Senate President Sweeney defended the Legislature’s budget proposal – now on Governor Murphy’s desk – in two interviews with News12’s Eric Landskroner on Power and Politics and NJTV’s Michael Aron on ‘On The Record’.

Sweeney told Landskroner that “we’re always willing to talk.  We’ve met with them, they haven’t met with us.  We’ve called for meetings, they haven’t.  And when we go to meetings, they offer nothing.  And that’s the problem we have right now.  We were hopeful Thursday that we could get somewhere, when we couldn’t, we said you know he’s not being real, and honestly they’re not being honest with us, so we just passed our budget.”

Governor Murphy wrote an op-ed in the Sunday edition of the Bergen Record, saying of the Legislature that ‘their approach isn’t new to New Jersey, but it is dangerous’, calling it the ‘politics of decline’.  He wrote ‘I have made it clear to Legislative leaders that I remain open to any sustainable and realistic new revenue ideas, but have yet to be presented with any.’  He ended with ‘the days of making up rosy numbers and of Trenton’s insider games that put politics over people, rather than using real numbers to make a real and responsible budget, must end as well.’  Read his op-ed here.

Watch Sweeney’s Power and Politics appearance here.

Watch Sweeney’s On The Record appearance here.