Credit: (Office of Governor/Tim Larsen)
State lawmakers this week are launching their formal review of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s record $60.7 billion proposed budget with a public hearing in Trenton.
The Assembly Budget Committee will convene the first hearing on the fiscal year 2027 spending plan at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the State House Annex.
Members of the public can register online to testify during the in-person hearing. The 97-page “Budget in Brief,” released by her administration last week, covers the plan’s highlights.
This week’s hearing is the first of four as lawmakers gather public input on the plan, which calls for increased spending in several key areas, including public education and mass transit, but does not call for tax increases on individuals.
The Assembly Budget Committee will convene a second public hearing at the State House Annex at 9:30 a.m. on March 25.
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee also is planning two public hearings. The first is on March 26 at 10 a.m., with an all-virtual format. The second is on March 30 at 10 a.m. at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
Registration for those is via the Legislature’s dedicated website page.
The public hearings kick off a lengthy review by the two committees of the annual budget that Sherrill, a first-term Democrat, put forward on March 10 before a joint legislative session.
Under the state constitution, the governor proposes an annual budget, and the Legislature has the authority to draft the spending bill. Sherrill’s budget message was delayed two weeks beyond a statutory deadline as lawmakers continued a bipartisan tradition of giving first-year governors extra time to prepare.
In the coming months, the legislative review also will involve public hearings with key executive-branch officials, including the state treasurer, to go over some of the governor’s specific recommendations.
That process, though, covers only the taxation and spending policies that Sherrill pitched for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Not up for review yet are the hundreds of millions of dollars in additional spending that lawmakers may seek to add. In recent years, majority Democratic legislative leaders have tacked on additions — often for pet projects — at the very end of June, leaving little to no time for meaningful public oversight.
Sherrill earmarked a record $12.4 billion for direct aid to K-12 school districts, and planned more than $4 billion for direct property tax relief.
This year, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have proposed legislation seeking to bring more transparency and deliberation to the final stages of the budget-approval process. That legislation is pending in both houses.
Sherrill has indicated that she may not entertain last-minute additions — which critics call pork or Christmas tree items — as she faces a significant structural budget imbalance. Her proposal would cut, among other line items, some planned spending on property tax relief for wealthy senior homeowners.
Her plan also calls for raising about $750 million in new revenue by tweaking corporate tax deductions and enacting other tax policies on New Jersey businesses and business owners.
On the spending side, Sherrill earmarked a record $12.4 billion for direct aid to K-12 school districts, and planned more than $4 billion for direct property tax relief.
Sherrill also budgeted $7.3 billion for the public worker pension fund, counting dedicated revenue from the state lottery. That amount would satisfy the annual employer pension obligation calculated by the state’s actuaries for the 2027 fiscal year, according to administration officials.
Sherrill is calling for overall annual spending growth of about 3% compared to the $58.8 billion budget signed by then- Gov. Phil Murphy, a fellow Democrat, for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
This story is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
