Say There’s Been No Transparency from Democrats on Additions to Budget & Related Bills that Will Be Rushed to Enactment

The Republican members of the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee called on Governor Murphy and legislative Democrats to release the FY 2024 State Budget and explain the dozens of other bills that the Budget Committee will be called to vote upon tomorrow.

“It’s outrageous that we’re going to be asked to vote on a record spending bill tomorrow by the Democratic Majority without anyone having seen a copy of the bill yet,” said Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-23), the Republican Budget Officer. “We don’t even have an outline of the plan to help us understand the billions of dollars of changes they are proposing. This is no way to run a government.”

The Legislature and Governor Murphy have a constitutional deadline of June 30 to adopt a balanced budget to prevent a government shutdown starting July 1.

Democrats have not shared so much as an outline of their budget bill that must be adopted within the next four days even though it is expected to differ significantly from Governor Murphy’s original budget proposal. They issued a Senate Budget Committee agenda for tomorrow that will rush bills through the legislative process spending nearly $100 billion of taxpayer funds and giving away billions of dollars of special tax credits.

“The Governor proposed almost 100 special line items of pork in the original draft of the budget that his administration repeatedly refused to explain during budget hearings this spring and through multiple public record requests,” said Senate Republican Leader Steven Oroho (R-24). “New Jerseyans deserve to know why a favored few are getting huge budget handouts that nobody else is getting. There’s nothing fair about that.”

It is believed that despite Republican proposals to improve the budget, Democrats will advance a budget that allows five tax increases totaling $2 billion to move forward.

It also is expected to maintain cuts in aid to 160 school districts and continue hoarding billions of dollars in several slush funds controlled by a handful of Democrat leaders.

“Legislators will be asked to vote for a budget with hundreds of taxpayer-funded gifts inserted by Governor Murphy including money for a private lacrosse club, a French Arts museum in a city where school aid was slashed, and even a Dominoes Club,” said Senator Michael Testa (R-1). “There’s also an unexplained $250,000 appropriation for a privately run pool in Deal, one of the richest communities in the state, to an organization whose director is paid $300,000 a year. We asked for explanations for this funding from the Governor and legislative Democrats and got nothing. They know this spending isn’t justified or fair so they don’t even bother trying to explain it.”

It is still unknown how many special line items will be added to the budget this week and whether they will be explained in advance of the budget vote.

“If history is any guide, we are about to get a budget at the last minute with dozens or even hundreds of Christmas tree add-ons with no explanation, justification, or background,” said Senator Doug Steinhardt (R-23). “This is the exact opposite of how an open and transparent budget process is supposed to work.”

The unexplained pork already requested by Governor Murphy in his budget proposal includes:

The Republican Budget Committee members have released all of their requested budget changes, including explanations and justifications, in advance of the budget vote in accordance with Senate Rules.