SENATE GOP BUDGET MEMBERS RELEASE LETTER TO GOVERNOR URGING HER TO EMBRACE SPECIFIC, LONG-IGNORED BUDGET SAVINGS IDEAS

March 02, 2026

Today, Senate Republican Budget members, Budget Officer Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth), Senator Michael Testa (R-Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland), Senator Doug Steinhardt (R-Hunterdon, Somerset, Warren), and Senator Carmen Amato, Jr. (R-Ocean) released the letter they sent to Governor Sherrill on February 13, encouraging her to embrace dozens and dozens of reforms, restraints, and creative non-tax revenue ideas that the Murphy Administration dismissed or ignored.

An excerpt from the letter reads:

“These eleven proposals won’t fully fix the $4 billion budget imbalance left to you by the outgoing Administration, but they will make a substantial dent. We may have spirited and respectful disagreements about how to address the rest of the problem. But we shouldn’t be fighting about proposals that the overwhelming majority of overburdened taxpayers expect before accepting more difficult choices.”

Below are summaries of just some of the budget savings that have been ignored:

1.) CANCEL $400 MILLION OF OLD PORK BALANCES AND/OR RESPONSIBLY MANAGE GRANTS THAT MOVE FORWARD.

• Freeze and review $400 million of balances sitting in State accounts from hundreds of pork line items that were never explained in violation of rules governing the State budget adoption.  Propose repurposing grants that remain unexplained by sponsors and put in place sound oversight of any grants allowed to move forward to protect against waste, fraud, and abuse.

2.) ELIMINATE ALL UNJUSTIFIED SPECIAL GRANTS TO COUNTIES, SCHOOLS, MUNICIPALITIES, AND NONPROFITS FROM THE PROPOSED BUDGET EXCEPT IN RARE CASES WHERE A STRONG PUBLIC JUSTIFICATION IS PROVIDED.

• Governor Murphy was the first Governor of either party to propose special pork barrel line-items in the Governor’s proposed budget.  The Governor should be advocating for State-wide fairness where funds are disbursed based on reasonable formulas or open/competitive grant programs. Governor Sherrill needs to lead by example, or she will encourage a feeding frenzy of pork spending which has ballooned in recent years to include a French art museum, tiki bar, stadium luxury box, and worse.

3.) REFINE AND IMPLEMENT PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS’ AND OTHER PEOPLES’ PROPOSALS TO CONTROL PUBLIC EMPLOYEE HEALTH INSURANCE COSTS.  

• Consider proposals from public employee unions and others who have suggested—to deaf ears—ways to control public employee and retiree health insurance costs.  Proposals have included: capping payments at reasonable rates to protect against price-gouging and proposals to make greater use of third-party claims auditing.  Their proposals should be refined and implemented.

4.)  REDIRECT SOME OF THE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF STATE CASH CURRENTLY LOANED TO THE US GOVERNMENT AT LOW INTEREST RATES TO NJ MUNICIPALITIES INSTEAD, GETTING BETTER INVESTMENT RETURNS FOR THE STATE BUDGET AND HELPING LOCAL GOVERNMENTS BY LOWERING THEIR BORROWING COSTS.

• When the New Jersey Division of Investments makes short-term investments, they routinely lend money to the US Government at very low interest rates.  They won’t loan money to New Jersey municipalities which can sometimes pay as much as three or four times the interest rate paid by the US Government.  We should offer to lend money to NJ municipalities at interest rates that get our State budget more investment revenues AND at rates that get savings for municipalities.  Embracing this proposal is a win/win for the State budget and local property taxpayers.  The only reason it hasn’t been done—in even modest amounts—is due to the bureaucracy not wanting to exert the time and energy necessary to offer local borrowing loans at competitive rates.

5.) END SPECIAL KID-GLOVE STATE TAXPAYER BAILOUTS FOR NEWARK, AND DON’T PROVIDE NEW CASH BAILOUTS TO OTHER PLACES WITH SELF-INFLICTED FINANCIAL PROBLEMS.

• The Murphy Administration gave more than $50 million to Newark over the past two years to bail out budgets their Mayor and Council wouldn’t balance themselves.  No application, no conditions on aid receipt, and no ongoing oversight was required to protect against waste—all required of the other municipalities seeking special help.  Newark’s problems are largely self-inflicted due to unchecked spending. Jersey City’s new mayor is now asking for a State bailout because of willful recklessness by the previous Mayor and certain council members. If aid it is to be given at all, it should be based on applications, restraints, and ongoing State oversight, the same requirement applied to every other municipality.

You can read the full letter here.