Gov. Phil Murphy signed the Fiscal Year 2014 budget into law on Friday night – just hours before the end of FY23 – a $54.3 billion spending package that was previously advanced by the Senate and Assembly earlier in the day.
“When I first proposed this budget, I said it was a budget designed with a singular purpose – to continue building an economy where every family can afford to make their American Dream come true,” Murphy said. “Today, we are delivering on that promise.”
After considerable back and forth between Republicans and Democrats in both Houses regarding transparency of late budget updates that saw the FY24 spending plan increase by $1.2 billion more than what Murphy proposed earlier this year, the budget bill advanced largely along party lines.
Prior to the vote, the Assembly advanced a budget bill that appropriates $300 million toward a new StayNJ property tax credit program for senior citizens that would start in 2026.
The budget allows for the sunset of the temporary 2.5% CBT surcharge on the Corporation Business Tax will move forward as scheduled on Dec. 31, allowing New Jersey’s highest-in-the-nation 11.5% CBT rate to return to 9% – a major priority for NJBIA and New Jersey’s business community.
The budget fully covers obligations to public worker pension funds, with a payment of $7.1 billion, and it increases aid to public schools, and maintains budget surplus of more than $8 billion as protection against an economic downturn.
The bill also appropriates $371 million for the New Jersey Debt Defeasance and Prevention Fund, which is used to retire bonded debt and fund capital projects on a pay-as-you-go basis to avoid the need for further state borrowing.
The budget also provides $2 billion that Murphy sought to continue and fully fund the ANCHOR property tax relief program, which is only for residential homeowners and renters.
