With Deadline Near, Murphy Yet to Act on N.J. Lawmakers' Budget

(Bloomberg) -- Five days after lawmakers passed a $38.7 billion budget minus a millionaire’s tax, Governor Phil Murphy has yet to name its fate.

New Jersey government will shut down if a budget isn’t in place by the July 1 start of the fiscal year. Murphy, who pitched $38.6 billion in spending in March, has said it’s unlikely that he could certify the lawmakers’ revenue figures, which are higher than those projected by the administration and the nonpartisan legislative services office.

At a Ewing press conference on Tuesday, the governor said he had “nothing new to add” on whether he would veto the legislation. Passed on June 20, the budget bill omits a tax on the wealthiest that Murphy says would raise $500 million, skips a $317 million payment to a rainy-day fund that’s stood empty for more than a decade and eliminates fees on opioid manufacturers to help pay for addiction programs.

The governor’s options include signing the budget, enacting his own and vetoing lawmakers’ spending completely or in part.

“We’re trying to square all this up in the next few days,” the governor said of legislative leaders, fellow Democrats who rejected his millionaire’s tax last year. Murphy declined to say whether the sides have scheduled budget talks.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elise Young in Trenton at eyoung30@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flynn McRoberts at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net, Stacie Sherman

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