New Year’s Resolutions In June, Part 1 Capitol Comments

Assemblyman Alex Sauickie

About two months ago, I wrote in these pages about the governor’s state budget proposal and how the budget process works in the Legislature. As we head into the final weeks of “budget season” in Trenton, I’d like to remind you of the process and tell you how I’m using it to help area residents and people across our state.

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.

Next, legislators submit “budget resolutions” to the respective committees asking for specific changes to the budget proposal. After this, the committees produce a budget bill based on the governor’s proposal but with changes the committees deem necessary or desirable.

These budget resolutions allow individual legislators, like me, to make direct requests for budget changes that we think will best serve our constituents and the state. The state budget is normally adopted in late June because the state operates on a fiscal year that begins July 1st.

So, for this upcoming new budget year, I filed some resolutions to change a few of the governor’s budget priorities in favor of what I think is better for my constituents. In a way, they’re kind of “new year’s resolutions,” only they’re about you, not me.

As a reminder, I didn’t plan to rely only on these resolutions. I testified before the Assembly Budget Committee on school aid and the serious harm the governor’s proposed budget would do to Ocean and Monmouth county schools in particular. I also sent a letter to Governor Murphy and to budget committee leaders on the subject.

I’ll say more later about school aid. Having just honored our fallen military members on Memorial Day, I thought this first entry in a planned series on my budget requests should focus on veterans.

I’ve welcomed veterans into my office to discuss problems they run into, large and small. One that I’ve heard about is the simple need to ensure veterans