Despite issues, budget vote planned for today

After one of the messier state budget processes in recent memory, the New Jersey Legislature is set to hold a vote on the flawed Fiscal Year 2024 budget today, then come back at an undetermined later time, possibly next week, to work out the issues in the bill.

Both the Assembly and the Senate have voting sessions scheduled for today, the Assembly at 10:30 a.m. and the Senate at 2 p.m. Both chambers’ board lists include the budget bill, though it’s not clear whether they’ll be able to efficiently pass the bill or whether today will be another marathon; at least in the Assembly, the latter is sounding more likely.

Gov. Phil Murphy sent out a press advisory last night indicating that he will hold a signing ceremony today, though for obvious reasons it does not yet list when it will take place. The advisory is a strong indication that the governor is determined to sign the budget before the midnight deadline tonight, after which the state government would technically shut down without a budget.

Unlike in prior years with fraught budget processes, Murphy and legislative leaders are basically in agreement about the content of the budget, and came to a formal deal early this week. But the budget has since run into severe logistical difficulties, with the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) struggling to put out the full budget in time – especially after their system crashed on Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening, less than an hour before an important procedural deadline, Democrats on the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Assembly Budget Committee both passed a budget that they didn’t actually have in front of them and that Republicans warned could have substantial problems.

It turned out that Republicans were right; the budget, and especially the budget scoresheet, had major issues. Because of legislative rules, legislators couldn’t easily make last-minute edits, and thus originated the current strategy: pass the budget today, then address its issues later via legislative fixes and line-item vetoes from the governor.

The full text of the budget was released online this morning.