Gov. Phil Murphy presented a $53.1 billion spending plan for Fiscal Year 2024—rising approximately $3 billion from last year—with no new taxes and a proposed surplus of $10.1 billion that he said is needed during these perilous economic times. Murphy summed up his budget presented on Feb. 28 as having “more tax relief, more help for businesses to grow and create good-paying jobs, more investments to build a green economy and fight climate change, more affordable prescription-drug assistance for seniors, more child care for young families, more help to buy your first home and to stay in your current one, more commitment to making sure every child has access to health insurance, more public school funding and more help to bring new educators to New Jersey’s classrooms, more support for the kids who need it, and more attention to the bottom line to pay down our debts and secure the largest property tax relief program in our history.” North-JerseyNews.com
Republicans, who have long opposed the steady increase in spending under the Murphy Administration, are once again arguing that the budget is too high. “Gov. Murphy’s budget proposal for next year is 5% larger than this year’s budget, and it’s 50% bigger than the prior administration’s final budget,” State Senate Minority Leader Steve Oroho (R-24) said. “That’s a huge and unsustainable spending increase in just six years. We know that billions of that will likely be pork spending that should be redirected to tax relief.” New Jersey Globe
Gov. Phil Murphy is proposing $120 million for a new State Police training center. The facility would replace the State Police Academy’s current home in Sea Girt, a 100-year-old training center that the division shares with the National Guard and state Department of Corrections and Juvenile Justice Commission. NJ.com
The New Jersey Department of Treasury reported it had successfully retired $1 billion in state debt, which would save taxpayers about $590 million over the life of the bonds. Additionally, the department said that despite a dip in the Gross Income Tax (GIT), overall major taxes increased 4.1% month-over-month in February to $191.5 million; fiscal year-to-date collections were up 3.4% to $776.8 million. “Reducing our state’s debt and the burden it places on taxpayers has been a major focus of my administration,” said Gov. Phil Murphy. “Reducing our debt load saves taxpayer money and raises our standing with the credit rating agencies, allowing us to invest in building the next New Jersey at a more affordable interest rate.” North-JerseyNews.com
State Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio indicated that the state is planning for a brief recessionary period. Muoio said it’s evident in her department’s forecasts that the state should be “anticipating a tamp-down increase for two of our three major revenue sources…I don’t think we’ve seen anything to indicate that if there was a recession it would be anything more than a short-term or mild recession.” Gross state product growth could go “really low but not negative for the year,” according to state treasury forecasts. Those indicators show an economy that may “slow to a very low level of growth for the next few quarters” and “sort of skirt a recession.” The Daily Record
Four prominent Republicans from New Jersey, all potential statewide candidates, have low name recognition among GOP primary voters in a statewide poll conducted by National Public Affairs, a Republican firm. Roughly 80% of Republicans who voted in either the 2021 or 2022 primary have never heard of State Sens. Jon Bramnick (R-21), Doug Steinhardt (R-23), and Michael Testa, Jr. (R-1) as well as Republican State Chairman Bob Hugin, who spent more than $36 million of his own money running for the U.S. Senate less than five years ago. The poll said did not include voter opinions of two other likely candidates for the 2025 Republican nomination—2021 GOP nominee Jack Ciattarelli and radio talk show host Bill Spadea. New Jersey Globe
Jerry Scanlan, the chairman of the Sussex County Republican Committee, was arrested and charged with drunk driving after crashing into a stopped car in Sparta. Scanlan, a resident of Hopatcong who has served as the county’s GOP chair since 2015, was driving on Woodport Road at about 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 19 when he rear-ended a car that was stopped at the light at the intersection of Wynona Parkway. Officers stated in their reports that Scanlan appeared to be intoxicated, smelled of alcohol and failed field sobriety tests. Sparta Lt. John Lamon said Scanlan’s was “close to being double” of the legal limit for driving while intoxicated of 0.08%. New Jersey Herald
Bergen County’s commissioners have given themselves and the county executive a raise while also increasing salary guides for the county’s administrator and department heads. County Executive James Tedesco’s salary was increased by 10%, to $161,500 from $146,732—even with increase, the position still pays less than Essex and Hudson counties pay their executives. The commissioner’s salaries, which have not been adjusted since 2007, according to county officials, were raised by more than 29%, to $38,000 from $29,312. The Bergen County Board of Commissioners chairperson’s salary was increased to $39,000 annually. The Record
Demand for U.S. workers shows signs of slowing, a long-anticipated development that is showing up in private-sector job postings even while official government reports indicate the labor market keeps running hot. ZipRecruiter Inc. and Recruit Holdings Co., two large online recruiting companies, say their data show the number of job postings is declining more than Labor Department reports of job openings. The Wall Street Journal
Los Angeles County agreed to pay Vanessa Bryant and three of her daughters nearly $30 million to settle a lawsuit and potential claims over the sharing of graphic photos of the January 2020 helicopter crash that killed Bryant’s husband, the basketball star Kobe Bryant, and one of their daughters. The Bryant family sued and won at trial in August, for negligence and invasion of privacy after learning that some employees of the county’s fire and sheriff’s departments had shared graphic photos of human remains from the crash. The New York Times
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her re-election bid by failing to garner enough votes to make a runoff election, a fall for a candidate who had won all 50 of the city’s wards four years ago. Paul Vallas, a more moderate Democrat who had won the support of the city’s police union, and Brandon Johnson, a liberal teachers union organizer, secured the two spots in April’s runoff election. The Wall Street Journal
A three-week battle on a plain near the coal-mining town of Vuhledar in southern Ukraine produced what Ukrainian officials say was the biggest tank battle of the war so far, and a stinging setback for the Russians. When it was over, not only had Russia failed to capture Vuhledar, but it also had made the same mistake that cost Moscow hundreds of tanks earlier in the war: advancing columns into ambushes. Ukraine’s military said Russia had lost at least 130 tanks and armored personnel carriers in the battle, although the figure could not be independently verified. The New York Times
There’s no connection between offshore wind development and what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) calls an “unusual mortality event” that’s been afflicting whales up and down the East Coast, from Maine to Florida, since 2016, before the vast majority of Atlantic coast wind development began. At the time, the only U.S. wind project in operation was the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island. As of 2022, though, at least 20 projects were in various stages of development. “At this point, there is no evidence to support speculation that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could potentially cause mortality of whales, and no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys,” NOAA said in a statement. New Jersey Monitor
The Newark Board of Education will pay lawyers $285 an hour plus expenses to defend four members hit with state ethics complaints. Neither the board members involved nor the person or people who filed the complaints were identified during the Feb. 23 school board meeting when the issue was addressed. And there was no indication of the nature of the complaints. NJ.com
A boil water advisory remains in effect in Hoboken March 1 as work continues following a major water main break. Many residents were left without water and crews worked throughout Tuesday night to get it back. Additionally, the city is providing porta johns at 14 locations for residents without water. News12 New Jersey
And finally…Bruce Springsteen tickets are under $60 for just-added N.J. concert. NJ.com
