NJBIA urged lawmakers on Wednesday to eliminate new tax increases in Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposed $58.1 billion budget, restore some of his counterproductive manufacturing and higher education cuts, and hold the line on unnecessary spending.
“I want to express how disappointing this budget is to the business community,” NJBIA Chief Government Affairs Officer Christopher Emigholz told the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee during a public hearing held at the New Jersey Institute of Technology on the proposed FY26 budget.
If the Legislature were to enact the governor’s proposed FY26 budget without making any changes, the state will be “chasing away customers … chasing away businesses with these higher taxes,” Emigholz said in remarks summarizing his more detailed written testimony submitted to the committee.
“I think a lot of those fees are not going to make it into the final budget,” Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee Chair Paul Sarlo (D-36) responded.
Emigholz said the business community was concerned about the unsustainable rate of state spending increases in recent budgets, the proposed $1 billion in in new and expanded taxes and fees for FY26, and specific cuts that the governor is proposing to “pro-growth” investments affecting workforce development and innovation.
Cuts to community colleges, manufacturing programs, workforce development and innovation make New Jersey less competitive and undermine organic economic growth, Emigholz said. Initiatives that spur economic growth are “really the way we get our revenues up, not by chasing them away with tax increases,” he said.
The new state budget must be enacted before the next fiscal year begins on July 1 and the budget committees from both houses of the Legislature are now holding public hearings on the governor’s proposed spending plan before passing a final budget.
Emigholz urged the legislators to refrain from adding new spending items to the final budget if they do not improve innovation, workforce development and infrastructure. In his written testimony, Emigholz noted that in Murphy’s previous seven budgets a cumulative $5.5 billion was added to the final budget after the governor’s budget message.
To read Emigholz’s written testimony to the committee, go here.
Photo caption: NJBIA Chief Government Affairs Officer Christopher Emigholz testifies at the Senate budget hearing on March 26 at NJIT. At right is Hilary Chebra, Government Affairs Director for the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey.
