The leader of the New Jersey Senate says a new state budget will be approved by lawmakers before the June 30thdeadline.
Senate President Steve Sweeney says legislative leaders are prepared to pass their own version of a budget plan next week.
“Our plan is we’re hoping to do a budget on Tuesday and vote on Thursday. That’s our goal. No one wants to shut the state government now. I can tell you that right now.”
Sweeney says majority Democrats will include money in the budget for an array of programs for the needy and disadvantaged that Governor Murphy did not include in his spending plan.
“We never thought we’d be fighting a Democrat Governor over Democrat priorities, but these programs represent New Jersey values. If you cut them out, you change who we are as a state.”
Instead of Murphy’s proposed millionaries’ tax and an increase in the sales tax, the lawmakers’ budget plan calls for a corporate tax surcharge and a tax amnesty program to raise additional revenue.