New Jersey’s Budget Mess Is Getting Even Worse

Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy's approval is starting to slip...

Bloomberg News reports:

Governor Phil Murphy, stung by his own party’s cutthroat politics, led New Jersey to the brink of a shutdown last year when fellow Democrats blocked his tax increases. This time, budget negotiations are fraught with even deeper fiscal and political peril.

Income-tax collections, the state’s biggest revenue source, were down 6 percent this fiscal year through January, and S&P Global Ratings says even an April windfall may not close the gap. At risk is Murphy’s promised $3.2 billion payment, a record, to a pension system that’s among the worst-funded among U.S. states. He also has yet to resolve funding issues for New Jersey Transit.

At the same time, 80 of 120 state lawmakers face November elections. Democrats likely will be reluctant to dip into voters’ wallets with Murphy’s disapproval rating on the rise, residents’ sourness on the state at an all-time high, and their perennial cost-of-living gripes magnified by a new cap on state and local tax deductions. The combination could undercut the party’s gains from the 2018 national election, which handed control of the House of Representatives to Democrats and unseated all but one New Jersey Republican.

“They support tax increases at great risk to their political careers,” said Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat from West Deptford who led the blockade of a millionaire’s tax and some other Murphy initiatives last year. “This state could easily go back to the Republican Party if we don’t pay attention and focus on fiscal health."

...

Murphy’s wider base of support, though, is at risk. With his approval at 43 percent, steady from a year earlier, disapproval jumped 12 percentage points to 40 percent, according to a Monmouth University poll of 604 adults from Feb. 8-10 that had an error margin of 4 points.

Just half of residents said New Jersey is a good place to live, a record low in almost 40 years of Monmouth polling on the issue. Property taxes are seen as the most urgent issue in a state where the average such bill hit a record $8,876 in 2018.

1 year, 10 months ago

Governors in Iowa, North Dakota and Alabama join GOP colleagues in banning TikTok for state employees

The Republican governors of three more states have joined the growing number of GOP governors who are banning TikTok among state government employees amid security concerns about the Chinese-owned social media platform

1 year, 10 months ago

Arizona Governor Creates Shipping Container Border Wall

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has had hundreds of double-stacked shipping containers topped with razor wire placed on the state’s border with Mexico

1 year, 11 months ago

Stacey Abrams’s Georgia Nonprofit Could Face Criminal Investigations for Unlicensed Fundraising

New Georgia Project's charity license has lapsed in at least nine states

1 year, 11 months ago

Biden says ‘more important things’ than border visit, despite 59 trips to Delaware, 8 stops for ice cream

Biden has yet to visit southern border despite historic crisis under his watch

1 year, 11 months ago

Governor Kristi Noem delivers annual Budget Address, says the state can afford grocery tax cut

In about thirty minutes of remarks, Governor Kristi Noem laid out her administration would like to see nearly $2.2 billion spent over the course of the next fiscal year and a half.

1 year, 11 months ago

‘A Clear And Present Danger To Its Users:’ South Carolina Gov. Bans State Employees From Using TikTok Amid National Security Concerns

South Carolina became the second state in the union Monday to permanently ban state employees’ electronic devices from using TikTok amid federal officials sounding the alarm that the Chinese-based social media app threatens national security