Two Senate Republicans accused the Sherrill administration of abandoning its pledge to bring greater transparency to New Jersey’s budget process, saying negotiations over the state’s next spending plan are once again being conducted behind closed doors with just days remaining before lawmakers are expected to cast final votes.
With the June 30 constitutional budget deadline looming, major issues—including school funding—also remain unresolved.
Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Little Silver), the Senate Republican Budget Officer, and Sen. Doug Steinhardt (R-Lopatcong), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, voiced frustration over the way the budget is being negotiated by the Sherrill administration and Democratic legislative leadership.
When Gov. Mikie Sherrill delivered her budget address in February, Senate Republicans said they were willing to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt. Last week, however, Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco said that confidence had eroded, and O’Scanlon indicated that much of the caucus has now reached the same conclusion.
Still, O’Scanlon said extending that initial goodwill was the right approach.
“A new administration, a new governor, deserves leeway because we should want New Jersey to be successful, we should want the process to be reasonable, and when a new governor, whom we have no experience with, tells us it’s going to be those things,” said O’Scanlon. “Taking her on her word was the right thing to do, the classy thing to do.”
O’Scanlon argued that the administration has failed to deliver on its promises of transparency and accountability, contending that the budget process has become even less transparent for lawmakers, the press, and the public. He added that the budget bill itself may not be available in writing until Sunday.
“We now know that despite all the rhetoric by the governor and legislative leadership, the process is just as much a mess and just as non-transparent as it’s ever been, maybe worse because we may not see this budget till late Sunday and we’ll have to vote on it the very last day,” said the Monmouth County Republican.
O’Scanlon also expressed concern that lawmakers could be voting on a budget without fully knowing its contents.
“No one who votes for this budget is gonna know what’s in it, not you in the press, no legislator, and no member of the public is gonna know exactly what’s in this budget when we vote on it,” O’Scanlon noted.
He said the process could have been far more orderly had legislative leadership acted sooner.
“It would’ve been easier with a little bit of discipline and professionalism and some backbone on the part of leadership to wrestle this thing into place in a timely fashion, so we can see this thing for several weeks before we vote on it,” said O’Scanlon. “That’s as it should happen; it didn’t.”
Steinhardt also expressed disappointment that the budget appears unlikely to include meaningful changes to the current S2 school funding formula, arguing that the administration has yet to provide relief to districts adversely affected.
“I’m disappointed to learn that we’re not going to be funding schools to the level they should be,” said the senator from northwestern New Jersey. “There are districts around the state, Republican and Democrat, that suffered under S2 and suffered in the wake of it, and the administrations, as far as we can tell, are not offering any relief to those several districts.”
Steinhardt also questioned whether the administration’s plan to maintain Sherrill’s proposed $60.75 billion budget—bolstered by higher-than-expected tax revenues—is sustainable over the long term.
“They are going to hold tight to the governor’s original number, the $60.7 billion, driven in large part by higher-than-anticipated revenues, which is helpful, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily sustainable,” stated Steinhardt.
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