Topic Category: Tax and Budget

State of the State 2023: Rapid Reaction

Posted on by Sheila Reynertson

Earlier this week, Governor Phil Murphy delivered his annual State of the State address, offering a vision of New Jersey where we can raise the standard of living, strengthen our communities, and build a thriving economy. But in a speech centered on creating opportunity for all, there were few details or new proposals on how we’d get there as a state, with little mention of the lives and experiences of New Jersey families living paycheck-to-paycheck.

To make New Jersey more affordable for working-class and low-income families, the state needs ambitious investments in those who have historically been left behind in the policy-making process — by fully funding our schools, creating more affordable housing, and expanding working family tax credits — and a fair tax code that can sustainably funds such investments. New Jersey’s prosperity must be shared with the many, not hoarded by the few, especially if we want to expand opportunity for all who call the Garden State home.

Below are the rapid reactions of what was in address — and what was missing — from policy analysts Sheila Reynertson, Peter Chen, and Marleina Ubel. 

Sheila Reynertson
Senior Policy Analyst (Tax and Budget)

In his State of the State address, Governor Murphy went out of his way to distinguish New Jersey from other states that favor deep tax cuts over high-quality education and healthy communities. But make no mistake: New Jersey’s current economic success is in spite of a tax code that remains rigged in favor of uber-wealthy families and giant corporations with record-breaking profits, undermining public services that create opportunity and help communities thrive.

Similarly, Governor Murphy conflated New Jersey being a leader in new and emerging industries with his offerings of corporate tax subsidies, as though businesses would have never chosen to expand in the Garden State without them. This is simply not true. Taxes are rarely at the top of the list of reasons why businesses would choose to relocate or expand in a state. And an ever-larger body of evidence clearly demonstrates that tax subsidies have a much lower rate of return on investment than people-centered investments like affordable child care, pre-K education, and college tuition aid — the tried and true building blocks of a strong state economy.

Instead of more corporate tax cuts and credits, lawmakers should demand corporations pay what they truly owe so that New Jersey can fund programs that foster opportunity for all:

  • Stop the $600 million corporate business tax cut for New Jersey’s wealthiest corporations scheduled to take effect Jan 1, 2024.
  • Close the giant tax loopholes that multistate and multinational corporations use to shift taxable income out of state and invest those funds in programs that support working families and strong communities.


Peter Chen
Senior Policy Analyst (Children and Families)

For a speech that focused at the outset on pathways of opportunity in New Jersey, there were few new policies highlighted for kids and families.

Although there was a much-needed victory lap for more funding for schools and a state-level child tax credit, concerns facing families with children such as child care, preschool, and housing costs got little air time, even though Governor Murphy and the Legislature have made progress in those areas. Considering PK-12 schools account for nearly half the state’s annual budget, it was surprising to see education get less attention than liquor licenses and soccer.

But what are the policies that will help make a fair shot at economic success a reality for New Jersey families? A few suggestions:

  • Expand working family tax credits: The Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit both put money back in families’ pockets to help them pay for basic costs. Expanding these two programs would give families the cash they need to meet New Jersey’s high cost of living.
  • Reform cash assistance programs: WorkFirst New Jersey needs reform to help people in extreme poverty get back on their feet and stop the cycle of poverty. These reforms almost crossed the finish line once. Without a cash assistance program that focuses on ending poverty instead of punishing it, opportunity will remain an illusion.


Marleina Ubel
Policy Analyst (Criminal and Legal Systems)

The Governor spent a great deal of his speech focused on “justice,” security, and safety. Unfortunately, those words were tied to exaggerated rhetoric around car thefts, which are already declining. The Governor also touted some questionable criminal justice investments and policy priorities, like spending $10 million dollars of American Rescue Plan funds on automated license plate recognition technologies for law enforcement and allowing police to pursue stolen vehicles in high-speed chases — a reckless and, frankly, deadly policy change.

This approach to criminal justice is a theme in Trenton, unfortunately. There is also pending legislation that would ramp up the penalties for stealing a car to a second-degree crime, a change that is most likely to harm young Black and brown residents. Increasing penalties and enforcement does not work. It has never worked. “Tough on crime” approaches do not lead to security and safety, and they certainly do not advance “justice.”

Some ways to make New Jersey a more just state?

  • Eliminate public defender’s fees: Public defenders in the state of New Jersey come with a price tag, and in many municipalities, an application fee. Constitutional rights should not be behind a paywall. Residents in New York and Pennsylvania do not have to pay for public defenders and neither should the people who need them most in New Jersey.
  • Pass legislation to hold police accountable: A variety of bills have been languishing in the legislature. Black and brown New Jerseyans have been asking for policies that will make their communities safer, and these bills are among top priorities. None of them have made it to the Governor’s desk.

 

There was, however, a high point in the speech concerning harm reduction services, which do improve the safety and well-being of communities. New Jersey is going to be the first state in the nation to allow any pharmacy to provide anonymous and free Naloxone to any person, any time. This will undoubtedly save lives and is an important step in undoing the harms caused by the War on Drugs.

Opportunity for All is Not Possible With a Tax Code Rigged for the Few

Posted on by Nicole Rodriguez

Earlier today, Governor Phil Murphy delivered his annual State of the State address. In his remarks, the Governor reflected on the need to create opportunity for all New Jersey residents. In response to the address, New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) released the following statement.

Nicole Rodriguez, President, NJPP:

“Governor Murphy is right to tout new state programs and laws that give working families a shot at success, from the child tax credit to the rising minimum wage. But with one in ten families living in poverty, and many more struggling to keep up with high costs, the state cannot afford to rest on its laurels.

“Opportunity for all requires new, ambitious investments in families who have historically been left behind and need the most help. It requires fully funding our schools, increasing tax credits and safety net programs for those with the lowest incomes, along with sound tax policies to support those programs in the short- and long-term.

“The governor slammed states that hand huge tax cuts to wealthy individuals and mega-corporations, but he was silent on how his administration will make sure New Jersey doesn’t follow that same path. Some legislators are poised to hand over $600 million in tax cuts to the most profitable corporations in the country, including Amazon and Walmart, even if it threatens the fate of the opportunity-building programs the governor highlighted in his address.

“Opportunity for all will not be possible with a tax code that favors a wealthy, select few.”

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Digital Taxation Hits a Roadblock, But Alternative Route to Taxing Big Tech Shows Promise

Posted on by Sheila Reynertson

New Jersey’s economy has rapidly changed in the 21st century, but the state’s tax code has not kept up with this progress. After a failed attempt to tax high-speed stock transactions, state lawmakers have gone back to the drawing board on ways to tax staggering profits in the digital economy, starting with a study on how the blockbuster industry is currently untaxed, undertaxed, and ways to address that. While that report has yet to be released, developments in other states are starting to draw a roadmap of how these policies could work in practice.

Last month, a Maryland Circuit Court judge ruled that a first-of-its-kind digital tax law was unconstitutional. The new law, aimed at big tech firms, would have taxed revenues derived from digital advertising services at rates between 2.5 and 10 percent, depending on the annual gross revenues of the business. The tax was estimated to raise up to $250 million per year to fund K-12 education across Maryland before it was challenged in court by Verizon and Comcast.

The presiding judge said the law violates the Constitution’s prohibition on state interference with interstate commerce and the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA), which forbids discrimination against running an online business. The Maryland Comptroller, the suit’s defendant, has since recommended that the state Attorney General drop the appeal and revisit the matter in the next legislative cycle.

Tax experts largely agree — though not entirely — that the law’s fatal flaw was its vulnerability to an ITFA challenge, and that states should pursue other approaches to taxing big tech outside of digital advertising.

It’s the Data, Stupid

Wealthy corporations are getting a windfall through the free extraction and commercial use of the public’s personal data — from the products you buy online, to the emails you write, to where you spend your time, and so much more. Not only do consumers give up valuable information with no knowledge or meaningful ability to prevent it, but they also are being manipulated by the use of their data. That sort of manipulation has huge societal costs, including poor mental health, misinformation and political polarization, not to mention the swift growth of extreme concentration of political and economic power and the hollowing out of local news outlets.

A tax on the collection of big data is really a form of compensation for data mining, and state lawmakers have every right to impose one. But it must withstand legal challenges from the tech industry. While the Maryland digital advertising tax was ruled unconstitutional, New York may have found an alternative pathway: Senator Liz Kreuger has proposed a bill that would levy a tax on the collection of New York consumer data by commercial data brokers.

The new tax would be easy to administer because it would be calculated using an industry figure called “active (or unique) monthly users” as the tax base, according to this tax model. And tax policy experts say it actually addresses the real problem —  the tax-free accumulation and concentration of massive wealth drawn from big data — better than a tax on advertising would. Data collectors amassing consumer data would pay an annual tax based on the number of active monthly users. Revenue estimates of the New York proposal range from $57 million to $150 million a year, depending on the collection size threshold and tax rates.

Taxing Profits Derived From Big Data

Lawmakers should also consider a separate tax on the extreme wealth generated by big data. This additional tax would get to the heart of another major issue — massive profits made by big tech companies with a near monopoly on the digital economy. The recently enacted federal 15 percent minimum tax on “book” profits offers an enforceable measure of excess profit to build upon at the state level. However, more corporate business tax reforms (looking at you, foreign tax haven loophole) would be necessary to get the most out of this capital value tax in New Jersey.

Whether it’s data mining or the profits made from it, the concept is the same: Focus on the collection of data, not the internet. It allows policymakers to take a stand on a unique industry that is building and concentrating extreme wealth while avoiding the scrutiny of an interstate commerce court challenge. It’s time for New Jersey to rightfully tax the collection of residents’ data and for big tech to begin paying what they rightfully owe.

Less Than 1% of New Jerseyans Hold Over $746 Billion in Wealth

Posted on by NJPP Staff

A tiny fraction of New Jersey families hold a staggering amount of the state’s wealth, according to a new 50-state report by the D.C.-based research organization the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The wealth inequality highlighted by the holdings of these extremely wealthy families limits economic opportunities for everyday New Jerseyans, and both reflects and exacerbates racial inequality. Tax policy is a critical way that policymakers could start addressing this inequality, but right now federal and state tax codes barely tax extreme wealth at all, and instead often favor sources of income that are derived from wealth.

“Runaway wealth inequality is an enormous problem for New Jersey, but the good news is that we have the tools to fight it,” said Sheila Reynertson, Senior Policy Analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP). “Closing the tax loopholes that have helped build so much of this nation’s extreme wealth is a commonsense way that lawmakers in Trenton and D.C. can combat inequality and promote opportunity.”

The report defines extreme wealth as the wealth held by households with net worth over $30 million. This tiny fraction of families holds more than one in four dollars of wealth in the U.S. ITEP estimates that total extreme wealth will reach $371 billion this year in New Jersey and $26 trillion nationally.

Other key findings:

  • A nationwide tax of 2 percent on wealth over $30 million could have raised nearly $415 billion if it were in effect this year, including $9 billion from extremely wealthy New Jerseyans.
  • This tax would affect just 1 in 330 households in New Jersey, or 0.30 percent of the population. Nationally it would affect 0.25 percent of the population.
  • Ninety-two percent of extreme wealth is owned by white, non-Hispanic families.
  • A large share of New Jersey’s extreme wealth – 40 percent – is held in the form of unrealized capital gains, meaning investment income on which these families have yet to pay tax (and may never pay tax under current law). Nationally, this share is 43 percent.
  • A tax on the stock of unrealized gains in 2022 could be expected to raise between $529 billion and $3.9 trillion nationally depending on the tax rate chosen and the percentage of gains deemed to be realized. This includes between $3 billion and $54 billion from extremely wealthy New Jerseyan. The report models six different policy options for taxing unrealized gains.

 

In addition to a wealth tax or a tax on unrealized capital gains as outlined above, the report identifies other ways to strengthen the federal taxation of extremely wealthy people, including:

  • taxing increases in wealth annually as an asset grows (mark-to-market taxation)
  • taxing increases in wealth before they are passed on to heirs (ending stepped-up basis)
  • eliminating the tax preference that makes tax rates on realized capital gains lower than on income from work
  • strengthening the estate tax
  • creating an inheritance tax

 

All of these are viable policy options for lawmakers looking to curb wealth inequality.

At the state level, tax codes are already overwhelmingly regressive when it comes to income – and are even more lopsided when it comes to wealth. State lawmakers seeking to fix this imbalance in New Jersey’s tax code also have several readily available options as identified in the report, such as:

  • implementing new or increased current top income tax rates
  • raising rates on realized capital gains income
  • enacting progressive taxation of real estate wealth
  • strengthening taxation of corporate profits and
  • reinstating or enhancing estate and inheritance taxes

 

“A very small number of households hold a staggering share of nationwide wealth, and they’ve been able to grow their fortunes in part because our tax system asks very little of them,” said Carl Davis, ITEP’s research director and an author of the report. “New and strengthened taxes on extreme levels of wealth could dramatically reduce the runaway inequality we face today.”

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New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) is a nonpartisan think tank that drives policy change to advance economic, social, and racial justice through evidence-based, independent research, analysis, and strategic communications.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) is a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization that conducts rigorous analyses of tax and economic proposals and provides data-driven recommendations on how to shape equitable and sustainable tax systems. ITEP’s expertise and data uniquely enhance federal, state, and local policy debates by revealing how taxes affect both public revenues and people of various levels of income and wealth.

More Transparency Needed in American Rescue Plan Funding Process

Posted on by NJPP Staff

With only a fraction of New Jersey’s federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds remaining, a diverse coalition of labor unions, essential workers, and advocates called for more transparency in how funds are spent — and for lawmakers to provide direct relief to workers and families harmed most by the pandemic.

“If used correctly, these federal funds provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest in families and communities harmed most by the pandemic,” said Sheila Reynertson, Senior Policy Analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP). “But with more than $5 billion appropriated behind closed doors and few details available to the public, lawmakers must do a better job of providing direct relief to workers, families, and communities who need the most help, and in a transparent manner that invites public input before new spending is approved.”

Roughly 85 percent of the state’s $6.2 billion in ARP funds have already been appropriated without an opportunity for members of the public to weigh in on proposals before they’re approved. Unlike typical legislative hearings where policy experts, community members, and advocates have an opportunity to testify on proposals before they’re voted on, ARP funds have been approved either by Governor Murphy or members of the Joint Budget Oversight Committee without a chance for members of the public to provide feedback.

“We urge transparency in the State’s decision-making and allocation process for these remaining funds, and that New Jersey use these funds to bolster the financial recovery and stability of countless residents still reeling from the pandemic’s economic fallout,” said Maura Collinsgru, Director of Policy and Advocacy at New Jersey Citizen Action. “This includes $500 million for the 120,000 eviction prevention applicants who have not yet received financial assistance to remain in their homes, extending funding for families who received general or emergency assistance during the pandemic and now face termination in order to sustain their recovery, and expanding staffing and infrastructure in anticipation of the Public Health Emergency’s end so none of our 2 million residents enrolled in NJ FamilyCare are left behind. We cannot ignore now many New Jerseyans’ ongoing pandemic recovery or risk undoing much of the hard work of the last two years.”

Even after ARP funds are appropriated, the public documents detailing the approved projects often lack any meaningful description of where the funds will go. For example, lawmakers allocated $300 million worth of ARP funds to water infrastructure, but without basic details, it’s unclear which communities will benefit. Another $300 million was granted to Rutgers University, but only thanks to a reporter’s diligence did we learn that a third of it will pay for new sports facilities.

“Essential workers like me saved lives during the pandemic — we shouldn’t have to worry about how to make rent or put food on the table,” said Mariana Velasquez of Make the Road – New Jersey. “But with increasing inflation, we are struggling to survive. Our elected officials have a choice: They can ignore the issues impacting our communities, or they can use remaining federal funds to provide critical relief to essential workers through hazard pay and a permanent expansion of the safety net.”

More than $2.4 billion of ARP funds were appropriated in the latest state budget that took effect July 1. These appropriations did not include direct relief for immigrant workers, hazard pay for essential workers, rental assistance, or cash assistance for residents living in poverty who maxed out their benefits through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

“The fight for hazard pay for essential workers is one that needs to be a priority for the State of New Jersey,” said Kevin Brown, Executive Vice President and New Jersey State Director for SEIU 32BJ. “Essential workers and their families are in great need of recognition and change. They deserve fair compensation for providing a safe and reliable environment for commercial tenants and apartment residents while putting themselves, their coworkers, and their families at enormous risk. Hazard pay for essential workers is a crucial step towards equity and fairness in the Garden State, and these issues need to be discussed openly and with transparency.”

“The American Rescue Plan dollars have the opportunity to be transformative for long-festering needs where lack of investment was exacerbated by the shock of the pandemic’s impacts,” said Doug O’Malley, Director of Environment New Jersey. “More than two years after the onset of the pandemic, those needs are still there and we should have a more transparent process to give people the chance to publicly testify to the JBOC committee on the proposed spending plans. There are clear needs for our state’s environment and infrastructure from crumbling water infrastructure and lead service lines and the need for more reliable NJ Transit bus and rail service – and the public should have more of an opportunity to weigh in.”

“The State must invest $30 million to fund a comprehensive Language Access Bill ensuring that government meets the needs of our diverse families through timely, accurate translation and interpretation,” said Laura Bustamante, Policy and Campaign Manager at New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. “At no time was this need more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. New Jersey is a leader in the diversity and size of our immigrant communities, so it is fitting that we are now leading with the country’s most expansive language access proposal. We expect nothing less than a transparent process from our government on how this ARP funding will be allocated and demand that it be allocated to programs like these that support the resilience and recovery of our communities.”

“Our children continue to struggle with the impact of the pandemic — we urge the Governor to devote a small portion of remaining ARP funds to expand community school approaches to more high-poverty public schools throughout our state,” said Greg Stankiewicz, statewide coordinator of the New Jersey Community Schools Coalition. “Moreover, we stand with our colleagues in calling for increased transparency in how the Governor and Legislature distribute these vital federal recovery funds.”

“Given the opaque process and very limited time for public input, we worry that the public’s best interest will not be prioritized,” said Joe Marchica, Co-Chair of Our Revolution Trenton Mercer. “Direct aid is the most beneficial economic stimulus method, both for people in need and the whole economy. We ask for substantial funding for hazard pay, undocumented New Jerseyans, and aid sent directly to low- and no-income people. That’s what should take priority — not more corporate tax breaks and kickbacks.”

“We are at a critical juncture when it comes to funding climate, lead service line replacements, waste water and drinking water infrastructure, mass transit not highway expansions,” said Amy Goldsmith, New Jersey State Director of Clean Water Action. “ARP funds must be used wisely to expand the Garden State’s capacity to create family-supporting green jobs, protect our communities from harm, and lift up people and places that have largely been left behind or out of the economy in the past because of the color of their skin or the ZIP code they live in.”

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For The Many NJ is a statewide coalition of more than 30 organizations working to expand funding for essential services and improve budget practices to meet current and future needs, especially for communities that have been historically left behind.

New Jersey Has Less Than $1 Billion Left in American Rescue Plan Funds

Posted on by Sheila Reynertson

With less than $1 billion remaining in federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds, New Jersey’s unique opportunity to provide immediate relief to families and communities harmed by the pandemic is quickly slipping away. Roughly 85 percent of the $6.2 billion dollars in ARP funds have already been appropriated by Governor Murphy and state lawmakers, with more than $2.4 billion worth of federal funds included in the latest state budget. It’s hard to say whether this recent spending aligns with the Biden administration’s guidance to direct relief towards those disproportionately harmed by the pandemic, however, given the lack of transparency and publicly available information on these appropriations.

If used as intended by the Biden administration, ARP funds offer a once-in-a-lifetime chance to advance racial equity by investing in communities that were hardest hit by the pandemic and historically left behind in the lawmaking process. But with more than $5 billion appropriated behind closed doors and few details available to the public, lawmakers can and must do a better job of providing direct relief to workers, families, and communities who need the most help — and in a transparent manner that invites public input.

Newest Allocations Aid Institutions But Ignore Direct Assistance

The new state budget that took effect July 1 includes some big investments that align with how ARP funds should be spent: affordable housing development ($305 million), lead paint removal from homes ($170 million), new facilities to advance universal pre-K education ($120 million), and almost $100 million to upgrade state operations for social services.

But, despite repeated calls from policy experts, community leaders, and advocates to prioritize disproportionately harmed residents, elected leaders failed to deliver adequate direct relief to those who need it. The new ARP allocations through the budget did not include direct relief for immigrant workers, hazard pay for essential workers, rental assistance for those struggling to keep a roof over their head, or cash assistance for residents who maxed out their benefits through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. These deliberate choices made behind closed doors represent a lost opportunity to meet the moment and meaningfully improve the lives of New Jersey residents who are not paid enough to get by or cannot work at this time.

Transparency Not Treated as a Priority

Based on current, available documentation, each new allocation of ARP funds in the budget lacks any kind of description, meaning there is no way to tell who exactly benefits from hundreds of millions of dollars worth of spending. For example, lawmakers allocated $300 million to water infrastructure, but without basic details it’s unclear which communities will benefit and which will be left behind. Another $300 million was granted to Rutgers University, but only thanks to a reporter’s diligence do we learn that a third of it will pay for a new sports facility. Middlesex County’s community college and improvement authority each received $20 million, but without some context it’s difficult to determine the relevance of these one-time investments.

In other cases, the allocation goes to a new or existing program that will require ongoing funding, drawing into question the state’s commitment toward its success once the federal funds are gone. Case in point: The state’s only public hospital received $50 million for a building assessment plan, but with no guarantee that the plan will be implemented. The state’s new universal newborn home visit program was signed into law with much fanfare, but using these one-time fiscal recovery dollars ($6 million) to fund the first year casts doubt on whether the state will be able to sustainably fund the program in future years. Similar concerns arise around allocations for programs that are normally supported by state funds, like child-care subsidies ($48 million), grants for mental health ($15 million), and capital improvement projects across the state ($50 million).

The lack of information on ARP allocations calls into question whether some of these investments were necessary at all — especially for funds sent to private institutions that should have plenty of resources to cover the costs themselves. For example, $13 million has been granted to two health systems for “hospital infrastructure” and workforce education. The state should require extensive oversight of grants to private institutions at a minimum, including clawback provisions should misuse of this aid come to light.

What’s Next for ARP Funds

The state now has less than $1 billion remaining in state fiscal recovery funds that have yet to be designated — not including the $300 million in discretionary funds which the Governor can disburse in amounts of $20 million or less. The Joint Budget Oversight Committee (JBOC) will meet quarterly to approve proposed allocations above that $20 million threshold. The public has not been granted a meaningful process by which to weigh in on how the remaining dollars are spent and, based on the uneven quality of issuances so far, that must change. Lawmakers can start by allowing public testimony at future JBOC hearings — consistent with most other legislative committee hearings — so that policy experts, essential workers, and community leaders alike can weigh in on ARP spending proposals before they’re approved.

Affordable for Some: What’s Included and Missing in New Jersey’s FY 2023 Budget

Posted on by Sheila Reynertson

In a year of unprecedented surplus and abundance, the new state budget signed into law by Governor Murphy had the opportunity to transform government and build an economy that works for everyone. With rising prices on everyday needs — and many New Jerseyans still struggling to get back on their feet from the COVID-19 recession — this was a chance to make the state affordable for all. But instead of providing transformational direct relief to low-paid working families who have been historically left behind in the policy-making process, lawmakers used a bulk of the state’s record-setting $10.7 billion surplus on tax rebates for upper-middle class homeowners, tax credits for corporations, and a gimmicky sales tax holiday for everyone else.

Some important, positive changes were enacted in the spending plan, namely a new state-level Child Tax Credit, but it’s hard to see the budget as anything but a missed opportunity to help those who have the least and to start dismantling persistent economic and racial disparities. Given the opaque and rushed process, with a $50.6 billion spending package crafted behind closed doors and immediately voted out of committee before anyone had a chance to read the bill, it’s easy to see how lawmakers left out important proposals that would have benefited low-paid workers and their families.

From the onset, “affordability” was the major theme of this year’s budget season, but many of the policy proposals that emphasized “affordability” would have primarily benefited the already wealthy and big businesses. This is why essential workers and advocates repeatedly posed the question, “affordable for who?” — and for good reason. While other states used their unexpected windfall of state dollars to dramatically expand the social safety net, tax credits for working families, pandemic relief for immigrants, and hazard pay for essential workers, New Jersey lawmakers left these policy proposals on the cutting room floor. And, unlike years past, there is no shortfall of dollars to explain inaction on policies to help those fighting the hardest to get by, only a shortfall of political will. 

Federal Funds

A combination of strong revenue collections and federal pandemic relief presented the state with an unprecedented surplus and $3 billion in remaining American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds. These federal dollars were specifically intended to help the state begin reversing the harms of the pandemic and promote an equitable economic recovery, especially for low-income residents and working-class families.

Roughly $2 billion in ARP funds were allocated as a part of the new spending plan, meaning these funds were similarly negotiated behind closed doors without an opportunity for public input. New investments funded by ARP dollars that will help working families and historically disinvested communities include:

  • $300 million for water infrastructure
  • $170 million for home lead paint remediation
  • $120 million for universal preschool facilities
  • $48 million for subsidized child care payments

 

But almost none of these federal dollars went directly to residents harmed by the pandemic or essential workers who risked their health and well-being so others could safely social distance at home. Hazard pay for essential workers, continued rental assistance, and replenishment of the Excluded New Jerseyans Fund were all left out in favor of blank checks to capital improvement projects. Granted, a large segment of these projects involve health care facilities and services, including mental health and emergency departments. But hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid went to projects outside the scope of how the Biden administration recommended using the funds. Alarmingly, some ARP funds went towards programs that should be funded by state dollars, calling into question whether lawmakers have a plan on how best to  sustain these investments once federal funds dry up.

Investments

Fiscal Health

Pension

For the second year in a row, state lawmakers committed to making a full payment into the state’s pension fund, shoring up the retirement security of roughly 800,000 current and retired state workers. This is the first time in two decades that the state has made back-to-back payments in their entirety, helping correct decades of skipped or shorted payments into the fund. That winning streak is also a sign of fiscal responsibility to credit rating agencies, which should help improve New Jersey’s credit rating and bring down future borrowing costs.

Rainy Day Fund

The final spending plan includes a $6.78 billion surplus, representing a whopping 20 percent of the state’s general fund. This surplus is three times the size of what it was originally estimated to be. Yet, lawmakers opted against using any of this robust buffer to replenish the state’s empty rainy day fund, making this the third year in a row without a deposit. A healthy rainy day fund enables the state to meet increased demand for essential state services during tough economic times or unexpected events like a severe storm or public health emergency. When the state was faced with drastic shortfalls at the start of the pandemic, the rainy day fund, though small, helped the state avoid harmful cuts. New Jersey already went through a shameful period when the fund was left empty for 11 straight years and simply cannot afford to repeat mistakes of the past. A deposit of $500 million, for example, would be enough to protect vital support and services in unforeseen circumstances while still leaving billions of dollars in leftover surplus.

Economic Security

ANCHOR

Touted as the largest tax relief program in New Jersey history, Governor Murphy’s ANCHOR program will send $2 billion worth of property tax rebates to homeowners and renters alike. The program, which is twice the size of the original proposal, will provide renters with much-needed $450 tax credits to meet skyrocketing rents. The bulk of the tax credits will go to homeowners, however, including nearly $300 million worth of $1,000 payments going to high-earning homeowners.

Child Tax Credit

For the first time, New Jersey will have a state-level Child Tax Credit to help families meet the high cost of raising kids. Modeled on the widely successful federal Child Tax Credit expansion, the program will provide a $500 tax credit to families with kids under age 6. These credits, available to households earning $80,000 or less, are fully refundable and will benefit 374,000 New Jersey children, according to the Office of Legislative Services. This is a big win for working families, providing them with a critical lifeline for basic needs like food, housing, child care, and more.

Expanded School Meals

No child should go hungry in school, and a new expansion of free school meals to all children under 200% of the federal poverty level will help bring the state closer to that reality. With the federal extension of school meal waivers in jeopardy, this state-level change protects New Jersey’s children and their development.

Health Care

Reproductive Health Care

With the recent Supreme Court decision overturning the right to abortion established through Roe v. Wade, more state action is vital to both protect and expand access to reproductive health care. The new state budget takes important steps in this direction with a significant boost in funding for family planning services and new funding for family planning facility upgrades. Lawmakers also approved funding to train new abortion providers and grants to beef up security against anti-abortion extremists, high-priority measures to prepare the state for a post-Roe reality.

Universal Newborn Home Nurse Visitation

For people who recently gave birth, consistent, easy-to-access health care support is essential to a healthy recovery. As part of the Nurture NJ campaign to address disparities in maternal and infant mortality rates, the budget allocates $17 million ​​to a new Universal Newborn Home Nurse Visitation Program to make sure everyone has access to this care. ARP funds cover $6 million of the program’s funding, however, raising concern that this funding provides only a temporary level of support.

Cover All Kids

All New Jersey children, regardless of income, race, or immigration status, deserve access to affordable, high-quality health care. This budget continues the state’s investment in the Cover All Kids initiative, aimed at making sure all children in the state have health insurance, by including $11 million to implement Phase II of the initiative. Specifically, this funding will expand NJ FamilyCare options to all income-eligible children, regardless of immigration status.

Increased Marketplace Subsidies and Plans for Medicaid Disenrollment

During the COVID-19 pandemic, increased federal subsidies for plans on GetCovered NJ and a pause on Medicaid disenrollment from Medicaid have helped to get and keep more New Jerseyans insured. The new budget anticipates the end of the federal public health emergency by increasing the funding available in the Health Insurance Affordability Fund to $168 million. These funds will be used for continued state subsidies on GetCovered NJ and for helping people who are moved off of Medicaid plans to afford plans on the state marketplace.

Harm Reduction Services

Harm reduction services play a vital role in serving people who use drugs and providing them with the private and dignified health care they deserve. This budget continues the state’s improving commitment to harm reduction services, with $4.5 million — a small increase over last year’s budget — committed to helping expand services. With a new state law in effect, allowing centers to open without municipal approval, these funds will go a long way towards bringing harm reduction services to residents who previously lacked access to this life-saving care.

Criminal and Legal Systems

Violence Interruption Programs

Community-based violence interruption programs promote public safety and improve community trust. Like last year, this budget invests $10 million in community-based services which, with inflation, is essentially a cut in funding. The continued support for these programs is essential to building stronger, more resilient communities. Larger investments in these programs and other alternatives that do not center policing will be required to keep communities safe.

Reentry Services

People returning from incarceration should be met with support, understanding, and all the tools they will need to thrive. With newly allocated funds, the Department of Community Affairs will spend a total of $30.7 million on reentry services, which is more or less flat funding from the year before. Given high inflation rates right now, this translates into a spending cut. Funding for reentry services in New Jersey has been historically inadequate, and all communities benefit when previously incarcerated people return home with the resources they need.

Mental Health Crisis Hotline

Moving away from police-centered crisis response is a vital step toward safer communities, especially for calls that police are not trained to deal with. The budget sets aside $16 million for the implementation of the federal 9-8-8 hotline to serve as an alternative to 9-1-1 in the event of a mental health crisis.

Transit and Environment

Liberty State Park

Liberty State Park is a crown jewel of the state park system, providing public access to green space in one of the state’s densest cities and sanctuary to endangered shorebirds and other species. The new budget authorized $50 million in federal funds for park improvements, which are sorely needed. The legislation, however, failed to protect the park from large-scale commercialization and private development. By ceding the decision to preserve Caven Point to the Department of Environmental Protection, lawmakers chose to gloss over this public good. The Legislature did, however, amend the bill to increase public participation in deciding how the improvement funds will be spent, and removed a mandate for the park improvements to generate revenue.

NJ Transit

Safe and reliable public transportation is essential to making New Jersey more equitable and meeting the state’s clean energy goals, and yet this budget once again punts on identifying a dedicated funding source for the state’s mass transit system. NJ Transit’s budget includes up to $746 million from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and $82.1 million from the Clean Energy Fund, a fund that is meant to offer financial incentives, programs, and services to help families and businesses alike save energy, money, and the environment. While the budget includes language that directs revenue from the Clean Energy Fund for clean energy and bus electrification, there is no guarantee it will be. In the short term, the state can only rely on federal relief funds and federal infrastructure dollars that will run out within the next few years.

What’s Missing

Hazard Pay

Hundreds of thousands of low-paid essential workers put their lives — and the lives of their families — at risk during the height of the pandemic. Despite public praise and many promises of support, the state has yet to dedicate hazard pay dollars for those who risked their health so others could stay home and socially distance. With billions of federal dollars at its disposal for hazard pay for its dedicated essential workers, the state has turned a blind eye to their contributions once again.

Excluded New Jerseyans Fund

The Excluded New Jerseyans Fund, which has distributed more than $30 million to about 13,000 residents excluded from federal pandemic relief, has been a lifeline to many immigrant households. However, many immigrant families have received little to no pandemic aid, despite an abundance of data showing that immigrant communities suffered disproportionately from COVID-19. Expanding the fund would have helped correct pandemic-exacerbated inequities. A planned one-time $53 million payment to immigrant taxpayers is not enough to offset the over $1 billion these households have been denied.

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Expansion

Immigrants contribute hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax collections every year, but they are ineligible for many of the programs they help pay for, including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The EITC rewards hard-working, low-paid taxpayers by giving them money back to supplement their wages. While other states like Colorado, Maryland, and Washington have expanded EITC eligibility to all taxpayers, regardless of their immigration status, New Jersey chose not to include immigrant workers in this powerful anti-poverty program.

WorkFirst New Jersey Reforms

Somehow, in a year focused on affordability, lawmakers managed to ignore the most important program for very-low-income New Jerseyans: WorkFirst New Jersey. A proposed benefit increase and other eligibility reforms would have helped families in poverty keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, but state lawmakers once again left families living in deep poverty behind. New Jersey will never be affordable for all if those with the lowest incomes — those who struggle with affordability the most — are not prioritized in the state budget.

Backroom Budget Deals Hurt Residents Who Need Help The Most

Posted on by NJPP Staff

Labor unions, faith leaders, essential workers, and advocates for immigrants’ rights, housing, and the environment panned the newly approved state budget as a missed opportunity to provide transformative relief to working families who need the most help. With billions of dollars in surplus and federal aid, the state budget was crafted behind closed doors, shut members of the public out of the process, and, as a result, left out important investments that would have benefited low-paid workers and their families.

When billions of dollars in funding are negotiated away from the public eye, it’s inevitably the public who loses out. The hard-working New Jerseyans who are struggling the most with rising prices, rent, and inflation do not have highly-paid lobbyists and special-interest dollars to fight for them. This budget could have made New Jersey affordable for all, but instead directed the state’s record-setting surplus towards tax relief for wealthy homeowners, corporations, and a gimmicky sales tax holiday.

Although there are many important and much-needed investments in the budget, a lack of transparency and accountability for the way public money is spent leads to worse outcomes for the people who have the least. Notably, the budget lacks proposals to expand safety net programs, tax credits, and assistance to those with the lowest incomes: Cash assistance in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Excluded New Jerseyans Fund, and hazard pay for essential workers.

Nicole Rodriguez, President, New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP):
“New Jersey’s working-class residents, immigrant families, and essential workers have faced serious economic challenges since the pandemic, and this budget should have been the prime opportunity to support them with direct relief. Instead, their voices were shut out of the budget process, while behind-the-scenes deals secured hundreds of millions in pet projects and corporate giveaways. With a growing and diverse population, New Jersey should not be a state where a few powerful people make decisions that affect the many without taking their voices into account.”

Rev. Sara Lilja, Executive Director, Lutherans Engaging in Advocacy Ministry:
“The bible teaches us that where your treasure is, there your heart is also. This budget reveals that our heart does not regard low and working families as essential. It is often said that budgets are moral documents; this budget does not align with a morality that is committed to supporting the hundreds of thousands of essential working families that are the economic engine of our state. Morally, our state budget should be for the many, not just the powerful elite.”

Laura Bustamante, Policy and Campaigns Manager, New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice:
“It has been our immigrant workers who have helped us survive through this pandemic. There is still no meaningful or permanent relief for those who continue to put their lives at risk and have been excluded from aid. Essential workers have put their lives at risk and on the line day in and day out and today the legislature turned their backs on immigrant families and working people. The State needs to do more for those who risk their lives everyday.”

Marcia Marley, President, BlueWaveNJ:
“I applaud this budget for its commitment to housing, education, reproductive health, and the new Child Tax Credit. Unfortunately, it leaves out many working families, like those from our immigrant community, misses an opportunity to address the racial wealth gap, and is not bold enough on transit and infrastructure issues where we continue to ignore the need for dedicated funds.”

Kevin Brown, Executive Vice President and NJ State Director, SEIU 32BJ:
“We are disappointed to have to write these words again, but on behalf of our 13,000 hardworking SEIU 32BJ members living and working in New Jersey, we strongly and unequivocally condemn the lack of public transparency around this year’s budget process. Working families deserved a voice in the allocation of the budget’s historic surplus, which presented an unprecedented opportunity to improve affordability and level the playing field for the middle class and low wage workers. While we applaud the Legislature for expanding the Child Tax Credit, there is so much more they could have done to transform the lives of essential workers in our state during an unprecedented time of massive budget surpluses.”

Julie Larrea Borst, Executive Director, Save Our Schools NJ Community Organizing:
“Save Our Schools NJ applauds the continued steps toward fully funding our K-12 schools and the expansion of preschool. We are disappointed that the state’s huge budget surplus was not used to restore funding to S2 districts and that the funding allocated for the Schools Development Authority fell far short of what is needed for school construction and repairs in our most impoverished school districts. If we cannot meet these needs now, when the budget is abundant, then when can the Legislature step up and do the right thing?”

Banessa Quiroga, member of Make the Road New Jersey:
“This budget is a missed opportunity for essential workers like me and for immigrants across New Jersey. The Legislature has failed to fund the Excluded New Jerseyans Fund or hazard pay, and left out key, bi-partisan measures like the Earned Income Tax Credit expansion. These measures would have helped my family make ends meet in a time of unprecedented inflation and skyrocketing rents. Instead, the budget rewards upper middle class homeowners with tax breaks.”

Debra Coyle, Executive Director, NJ Work Environment Council:
“Unfortunately, once again the Legislature has chosen to have an opaque budget process, entirely completed in the private backrooms of Trenton, that intentionally excluded the voices of New Jersey citizens and advocates. This is the largest budget in the state’s history and it presented enormous opportunity to address so many issues faced by every day New Jerseyans, but instead they decided to forge ahead with a broken process where no one even saw the budget until after it was voted on in committee and gave no real opportunity for public input.”Barbara Rosen, RN and First Vice President, HPAE:
“HPAE nurses and health care workers argued for, lobbied and, ultimately, challenged Gov. Phil Murphy and state legislators to adequately fund the operation of New Jersey’s only public hospital by raising the annual budget allocation for University Hospital in Newark to $151.1 million. Unfortunately, the 2023 Fiscal Year budget calls for just $44.7 million for University Hospital in Newark. This does not meet the needs of patients, workers and the community served by the hospital. This allocation is a profound missed opportunity at a time when the state has actual resources to put its money where its mouth is. University Hospital in Newark is committed to continuing as an anchor institution in the municipality and the Northern New Jersey region. In addition to the crucial, direct patient care that UH provides, it has a vital and unrivaled role as a public health institution in the state.”Joe Marchica, Our Revolution Trenton Mercer Chapter Chair and OR New Jersey Member:
“Yet again, our legislature drops a complex budget document on representatives, advocacy groups, and the public with next to no time for us to properly analyze and assess the most important piece of legislation in New Jersey each year. This budget mostly ignores the opportunity and necessity to invest in our people. It prioritizes the interests of the wealthy, instead of the programs needed to establish and maintain an economy that works for all of us. We do, however, applaud one notable exception to this: the inclusion of a Child Tax Credit, which is a bright spot in an otherwise gray budget.”Latino Action Network:
“Given unexpected tax revenues, the state of New Jersey was uniquely positioned to invest in and care for the communities who were hardest hit during this pandemic – the working class, communities of color, and Immigrant New Jerseyans. Instead, politicians ignored transparency and have continued to leave out budget reforms which could improve the lives of millions of New Jerseyans. New Jersey’s leadership cannot continue to tout New Jersey’s diversity and multiculturalism on the one hand and do little to materially support our communities on the other. It’s high time to create budgets that center the most marginalized.”

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For The Many is a statewide coalition of more than 30 organizations working collectively to expand funding for essential services and improve budget practices to adequately meet current and future needs, especially for communities that have been historically marginalized.

Sales Tax Holidays Do Little to Ease the Burden on Working Families

Posted on by Sheila Reynertson

Good afternoon, Chair Sarlo, and members of the committee.

Sales tax holidays have a long track record of being untargeted, complicated, expensive, and easy to exploit, all while being inconsistent drivers of economic activity. If the goal of this legislation is to get money into the hands of working families with children, as well as educators and school districts, the straightforward approach would be to cut them a check through an appropriation, not a tax holiday that will disproportionately benefit wealthier families.

New Jersey Policy Perspective opposes this legislation in favor of fairer and more effective changes to the state tax code that make life more affordable for families.

Untargeted: By spreading the benefit over all residents, S-2914 fails to assist the low-paid and working-class families who need the most help. Wealthier residents are better able to schedule their spending for the holiday window, and when sales tax rates decrease — whether in the short-term or long-term — higher-income residents receive the bulk of the benefit because they tend to spend more. As a response to inflation, this also misses the mark. Lower-income residents’ budgets are more likely to have a higher percentage dedicated to inflation-sensitive categories like food, rent, and utilities — all areas outside the school supplies targeted by this tax holiday.

Complicated: The list of eligible goods captures a diverse but specific array of items. For merchants, administering this list for a short timeframe will add unnecessary burden by inserting them as middlemen, rather than giving direct aid to families.

Expensive: S-2914 does not include a budget estimate, but sales tax holidays have a history of causing substantial reductions in state revenues. Last year, sales tax holidays cost state and local governments more than $550 million nationally. This year, that number looks to grow even more.

Easy to exploit: Research shows that merchants raise their prices during sales tax holidays because there is no provision preventing them from doing so, reducing the benefit for consumers. Additionally, without distinguishing between online and in-person sales, S-2914 does not even ensure that the generated business will flow into local small businesses and communities, rather than Amazon’s corporate pockets.

Instead of one-off gimmicks that fail to make New Jersey more affordable, the budget should instead include strong investments in families and children, as well as sufficient school funding to allow them to purchase the supplies they need. I encourage committee members to vote no on this bill.

Thank you.

New State Budget is a Missed Opportunity to Make New Jersey Affordable for All

Posted on by Nicole Rodriguez

Today, the New Jersey Legislature released its budget proposal for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. The $50.6 billion budget bill was not introduced to the Senate Budget Committee until 8:24 PM and was quickly passed out of committee 25 minutes later, depriving advocates, reporters, and lawmakers of an opportunity to read and analyze the legislation. In response to the budget proposal, New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) releases the following statements.

Nicole Rodriguez, President, New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP):

On the lack of transparency in the budget-making process:

“New Jersey’s budget-making process is fundamentally broken, and this year was even worse than usual. This was yet another last-minute budget cooked up in a back room with no opportunity for residents, reporters, advocates, or even some lawmakers to analyze the document, let alone read it before it was voted on. Lawmakers could have released their budget proposal before the eleventh hour, held public hearings on how to spend the state’s record surplus and federal aid, and publicly released their budget resolutions. Instead, chaos and backroom deals ruled the day, with 60 budget bills introduced at the last minute, some added to and removed from the agenda with no notice, no bill texts available, and no chance for residents to meaningfully weigh in on billions of dollars worth of spending.

“As soon as budget negotiations moved behind closed doors, proposals that benefit big corporations, special interests, and wealthy residents were put on the fast-track, while many policies that would have helped working- and middle-class families were left on the cutting room floor. This is an affront to democracy and good governance and must be reformed so that more residents can have a seat at the table and hold their elected officials accountable.”

On the budget being a missed opportunity to help those with the least:

“This budget deal was a missed opportunity to provide direct relief to working families who have been historically left behind in the policy-making process. In a year where there was no shortfall of dollars, there was a shortfall of political will to do the right thing and help those with the least. The state could have made transformative investments in direct relief to low-paid essential workers, immigrant taxpayers who are banned from safety net programs they help fund, and very low-income families who can’t keep up with rising prices and inflation. It makes little economic sense to spend more on tax relief for upper-middle-class homeowners and corporations than on families who need the most help. Prioritizing the state’s lowest-paid working families would have been both the moral thing to do and the best way to build an economy that works for everyone.”

On the newly created Child Tax Credit for working families:

“New Jersey will become a more affordable place to start and grow a family thanks to the state’s newly created Child Tax Credit, which will put hundreds of dollars back into the pockets of families with young children. Modeled off the highly successful federal Child Tax Credit, this program will provide working families a critical lifeline for basic needs like food, housing, child care, and more. With that federal credit in limbo and one in 10 children living in poverty, this is a big policy win for families in every corner of the state.

“Families earning up to $30,000 would earn $500 per child under six years old, slowly reducing for taxpayers until they reach $80,000 in income. We are under no illusion that this credit alone will end child poverty, but this commitment will go a long way for the working- and middle-class families who qualify. This credit can also be expanded and built on in future years, which we think lawmakers will do once they see its success.

“The Child Tax Credit should be one part of a broader reimagining of New Jersey’s social safety net: expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit to make work pay, reforming our WorkFirst New Jersey program for very-low-income residents, and building stronger supports for immigrant residents shut out from federal aid. NJPP will continue to fight for these changes in the coming year.”

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