Phil Murphy's 'Tammy' budget: Four takeaways on $55.9B spending proposal | Stile

In his seventh budget address Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy delivered a sweeping array of priorities that are part of the $55.9 billion spending plan he has proposed for New Jersey's 2025 fiscal year.

Here are four takeaways:

The Tammy budget

Murphy launched his speech with a nod to his wife, Tammy, who is also a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

“At this point, I would usually say, ‘First lady Tammy Murphy,’“ the governor said. “She sends her regrets.”

But it was hard not to see this budget — at least in a wide lens — through the prism of Tammy Murphy’s campaign. The governor tied his budget promotion to issues that have a national scope and are among the liberal talking points of Tammy Murphy’s campaign: climate change, reproductive rights and affordability.

“It is a budget that will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms — from voting rights to reproductive rights to every right in between," Murphy said.

It sounded very much like a sales appeal to the liberal base that has mobilized in revolt against Tammy Murphy, angered over how the party bosses in the largest Democratic counties swiftly endorsed her candidacy before giving her chief rival, Rep. Andy Kim, a chance to make his case for support.

Grassroots activists believe she locked down the institutional advantage because many of the party brokers have business and political interests with her husband’s administration. The governor denies the charge and says she is campaigning solely on her own.

The governor also praised unions at least seven times in his speech, another less-than-subtle message to a core Democratic constituency that his wife will need in the hotly contested primary.

Charlie Stile: Will Andy Kim's effort to upend the line succeed? Will it sting Tammy Murphy?

Tale of two budgets

Murphy’s $55.9 billion budget largely avoids controversy and is packed with the governor’s favorite talking points — a $900 million increase in funding for public schools, maintaining a commitment to restock the struggling public employee pension system, and a pledge to send $3.5 billion in property tax relief to New Jersey homeowners.

But the real drama — and perhaps a second, more politically charged budget — could come after the June 4 primary and before the state faces its constitutional deadline to enact a balanced budget by July 1. That three-week window could see lawmakers and Murphy administration negotiators take up the delicate topic of raising the gasoline tax, possibly as a means of replenishing the Transportation Trust Fund, the separate funding vehicle that pays for highway and road projects around the state. But proposing it after the primary would prevent the hot-button issue of tax hikes from spilling into his wife’s campaign.

Also closely watched will be the legislative pork that inevitably gets dispensed in the final hours of the budget process with no public scrutiny.

Those grants for local firehouses, streetlights or legislators' other pet projects in their home districts are often given out in exchange for votes or to help boost their profile on the fall campaign trail. But the question now looming over the process: What budget goodies will be given in exchange for supporting his wife’s candidacy?

What Murphy said: Gov. Phil Murphy proposes new NJ Transit funding, tax relief in budget address

Transit tax on big business

One of the headline proposals is a new corporate transit fee that would levy a 2.5% charge on businesses that make more than $10 million in profit annually, with revenue estimated to start at more than $800 million a year.

The money would be dedicated to NJ Transit, the state-run operator of rail and transit that continues to be plagued by delays and cancellations despite Murphy’s pledge to fix the agency even if it killed him. Transit advocates originally pushed Murphy to continue a broader surcharge on corporations that raised $1.3 billion annually, but Murphy resisted, arguing that the administration made a promise to let it expire in December.

Still, the new dedicated funding source was praised by transit advocates and progressives.

“The governor’s proposal would finally provide stable, dedicated funding to an agency that’s never had it, setting a strong foundation to protect NJ Transit now and in the future," said Alex Ambrose, a policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, a liberal think tank that has been clamoring for a dedicated transit source. “This is exactly the type of thinking needed to get NJ Transit back on track.”

Transit: To fix NJ Transit budget woes, Murphy proposes new corporate tax

StayNJ property tax rebate for seniors

Murphy touted the planned StayNJ rebate proposal, which, if launched as planned in 2026, could slash property tax bills for senior homeowners by 50%. The budget calls for socking away another $100 million for the project. But Murphy’s budget signals a rough road ahead for the distant dream of a rebate: Under the law that created the project, the state must first meet its obligations to fully fund public schools and pensions and set aside a surplus that represents 12% of the budget.

Murphy’s fiscal year 2025 plan meets the school funding and pension benchmarks but comes up short in the surplus — booked now at 11%. That will put pressure on budget negotiations to change the law to allow a smaller surplus or to find more savings or cuts to boost the number to 12%, which lawmakers are often loath to do.

Charlie Stile is a veteran New Jersey political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jersey’s political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ budget 2025: Takeaways from Phil Murphy address