New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy says he’s optimistic an agreement on a new state budget can be reached by the June 30th deadline even though he and lawmakers disagree on how to pay for it.
Murphy says he’s in deep discussions with legislative leaders and they’re committed to delivering a budget on time.
“I think the discussions have been constructive and they continue to be. They’re farther along on the investment side. But that doesn’t mean that the discussions on the revenue side are not constructive even though they may not be as farther along.”
Murphy says they’re close to an agreement on school funding.
The Governor has proposed raising the sales tax back to seven percent and increasing taxes on income over a million dollars to raise additional revenue for his budget priorities
“If someone has some good ideas that we’ve missed, we’re open minded to it. We haven’t seen yet and alternative to the sustainable sources that we’ve put forward.”
Senate President Steve Sweeney proposed a three percent corporate tax surcharge on companies with net income over a million dollars, but Murphy says that would only be for two years instead of a long-term funding plan.