Garden State Initiative’s president, Regina M. Egea, issued the following statement on the passage of New Jersey’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget:
“Any euphoria over the budget that has just passed will be quickly followed by excuses and apologies. This bill was presented and voted out of committee with no member even seeing it, let alone the press or public given any access.
No household or business in New Jersey has been able to increase their spending 50% in the last 6 years. Governor Murphy and our legislature, however, have done just that. They are as disconnected from New Jerseyans day to day reality as going to Mars, but they simply do not care.
Why else would officials entrusted with fiduciary responsibility for our state’s finances ignore independent analyses that project a budget shortfall between $12.5 billion to $18.5 billion beginning in the very next fiscal year but promise billions in StayNJ benefits. The bill for this shiny new object comes due two years later only when the next Governor is in office.
Let’s call this budget what it is: A fiscal calamity.”
