Democrats Move Compromise Budget Despite Revenue Concerns

By Mark J. Magyar (courtesy of NJ Spotlight)

Despite reservations about Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff’s revenue projections, the Senate and Assembly budget committees Thursday approved the $32.9 billion budget compromise hammered out by Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic legislative leaders in a week of closed-door negotiations.

As expected, the final budget bill was little changed from the spending plan Christie laid out four months ago: The governor agreed on just $97 million in spending increases, including $35 million to cover the cost of the merger of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and Rutgers University and $20 million for cancer research at the state’s reorganized medical schools.

“Nobody should be overly excited or thrilled over this budget,” said Senate Budget Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen). “We would have liked to have been able to add funding for women’s health clinics, for the Earned Income Tax Credit -- which Ronald Reagan called the best program for the working poor -- and more money for schools, but this budget is the best we could get.”

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, the Assembly Republican budget offer, said Christie and the GOP would have liked to have included an income tax cut based on property taxes, but “the governor didn’t insist upon it because he didn’t want it to be a sticking point in the negotiations.” O’Scanlon praised the budget as a “responsible, fully balanced budget.”

As Republican legislators noted, the spending increases were offset by $97 million in anticipated savings in the state’s Medicaid and employee health benefits programs created partly by the implementation of the federal administration’s Affordable Care Act, but that wasn’t what worried Democratic budget experts.

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