state budget

State tax revenues increased by nearly 17% compared to a year earlier in the period that makes up the 2021 fiscal year, the Department of the Treasury said Friday.

New Jersey's bonded debt is approaching $50B, including the $3.7B the state borrowed in November when it thought COVID would wreck its revenues.

Lawmakers meet this afternoon to begin approval of New Jersey’s 2022 state budget, with the intention of getting it to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk Thursday.

Sen. Michael Testa said that in addition to the federal aid, the state has to decide how to spend $4.3B from COVID emergency borrowing that wasn’t truly necessary and can’t be repaid early because of the way the debt was structured.

After being told repeatedly there's no money for their cause, advocates for COVID aid to unauthorized immigrants say there's now state and federal cash to use.

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.

Lawmakers have begun advancing a plan offered by Gov. Phil Murphy in the proposed budget to expand income eligibility by $10,000 for PAAD and Senior Gold.

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 Murphy administration forecasts that it will end the current fiscal year with a combined surplus of $6.34 billion, but its 2022 spending plan uses much of that to offset spending.

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.