Republicans respond with skepticism to Murphy budget plan

senior political correspondent David Cruz was in the chamber for the speech and he's at the state house now with Republican budget officer Declan o scanland for more on the gop's response to the new budget David yeah Briana uh Republicans as you might expect uh reacted to this budget with some skepticism we spoke to Senate budget officer Dean ocalan who called it tragic $56 billion is uh initial reaction from you uh look it's more the same this is kind of a coasting budget and I appreciate some of the things we're doing I we all believe in mental health and and Addiction Services that's all great but look this is a continuation of missed opportunities by this Administration and in this era where we had so many opportunities to remake our budget to make sure that it was long-term uh uh solvent and sustainable we haven't done that we this year alone we're spending down our Surplus by $2 billion that is not a good sign that's an indication you have a multi-billion dollar structural budget deficit how will these things be sustained when the federal pandemic money is gone the four billion that we borrowed that we didn't need is gone that's a problem so also in there I mean as far as big ticket items go uh Universal prek is going to be fully funded and the school funding formula he says for the first time will be fully funded we heard a lot of talk about needing to blow that up talk about that cuz CU I don't think the governor actually apparently understands the this school funding formula and the budget he said it's going to the extra $900 million is going to benefit every kid and every taxpayer New Jersey that's absolute garbage and and to be fair I've already spoken to the administration they're willing to talk about this 140 districts uh are being cut and tell that when the governor says these going to benefit kids education every kid and every taxpayer tell that to the kids in 140 school districts where they're losing music and they're losing art and they're losing Sports it's a disaster it's been a disaster for these districts for the last 3 years and this administration's done nothing to help them that has to be fixed it's a serious flaw a serious misunderstanding on the part of the governor and by the way if he's going to claim that increasing school aid Cuts property taxes in almost half the districts were either increasing by less than the rate of inflation or outright cutting he's got to accept that he's increasing property taxes it's a it's a potential disaster for these school districts so it you've got to uh refund or reform the the whole funding formula you're saying the school funding formula dates back to uh 2006 s and8 it was formulated it is so outdated claiming now that we're going to fully fund it is not a great achievement it shouldn't be seen that way by the voters because it's an old formula it should have been reworked over the last 5 years we haven't done that this Administration has not made sure that has happened that is a huge missed opportunity what's your uh feeling about this is called now a corporate Transit fee uh that will be dedicated specifically to New Jersey Transit and this is a kind of new version of the corporate business tax search charge except it's going to affect companies that are making over $10 million yeah whatever we all pay it corporations don't pay taxes people pay taxes these corporations are going to increase prices they're going to do whatever they need to do to make that hole so that that's that I'm sorry I just don't believe it now this was the same CBT sear charge uh that the governor a year ago was was saying he should be credited for letting lapse and now a year later after Republic had said this probably would happen by the way uh we're back and it's going to be it's going to be reinstated we could have solved New Jersey transit's Problem by again over the last few years remaking our budget reforming another R of pension and health benefits reform that even labor is clamoring for uh would have helped bend the curve probably save billions of dollars throwing in the school funding formula reform where we also could probably save billions we would not have had to raise any of these taxes we could have also eliminated the regressive taxes on the middle class that are happening this very budget the increases in tolls and taxes and fees and labor that the governor likes to say doesn't exist but nonetheless in his own budget you could see it two uh big programs that are intended to be uh Tax Savers for folks is uh the anchor program of course that's going to be refunded uh and then money put into the stay NJ program which I know is one of your favorites uh it's going to put some money into it it doesn't kick in until 26 but tell us how much you you love stay andj stay andj is it worth the press release paper it's printed on it was an election year gimmick uh and the funding we're putting in now is pennies of what's really going to be needed over time it ain't never going to happen mark my words it's certainly won't happen in the form that the governor and the legislature are claiming it's going to happen it's just not happening anchor it's good that we're fully funding anchor but we're also in the same time there's $150 million cut to Aid to municipalities in this budget which is going to increase property taxes on everyone uh so let's be honest call Spade Spades and tell the taxpayers what's really going on as has been the case for some time Republicans are going to have little to do with the outcome of this budget but they expect to keep railing against it until it finally passes probably in the late hours of June 30th I'm David Cruz