Murphy signs budget, takes victory lap with legislative leadership

Gov. Phil Murphy signed New Jersey’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget into law today after both houses of state legislature passed the bill on mostly party-line votes yesterday, thus ending a process that began with the governor’s budget address in early March.

Murphy, alongside Senate President Nick Scutari (D-Linden), Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Woodbridge), State Treasurer Liz Maher Muoio, and budget committee leaders in both chambers, hailed the ultimate $50.6 billion result as a major success for New Jerseyans. 

“This is the first budget of our second term, but like the budgets of our first term, it seeks to make New Jersey an even better place for our families to call home,” Murphy said. “After all, our bumper sticker is, ‘The very best state in America to raise a family.’”

Scutari went further, repeating a line that he used yesterday when the Senate passed the budget: “This is potentially the single greatest budget in New Jersey history.”

Unlike in some previous years, when controversial proposals like a millionaires tax were at the heart of the budget debate, Murphy and the state legislature made the more straightforward goal of affordability the centerpiece of this year’s budget. The ANCHOR property tax relief program, a second full pension payment, and billions of dollars in debt defeasance were cited as examples of their focus on fiscal responsibility.

“The priorities of this budget are the priorities of our families, and at the top of that list right now is affordability,” Murphy said. “Moreover, we are tackling the number one issue which our middle-class families and seniors have told us again and again mounts the greatest challenge to living in New Jersey, and that is property taxes.”

Muoio noted that this year’s budget, and especially its more than $6 billion surplus, would have been unthinkable when the Murphy administration took office in 2018.

“Who would have thought, considering the fiscal situation that we were handed four-and-a-half years ago, that … we would be looking at a record surplus, a second full pension payment, record tax relief, investments in our infrastructure, management of our state debt, and two credit rating upgrades,” Muoio said.

Nonetheless, Republicans were mostly united in their opposition, saying that the budget – the state’s largest-ever – was bloated and should have included far more direct tax rebates and breaks. Only three Republicans, all of them from the competitive 2nd district in Atlantic County, ended up voting in favor.

“Governor Murphy likes to say this budget makes New Jersey stronger, fairer and more affordable,” Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown) said in a statement released this morning. “But the budget is bigger and fatter and taxpayers are leaner and poorer.” 

Democrats hope that such opposition ends up costing Republicans in the 2023 elections, given how many different funding projects are included in the budget that most Republican legislators just voted against. And if Murphy pivots towards national politics, he may try to use it as proof that a progressive governor can still deliver tax relief.

The budget was far from the only bill passed by the legislature yesterday, and Murphy is likely to sign other major pieces of legislation in the coming days, including a set of major bills related to gun control and abortion. But with the exception of a few nominations to be heard in the Senate over the summer, Murphy’s signature today largely brings the spring legislative session to an end, and allows the summer recess to begin.