysis in their budget process.

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Before becoming a member of the State Assembly in District 21 representing parts of Middlesex, Morris, Somerset, and Union Counties, Andrew Macurdy served as a federal prosecutor in Newark and a county prosecutor in Jersey City. At the Attorney General’s Office, he worked on public safety initiatives related to gun violence and auto theft, as well as designing and building the Arrive Together program, which pairs mental health workers with law enforcement officers to jointly respond to mental health crisis calls for service and currently operates in municipalities around the state.  Macurdy’s Assembly Office website is assemblymanandrewmacurdy.com.