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Assemblyman Alex Sauickie

By the time this is published, the Legislature will be on its traditional “budget break.” This means that most, if not all, other legislative activity pauses while the budget committees hold hearings on the governor’s budget proposal.

The question is whether, at the end of the process, taxpayers will get a break. Color me pessimistic.

As the state’s newest assemblyman, this is my first trip through the state budgeting process. It works like this:

First, the governor proposes a budget. This is traditionally done in conjunction with a speech to a joint legislative session. Gov. Murphy gave his at the end of February. Following that, official documents with details of the governor’s budget plan are released.

Then the budget committees of the Assembly and Senate hold hearings, usually starting with open public hearings for public comment and then proceeding to “departmental hearings,” when representatives of each state department go before the committees to present their parts of the budget proposal and answer lawmakers’ questions.

What happens next diverges into the official and the probable. Officially, the committees huddle with their own members and with each other, and consider all the testimony. They also receive and consider “budget resolutions” from legislators asking for specific changes to the budget proposal. Then they produce a budget bill based on the governor’s proposal but with changes the committees deem necessary or desirable.

But I suspect there’s a high probability of horse trading in closed rooms. My colleagues who were around for the last state budget season tell me that last year, $1.7 billion – yes, with a “b” – was added to the governor’s already high-spending proposal at the end of the process. I’m told a total of $3.5 billion was spent on pork over the previous three years.

There are things in the governor’s proposal that many in both parties can support. These include some tax breaks that will help people in specific circumstances and funding for a new State Police training facility.

But unfortunately, there will be plenty of votes against the final budget if it’s anything close to the current proposal. Simply put, despite the bits of tax relief noted above, the proposed budget is brutal for taxpayers, especially property tax payers. As part of that, it once again slashes aid to area schools, endangering school programs and jobs while passing more of the burden onto property tax payers.

I’ll save further comments on school aid for later, but this I have to address now because it’s so outrageous. The Jackson school district tells me it needs $11 million to avoid very serious consequences for its schools, but instead the proposed budget would cut $6.2 million on top of several years of cuts adding up to about $20 million. At the same time, the proposed state budget would spend $12 million to help build a French arts museum in Jersey City. That’s entirely unacceptable.

It gets worse for taxpayers. While a healthy surplus is always good for any budget, the $10 billion surplus in this proposed $53 billion budget is a sure sign that the state is collecting and keeping way too much in taxpayer money. A good portion should be used to fund critical needs such as education, or returned to taxpayers as property tax relief.

Further, in the face of health benefits costs for local governments skyrocketing by almost 23%, this proposal would cut nearly $70 million in municipal aid. The proposed budget includes a fraction of the money needed to offset those higher costs, but strangely it wouldn’t be available in time to help property tax payers.

The average property tax bill hit a record $9,490 for 2022. It’s no wonder New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the country when the proposed budget has no comprehensive property tax reform, slashes school aid, cuts municipal aid, and leaves local governments to deal with huge health benefit costs on their own.

There’s also no proposal to deal with historic inflation and how it can push people into higher state income tax brackets, even when their take-home pay is worth less. I sponsor legislation that would index tax brackets for inflation to solve that problem.

Unfortunately, when it comes to expectations for the final budget the old saying applies: hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Alex Sauickie is a life-long Jackson resident who represents his home town and 13 other towns in the State Assembly.

Bill Will Appropriate Over $100 Million In School Funding

every student deserves, this supplemental funding will support districts in adjusting to changes in aid under our state’s school funding formula.

TRENTON – Governor Phil Murphy announced a bill in partnership with the Legislature to offer additional funding to school districts that will see a reduction in school aid from the State in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget as a result of the S-2 funding formula. The legislation – sponsored by Senator Vin Gopal, Senator Andrew Zwicker, and Assemblyman Roy Freiman – will make over $100 million available to eligible districts.

“My Administration remains committed to providing New Jersey students with a world-class education, which is why we continue to dedicate historic levels of aid for our schools in each year’s budget,” said Governor Murphy. “As we work towards ensuring equitable access to the high-quality education

I thank our legislative partners for their collaboration in reaching this agreement on behalf of educators, students, and their communities in the upcoming school year.”

“I thank Governor Murphy for being consistently responsive to situations of each New Jersey local educational agency,” said Dr. Angelica Allen-McMillan, Acting Commissioner of Education. “As we continue to navigate the impact of our school funding structure, and in light of unique circumstances, the over $100 million in supplemental funding will provide an additional layer of stability this year, and continues to demonstrate the administration’s responsiveness to every New Jersey student.”

“Our schools have come under tremendous pressures over the past three years due to the pandemic, ranging from uncertainty about resources, learning recovery and a growing teacher shortage. Now is not the time for more uncertainty, nor the time for districts to be asked to do with less at the precise moment they are trying to recover some sense of normalcy,” said Senator Gopal. “This restoration of funding will ease some of those pressures, smooth out remaining transitions, and help districts set course on a bolder, brighter future.”

“As we continue to increase funding for New Jersey’s outstanding public schools, unfortunately, some districts saw a reduction in State aid,” said Senator Zwicker. “These cuts would have been devastating to our schools, and I am grateful that we were able to come up with a solution to ensure the quality of education of all New Jersey students is not compromised.”

“There is nothing more important to invest in than our children’s future.

The families who live in New Jersey deserve the best public schools in the country, and with this investment, we will continue that commitment to the people who live here. After all of the disruption to learning through the pandemic, the last thing we need is for families to worry about teachers being laid off or services being cut,” said Assemblyman Freiman. “While in office, I have fought for sound, responsible budget policies, and they’re paying off - we now have the ability to deliver quality services to New Jersey families and focus on lowering property taxes. This legislation represents that commitment, and I am proud to sponsor it.”

The bill (S-3732) allows school districts that will see a reduction in school aid in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget to request an additional amount of aid equal to 66 percent of the difference between the amount they received in the 2022-2023 school year and the amount of aid currently proposed for the 2023-2024 school year. All eligible districts that submit a request to the Commissioner of Education will receive this additional funding, and must include a written plan indicating how they intend to fund operations in future years when this aid is no longer available.