Eliana Pintor Marin

State lawmakers are approving a $50.64 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts Friday, including $2 billion to expand property tax rebates and credits and a $6 billion surplus to guard against a possible economic downturn.

NJ FamilyCare expansion could make 24,000 kids who are undocumented immigrants eligible for health insurance. The federal government wouldn't help pay for it.

With May quarterly payments in the bank, the state was able to temporarily pay down its unemployment borrowing. It won't' be fully solvent until mid-2024.

Sue Fulton, the chair and chief administrator of the MVC, said 35% to 40% of employees remain absent from work on any given day – better than the 55% at the height of COVID, but still much higher than the 20% before the pandemic.

Lawmakers granted Gov. Phil Murphy’s request to delay his speech introducing the proposed state budget for fiscal 2023 by two weeks, from Feb. 22 to March 8.

Sweeping changes have already been approved for the seven-year, $14 billion tax incentive programs enacted in January.

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

A bill ending many of the executive orders Gov. Phil Murphy has issued during the public health emergency this summer is scheduled for approval in the full Assembly Thursday.

State officials anticipate adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the state’s revenue forecast, but the good news for the budget will have to wait a few weeks because the tax filing deadline had been delayed to Monday, a month later than usual.

The money can be used to support public health expenditures; address the economic impacts of the pandemic; replace lost public sector revenue; provide premium pay for essential workers; and invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure, among other uses.