Fourth Legislative District, August 21, 2023 – LD4 GOP Senate challenger Chris Del Borrello and his Assembly running mates Matt Walker and Amanda Esposito outlined a budget transparency plan today intended to make New Jersey government operate more efficiently and effectively while delivering better service to the hardworking taxpayers of New Jersey.

“Assemblyman Paul Moriarty has spent 17 years in Trenton becoming a reliable cog in the wheel for the South Jersey Democratic Machine and Boss George Norcross,” charged Del Borrello.  “Since Moriarty has been in Trenton, the annual average property tax bill has nearly doubled to almost $9,500, state spending grew from roughly $30 billion to $54 billion, and state debt has ballooned.  Shockingly, if we had to pay off the entire state debt today, it would require each state taxpayer to cough up $59,000.  This is the failed legacy of Paul Moriarty and he’s done it while being part of a political class in Trenton that treats taxpayers with contempt – hiding details from them about how the state raises and spends their money in an egregious way.”

Del Borrello, Walker and Esposito said their plan would usher in reforms to help turn that around.  In part, they said, it promotes ideas included in two recent opinion pieces, one from policy analyst Peter Chen of the liberal New Jersey Policy Perspective think tank and the other from former Christie Administration Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff, a Republican, both calling for bipartisan cooperation on reform in Trenton.

“Democrats and Republicans agree on very few things in our hyper-polarized politics these days, but if we’re elected this November, we will join a growing bipartisan coalition in Trenton that believes we must strengthen the Open Public Records Act, not weaken it, and that we enact significant changes to our broken and corrupt budget process,” said Del Borrello, the Chief Compliance Officer for his family’s small business.

“It’s a disgrace that rank-and-file legislators, the press and independent outside experts — not to mention New Jersey’s citizens and taxpayers — had less than one hour to review a copy of this year’s ridiculously large $54 billion budget before it was voted on,” said Walker, who serves as Auditor on the Executive Board of the Operating Engineers Local 825.  “Compounding that with the fact that the ultimate document they voted on was filled with errors, and skirted current rules is an embarrassing episode we can’t allow to be repeated again.”

“At a time when so many people – especially young people – are losing faith and confidence in their government, legislators and the governor should be promoting measures that increase transparency, strengthen disclosure requirements, and solicit more input and tough questions from the public, not try to silence them,” said Esposito, a career educator who will be teaching Social Studies at Pitman High School this fall.

Summary of the Del Borrello-Walker-Esposito Plan:

Mandate Annual Appropriations Act “Age” on Legislators’ Desks for 7 Days Prior to a Vote

“Providing more time for legislators, the press, policy experts, and the public to review, understand, and comment on last-minute additions and other changes is essential to restoring public confidence in our broken state budget process,” said Del Borrello. “11th-hour deals for special interests should never fly below the radar.”

Move to Multi-Year Budgets or Mid-Year Reviews

“The status quo in Trenton too often results in government shutdown threats and wild swings in spending and revenue projections from year-to-year that serve nobody well,” said Walker.  “Instead, we should either move to a multi-year budget process that would allow for better planning and transparency, or in the alternative adopt a mandated mid-year budget review-and-revision process that recognizes the fluid nature of the economy and its impact on spending and revenue.”

Require a Detailed Annual Capital Report

“New Jersey Transit facing a $1 billion operating deficit in 2026 with no plan to fill that hole is inexcusable – who is minding the store here?” asked Esposito.  “To remedy this, we support the creation of an annual capital report that provides an inventory and status of the state’s capital assets.  We also support the preparation, as part of the annual budget process, of a public document that details New Jersey’s capital spending projections for the next 5-10 years.  In doing so, we could avoid governing from crisis to crisis, and instead bring more certainty and transparency to our state’s fiscal condition at every level.”