Murphy seek $55.9B New Jersey budget, increasing education aid, boosting biz taxes to fund transit

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday unveiled a $55.9 billion budget, up about 5% over his previous year’s proposal, calling for nearly $1 billion more in K-12 school funding as well as about $1 billion in new taxes on high-earning businesses to fund transit.

Murphy, a two-term Democrat, cast the budget as the fulfillment of campaign pledges to identify a recurring source of funding for New Jersey Transit and to fully finance a state formula for schools that’s never before been fully implemented.

“Our budget will ensure New Jersey retains its proud reputation as the best place anywhere to raise a family,” he said.

The governor’s seventh budget comes amid declining revenues in the current fiscal year, something Murphy attributes to a hangover from 2022. The budget proposes drawing down the state’s surplus of about $8 billion to more than $6 billion to help close the gap.

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Murphy campaigned in 2017 on fully funding a school aid formula, which the state supreme