Amid nighttime budget hearings, some object to the process

A common joke was heard rattling around the committee rooms of the statehouse cleared budget bills for next week: “There’s nowhere else I’d rather spend my Friday night.”

The Senate and Assembly budget committees each met at 8 p.m. on Friday (in reality, a bit after that) to approve the state’s annual budget, clearing the way for a floor vote on Monday. The governor must sign the budget by July 1, or the state government shuts down. And, like every other year, legislators expressed hope that this would be the year the budget is finished efficiently, with plenty of time to spare. But, like every other year, much of the work came down to the last minute.

After days of uncertainty over when the public could read and testify on the budget deal reached this week, people involved, especially Republicans and advocates, expressed frustration when they learned it would be at 8 p.m. on a Friday.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge), the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said the Office of Legislative Services needed a full workday to finish drafting the budget bill. Sarlo said legislative leaders, who had already started Thursday budget hearings before announcing Friday work was necessary, wanted to schedule a hearing for when they knew a draft would be ready and settled on 8 p.m.

The Senate Budget Committee recessed on Thursday night instead of adjourning and scheduling a separate hearing. When the committee met at 8 p.m. on Friday, it was technically a continuation of Thursday’s hearing. That move allowed senators who could not attend Friday to leave votes on Thursday night without having to show up on Friday. That includes votes on the budget bill, even though the budget did not publicly exist when senators left their votes on Thursday night. One such senator was Sarlo himself; Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz instead chaired the committee on Friday.

The Senate committee finished its votes at about 10 p.m. on Friday. The Assembly stayed even later, wrapping at 11:21 p.m.

State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Little Silver), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, criticized the affair at the close of Thursday’s hearing, which lasted about six hours (including a handful of breaks) and concluded before the consideration of the budget.

“This overall process, none of us [are] happy with,” O’Scanlon said. “If you’ve got something you want to release in the dark of night when no one’s paying attention, everybody knows you put it after 4:30 on a Friday in the summer. When is this budget going to be seen? Eight o’clock at night on a Friday.”

Sarlo defended the process, saying this is the way it’s been in Trenton. In some ways, that is the case, at least in recent years. In 2023, legislators passed a budget out of committee late at night — even though the bill was unavailable for Republicans and the public. The chairman said the public will have two days to reach out to their legislators before Monday’s vote in the full chambers.

“Tell me what’s changed from every other year, right?” Sarlo told reporters Thursday night. “The process is not perfect, but it’s a negotiated process.”

Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin (D-Newark), the chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, said she’d like to start working on the budget earlier in the process, but it’s made difficult by the fact that key income tax projections only arrive in the middle of May, leaving legislators relatively little time to sort out spending decisions.

“There’s really like a month to a month and a half of real talk,” she told reporters not long before midnight on Friday. “I personally think it should start a lot earlier. But there are a lot of people at the table, so that also makes it interesting.”

State Sen. Anthony Bucco, the Senate GOP leader, said this year’s budget process was “dangerous” and irresponsible.

“The way Trenton Democrats are running our state budget process is not just shameful, it’s the complete opposite of what good government looks like,” Bucco’s statement read. “Their rushed, opaque budget charade is exactly why New Jersey is in the fiscal mess we’ve found ourselves in. There’s no accountability, no planning, and absolutely no transparency, just last-minute deals and political favors pushed through in the dead of night when no one is looking.”

Also miffed are the advocates who trek to Trenton — and often rearranging their work schedules or personal obligations — in the hopes of influencing the budget.

“What is happening in Washington makes transparency and public engagement during this year’s budget process even more crucial,” said Maura Collinsgru, the director of policy and advocacy at New Jersey Citizen Action. “We’re disappointed and frustrated that legislators, policy experts, advocates, and the general public will have little more than 48 hours to review and comment on the proposed budget before it’s adopted on Monday. With so much at risk, New Jerseyans deserve better.”

Activists expressed similar anger last week, when legislators scheduled a highly anticipated hearing on a bill to implement a controversial definition of anti-Semitism, only to announce at the last minute that a vote would not be held on the bill. 

Sarlo said on Thursday that he would be open to reforming the budget process so certain parts of negotiations are mandated to be completed sooner in the year, but he said the current process doesn’t incentivize early negotiations.

“Listen, I’d be open to any suggestions, because my life becomes very difficult at the end because I’m the one who’s trying to put it all together,” Sarlo said.