Craig Coughlin

Homestead benefits will be updated so they are finally calculated on more recent property tax information, under a state budget agreement announced Monday.

Assemblyman Hal Wirths called the bill “a charade” and was among a long line of Republicans who criticized the process for considering it, which skipped committee hearings where the public could have its say.

Public outcry derailed legislative attempts to extend Gov. Murphy's sweeping pandemic powers last month, so legislative leaders are banning the public from having any say on the matter when it comes up for a vote later today.

After just over a year and a half without a tax incentive program, a modified economic plan first pitched by Gov. Phil Murphy in 2018 is in place.

Vote-by-mail will remain an option, as it was before the pandemic, but in-person voting, including early machine voting, is preferred for 2021.

At a Hillsborough brewery, elected officials detailed plans for spending $100 million in federal CARES Act funds.

New Jersey business leaders say they were not consulted on a state budget they say will cost New Jersey jobs and result in more businesses closing.

In the end, it took a worldwide pandemic – plus a plan for $500 checks to middle-class families in an election year – to get a millionaires tax back on the books in New Jersey.

The deadline to enact a balanced spending plan is in five weeks, suggesting a period of intense negotiations and hearings are on Trenton's horizon.

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin has introduced a bill to extend school districts' liability insurance coverage for graduating high school seniors for one additional month, through July 31.