Governor Mikie Sherrill signed New Jersey’s new state budget late Tuesday, putting a record $60.7 billion spending plan into law just before the state’s midnight constitutional deadline, her office said. It is the first budget of her term, and she cast it as a plan built around one idea: making the state more affordable for the people who live there.

The budget totals about $60.743 billion, the largest in New Jersey history, and took effect Wednesday, July 1. Sherrill said the plan holds down costs for families without raising taxes on individual residents, pointing to housing, health care and property taxes as the pressures she wanted to ease.

For most households, the piece that matters most is property tax relief. The budget sets aside more than $4.1 billion for it — the biggest such commitment the state has ever made. That includes roughly $2.19 billion for the ANCHOR rebate program, $345 million for Senior Freeze, and $756 million for Stay NJ, the newer program aimed at helping seniors stay in their homes.

Families with children also get a bump. The budget raises New Jersey’s Child Tax Credit by 25% for three tax years, so a household that received the top credit of $1,000 will now get $1,250. Commuters benefit too: the plan puts nearly $1.1 billion toward NJ Transit operations, an increase of $235 million, or about 28%, and directs $12.4 billion to public schools.

Sherrill also used the budget to show fiscal restraint. It includes a full $7.3 billion pension payment — the sixth year in a row the state has paid its full share, and, her office said, the first time in decades a governor has fully funded the system in a first year. The plan keeps a surplus of just over $6 billion and cuts the state’s structural deficit to about $1.35 billion, down from more than $3 billion when she took office in January.

How to pay for all of it is where the fight is. Much of the new revenue comes from businesses. The budget counts on $4.82 billion from the Business Alternative Income Tax, $4.08 billion from the Corporation Business Tax, and $814 million from the Corporate Transit Fee charged to the state’s largest companies. It also adds a new assessment requiring employers to ask workers whether they or family members are on Medicaid.

Business leaders objected fast. Michele Siekerka, president and CEO of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, said the state’s employers are “still under attack,” noting that nearly all of the budget’s revenue-raisers land on business in a state that already ranks among the worst in the nation for business taxes. Siekerka did credit the plan for funding the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program and for money tied to Sherrill’s push to cut red tape for companies.

Republicans said the budget spends too much and breaks a campaign promise. State Senator Michael Testa said it spends more taxpayer money than ever while asking families to accept the same broken promises. Assemblyman Mike Inganamort said Sherrill vowed as a candidate not to raise taxes, and argued this budget does. The spending bill passed the Assembly 58-20 and the Senate 26-14, with a single Republican crossing over in each chamber.

Some of the sharpest criticism was about process. Alongside the main plan, lawmakers approved a separate $358.8 million supplemental bill in the final hours — its largest single piece a low-interest loan of about $105 million to help Jersey City close a large hole in its own budget. Sherrill had campaigned against exactly these kinds of last-minute add-ons, and good-government groups said the closed-door process fell short of the transparency she promised.

The senior program drew complaints too. To keep Stay NJ affordable, the state lowered income limits and trimmed benefits for higher-earning retirees, dropping the program’s cost from about $1.2 billion to roughly $742 million. Chris Widelo of AARP New Jersey said the final plan fell short of what seniors had been counting on, though earlier pushback is credited with softening deeper cuts Sherrill first proposed.

Now the work shifts to delivery. State Treasurer Aaron Binder said the plan keeps New Jersey on disciplined footing while protecting schools and pensions. Residents will start to feel the effects over the coming months as rebate checks, credits and program changes take hold — and as the state watches Washington, where officials warn that federal funding cuts could force harder choices in next year’s budget.

JBizNews Desk | New Jersey
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