New Jersey Democrats Plan to Add $1.7 Billion for Schools (NJ)
June 27, 2011
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New Jersey Democrats
plan to propose raising school spending by as much as $1.7 billion through an
alternative budget lawmakers will introduce next week and a “millionaire tax,”
Senate President Stephen Sweeney said.
The spending proposal would exceed a $29.6 billion plan from Governor Chris Christie,
a Republican, by about $900 million, George LeBlanc, chief budget analyst for
Sena te Democrats, said yesterday. Sweeney said it would raise education funding
by $1.1 billion, while a tax on incomes of $1 million or more would produce
another $550 million for schools.
Including $696 million in unspent money this year and his original $29.6
billion revenue estimate, Christie, 48, certified $30.3 billion as available
for the fiscal 2012 budget.
“That is our limit and our guidepost in developing a responsible, balanced
and constitutional state budget,” Christie said today in a statement.
“Following modest revenue estimates that are based in reality is the only
responsible course to avoid the same type of panicked, mid-year cuts that have
plagued overly optimistic budget projections in prior years.”
Last year, Christie froze $2.2 billion in spending after taking office,
saying the state’s financial picture had eroded and wouldn’t support the
obligations. He has cut about $1.3 billion in aid to local schools since taking
office in January 2010. New Jersey’s Supreme Court
last month ordered a $500 million increase in funding for schools in poor and
urban districts in the next fiscal year.
Millionaire Tax Bill
Sweeney, 52, said the proposal from Democrats may be taken up by the Senate
Budget Committee June 27. He said the plan may pass the Legislature two or
three days later. Sweeney said the millionaire tax would be contained in a
separate bill.
“It’s not theater, it’s about principles,” Sweeney, a Democrat from West
Deptford, told reporters yesterday in his office. “We’re standing up for our
principles.”
“We spent so much time on pensions and health care that the Senate and
Assembly got bogged down, ” Sweeney said, referring to a compromise agreement
with Christie to charge government workers more for pensions and benefits. The
measure passed the Senate June 20 and the Assembly last night.
Christie has said he would consider any Democratic plan to comply with the
high court directive on school funding that doesn’t raise taxes.
Veto Authority
State law lets Christie reject specific spending items he deems questionable
without killing an entire budget, through a line-item veto. The governor has
said he would reject any tax increases sent to him by the Democrat-led
legislature.
The governor has said it was up to lawmakers to comply with the court’s
school-funding decision. Sweeney’s proposal to revive a millionaire tax is
likely to meet resistance from Christie, who vetoed a similar levy last year.
“The taxpayers of this state are suffocating under the weight of what it
costs to live here,” Christie told about 600 people at a public meeting June 22
in Fair Lawn. “I’m not raising taxes on anyone. No one.”
The Legislature and Christie must meet a June 30 deadline to have a balanced
budget in place or face a government shutdown when the fiscal year begins July
1.
Lawmakers and Christie differed in May about how much revenue would increase
in fiscal 2012 from this year. The nonpartisan Legislative Services Office
predicted a $914 million jump while administration officials said $511 million.
Christie said today that state law obligates him to set revenue levels used to
determine whether a budget is balanced.
The Democrats’ spending plan also would restore funding for police in high-crime
cities, along with $7.5 million for women’s health care, which both took cuts
in Christie’s previous budget. The Democrats also would expand the
earned-income tax credit for the working poor, Sweeney said.