Legislators likely to pass flawed budget tomorrow, return for fixes later

Confronted with a problem-ridden state budget document and a limited set of options, the leaders of the New Jersey Legislature are expected to hold a vote on a flawed budget bill tomorrow and repair it later through a combination of legislative fixes and line-item vetoes from the governor, the New Jersey Globe has learned.

That plan likely averts the possibility of a state government shutdown, which would happen if a budget isn’t approved by tomorrow at midnight. But it means that legislators will be asked to vote on a budget that they know has issues, and that the public has had no ability to review.

It’s also still in flux. If there’s anything to be learned about the budget process from this week’s proceedings, it’s that disaster is always just around the corner.

There remains no major dispute among Democrats over the actual contents of the budget. Gov. Phil Murphy and the leaders of the Senate and Assembly reached a deal on Monday morning, and there’s been no deterioration since then.

Instead, the problems have been procedural, with the Office of Legislative Services (OLS) struggling to put together the massive budget document and account for the various changes Democrats were requesting. Yesterday, OLS’s system completely broke down, forcing staffers to check the budget’s math by hand.

That led to the harried situation last night, in which the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Assembly Budget Committee both approved a budget that they didn’t have in front of them – over the objections of Republican legislators, who warned that the budget scoresheet possibly contained substantial errors.

The vote happened in both chambers less than an hour before midnight, an important procedural deadline. The State Constitution requires that one calendar day elapse between a committee hearing and a floor vote on a bill unless three-quarters of legislators approve an emergency, something Republicans would likely scuttle.

Democrats are apparently looking into the possibility of interpreting the rules differently such that they can approve amendments tomorrow and hold a vote shortly afterwards.

Another option, approving fixes to the budget in a last-minute committee meeting today and holding a vote in the very early hours of Saturday morning, has been taken off the table, in part because the fixes simply aren’t ready yet.

As of now, the likeliest option is to pass the current budget document, warts and all, in session tomorrow and return for fixes later. It’s not clear when that “later” would be, however; it may depend in part on when Senate President Nick Scutari (D-Linden) and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Woodbridge) can wrangle enough Democrats away from their vacations to return to the statehouse over the summer.

Democratic assemblymembers are still being told to come in tomorrow for a caucus meeting at 9:30 a.m. and a full voting session at 10:30 a.m., as was originally scheduled. It’s not yet clear what the Senate schedule will be, but the legislative website lists a Senate voting session starting at 2 p.m.

In addition to the budget, there are a number of other matters the legislature will attend to tomorrow, including the StayNJ property tax relief program, the nomination of Michael Noriega to the New Jersey Supreme Court, and several major bills that are being pushed through as the spring session ends.