Lawmakers moved Tuesday to push a bill that would leave more than a dozen of Murphy’s emergency orders in place
New Jersey’s public health emergency order will expire, but Gov. Phil Murphy will still retain many of the broad powers he used to control the COVID-19 pandemic, under a bill cleared Tuesday by a key Assembly committee.
Tuesday’s formal introduction of that bill and the first votes on the COVID-19 emergency legislation came just days after Murphy issued an executive order that extended an ongoing public health emergency for another 30 days.
Murphy took that step after announcing earlier this month that he is feeling confident enough in the state’s ongoing pandemic recovery to ease many health and economic restrictions across the state beginning Wednesday.
N.J.’s huge $6.3B budget surplus will be even bigger, treasurer predicts
Updated 2:24 PM;
Today 12:50 PM
Treasurer Elizabeth Muoio said on Monday, Tax Day, she will provide a final revenue report in June.David Gard | For NJ Advance Medi
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New Jersey’s revenue outlook just keeps getting brighter, the state treasurer said Monday.
Collections of the sales tax and fees on home sales are booming, putting the state on track to pad its planned $6.3 billion surplus by hundreds of millions of dollars more by the June 30 end of the fiscal year.
Gov. Phil Murphy in February raised revenue forecasts for the current fiscal year by $3.2 billion, from about $41 billion to $44.2 billion, which represented a remarkable turnaround after early-pandemic fears of crippling economic meltdown. That extra cash will allow the state to sock billions of dollars away in reserves much of which Murphy plans to spend next year.
Credit: Edwin J. Torres/ Governor s Office
File photo: Department of Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli
By the end of this month New Jersey will have paid nearly $26.6 million to the consulting giant McKinsey & Company for its help in developing a pandemic response plan, collecting and analyzing reams of data, shoring up long-term care facilities, building out the state’s contact tracing process and rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine program.
With far fewer employees than in years past, the state has not been able to do all the work in house, officials note, and they are now seeking to fill some of the gaps.
Homestead Rebate still underfunded. How long will this ripoff go on? | Editorial
Updated 8:30 AM;
The average New Jersey property tax has risen by more than 40 percent in the last 15 years, which is a heavy gut punch for the average homeowner.
Yet somehow, the Homestead Rebate the property tax relief program for middle-class homeowners and senior and disabled homeowners is stuck, failing to keep pace with those increases.
This happens because Gov. Murphy employs fuzzy formulas that date back to the Corzine Administration, using property tax bills from 2006 as the baseline to calculate those homestead benefits. Even now with the state flush, and Murphy proposing a $45 billion budget that is 10 percent higher than his last the governor uses those dated tax bills to shortchange the homeowners by $80 million.