Elizabeth Maher Muoio

New Jersey’s long-term debt ballooned by more than $44 billion in the 2021 fiscal year.

The tax filing deadline was Monday – but people who neglected to claim their child tax credit or earned income tax credit can still file amended or late returns to get the money for which they’re eligible.

Cost-of-living adjustments were suspended in 2011 and won't return for many years, even with full contributions -- but restoring them now costs $3.6 billion.

Considering the record revenues and surplus, there was quite a bit of angst as the Assembly Budget Committee met with Gov. Phil Murphy's treasurer.

Gov. Phil Murphy proposes property tax rebates starting at $700 and growing to $1,150, including homes with incomes of up to $250,000. Renters get help, too.

Connecticut is now ranked worst by that measure for the first time since fiscal 2013, back when New Jersey ranked third from the bottom, also better off than Illinois.

The gas tax is adjusted each year, depending on recent collections and a forecast for the year ahead. Last year's 9.3-cent hike is being mostly reversed.

State revenues are now expected to surge to all-time highs, far exceeding any previous forecasts, staking the state government to an unprecedented surplus topping $10 billion to close out the current fiscal year this month.

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.

NJ’s budget is balanced in part through nearly $4.3B from emergency borrowing authorized in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but a nonpartisan budget analyst says it’s now clear that wasn’t necessary.