Conservatives, progressives spar over taxes ahead of state budget address

Gov. Phil Murphy will deliver his state budget address on Tuesday and many New Jersey residents are wondering if their taxes will be going up or down.

News 12 Staff

Feb 23, 2023, 1:19 AM

Updated 611 days ago

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Gov. Phil Murphy will deliver his state budget address on Tuesday and many New Jersey residents are wondering if their taxes will be going up or down.
Republican lawmakers say they want to use a surplus to lower property taxes, while progressives want to keep a higher tax rate on big corporations.
“Property taxes are too high, and school taxes are the main reason,” state Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio said on Wednesday.
DiMaio unveiled a plan that he says would cut property taxes by an average of $620 in the first year by using extra income tax collections to give more than $1 billion to school districts to get them to lower property taxes.
“No school would lose money. Almost all would gain money,” DiMaio said.
But there are questions on how that would be funded long-term.
Meanwhile, progressives want to keep an extra tax on businesses like Amazon and Walmart to continue to pay for social programs to help get people out of poverty.
All the policies and programs that help support working people - if we don't have the revenue, the sustained revenue to support these programs and services, they will be cut,” says Sheila Reynerston, of New Jersey Policy Perspective. “We're not talking about mom-and-pop businesses that make up the vast majority of the New Jersey business landscape.”
But Gov. Phil Murphy has said he will let that tax expire at the end of the year.
Republicans are in the minority in the Statehouse. Murphy has said he won't raise taxes for anyone this year.
Instead, Democratic lawmakers have put their hopes on the governor's ANCHOR property tax rebate, which will send out $2 billion worth of checks to homeowners and renters. But these rebates won’t be sent until the late spring.
The governor will deliver the state budget address Tuesday at 2 p.m. The state must have a budget in place by midnight on July 1.