NJPP has long asserted that fiscal responsibility and strong investments in families and communities can go hand in hand. This budget takes critical steps to make that a reality by expanding revenues by closing tax loopholes that benefit wealthy corporations and individuals, and by continuing to put more money back into family pockets and into infrastructure, such as New Jersey Transit. For those reasons, NJPP supports this bill and encourages the committee to vote in favor.
But the budget bill must signal a broader shift away from austerity and towards a state that uses its wealth to support all its residents, while appropriately taxing the billion-dollar corporations and wealthy individuals who profit off of it.
There remain serious challenges that require solutions:
- The state’s revenues are not keeping pace with expenditures, threatening key programs such as health care funding, school and municipal budgets, and basic supports for working families. Closing the structural deficit will require a closer look at big spending items such as corporate tax credits and property tax credits, while increasing revenues.
- Wealthy individuals and large corporations have continued growing wealth at a record pace, including tax cuts at the federal level, while their contributions to New Jersey revenues have stagnated. A more effective strategy for addressing high-wealth tax avoidance will be necessary to ensure the state has the resources it needs.
- Short-term thinking continues to shortchange long-term investments, including raids in the Clean Energy Fund and Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to pay for transit operations and utility assistance, as well as failing to increase Work First New Jersey benefits for very-low-income New Jerseyans trying to keep pace with high costs.
At its core, this budget heads in the right direction, raising revenues and reducing costs. But the next steps towards a responsible budget will likely be more challenging. Making New Jersey affordable for all will require bold decisions on the part of policymakers and elected officials.
The state has enough resources to help ensure no child goes hungry and no family is forced to choose between rent and health care. This budget bill takes the state one step closer, with many more steps to go.
