Gov. Phil Murphy delivered his Fiscal Year 2023 Budget address today before a joint session of the Senate and Assembly – the first such event to be held in-person since the Covid pandemic began – in which he highlighted fiscal responsibility and affordability and steered clear of many of the state’s most controversial topics.
“This budget is rooted in a renewed commitment to moving our state forward, creating opportunity for every family, and making our state more affordable,” Murphy said. “Moreover, this budget directly takes on the most stubborn affordability challenge that has faced our state for decades – property taxes.”
The governor noted that the state recorded its first Covid case just a week after he gave his 2020 budget address, and is only now beginning the process of finding a sustainable post-pandemic reality.
“Not that anyone counted, but the last time I stood here was 743 days ago,” Murphy said. “It has been, without any doubt, a long and hard two years. Today we are back in this Chamber. But more importantly, New Jersey is getting back to normal.”
The cornerstone of the address was Murphy’s proposal for the Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters – or ANCHOR – Property Tax Relief Program, which Murphy said will provide property tax relief for 1.8 million households around the state via a $1.5 billion investment.
Murphy also proposed a $300 million Affordable Housing Protection Fund, money that will go towards constructing affordable housing projects that have been greenlit but not yet built.
“This budget attacks two of New Jersey’s most difficult and intractable problems – property taxes and affordable housing,” he said. “We are changing our state for the better over the long-term. We are changing New Jersey to work for every family.”
But the governor emphasized that these programs would not come at the cost of an imbalanced budget; the budget’s total appropriations total $48.9 billion, making for a projected surplus of $4.2 billion. That total, Murphy said, includes a full pension payment of $6.8 billion, $9.9 billion for K-12 public education, and New Jersey Transit funding that staves off fare raises for the fifth consecutive year. The school funding covers $430 million for school construction and renovation and an additional $70 million towards the creation of 3,000 new pre-K seats.
And Murphy said that he intends to keep his promise not to raise any taxes, made in the midst of last year’s gubernatorial campaign, and cut an additional $60 million in fees.
“I pledged that I would not raise taxes,” he said. “And I am proud to keep that promise.”
Much of today’s speech was focused on accomplishments Murphy has already made – accomplishments that devoured much of the governor’s first term and caused significant strife with the legislature.
In 2018, for example, Murphy’s budget included a millionaire’s tax, a highly controversial proposal that ended up nearly shutting the state down after the governor could not come to an agreement with the state legislature. Murphy finally succeeded in getting the tax passed in 2020, and used his speech today to laud the bill’s success and say the arguments against it have been “debunked.”
For the most part, Republicans reacted coolly to the address; even relatively straightforward positive news, such as Moody’s upgrading the state’s credit score last week, received little applause from the Republican side of the chamber.
In a press conference after the address, Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio said the budget proposal was “less bad” than in previous years, but he and his fellow Republicans still blasted many of Murphy’s plans.
“This was the time to have fiscal reform,” Assembly Republican Budget Officer Hal Wirths (R-Wantage) said. “We are still spending more money than we’re taking in. How many households do that? How many businesses do that? Not too many for too long.”
State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Little Silver), Wirths’ counterpart in the Senate, said that Republican proposals would be better at putting the state on a trajectory towards fiscal responsibility.
“It’s wonderful that we’re flush with cash,” O’Scanlon said. “The real question is, what are we going to do with it? How sustainable is it? And what path should we follow moving forward? I would argue that the Republican plan, and the Republican projections, have been much closer to reality and more fiscally sustainable.”
In the conclusion to his address, Murphy borrowed a key theme from his inauguration speech: the New Jersey Dream.
“For whom are we making New Jersey more affordable?” he asked. “Who needs more opportunity? Who needs obstacles knocked down? To me, and in this budget, the answer is clear. It’s everyone looking for their opportunity to live their American Dream, whatever that dream is.”
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