well we're just days away from the budget deadline and Trenton lawmakers are doing what Trenton lawmakers usually do releasing a budget Bill package just hours before committee members vote on it so what's in it and what are the reactions from budget committee members senior political correspondent David Cruz takes a look if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results then yes New Jersey's budget process is insane like last year despite evidence for weeks now that the eyes and the te's have been dotted and crossed the budget process has yet again gone down to the wire with lawmakers just getting their first real look at the numbers this morning a few hours before committee votes today Senator Dean OK scanland is the Republican budget officer we're spending down our uh Surplus which started eight billion just over8 billion dollar this year to down below six in a time of of expected reasonably expected growth in revenues that's nuts uh and then there's another two billion dollars uh of one shots that are easily documentable probably three we're all done with it so we're going to burn through this Surplus lawmakers will see a budget set at around $ 56 billion at the moment that includes funding for tax relief schemes like the anchor program and some money set aside for the speaker ERS stay NJ program and the reinstatement of a corporate business tax Sur charge specifically dedicated to funding NJ Transit which recent events will underline is not yet fixed after the months of NJ Transit facing other issues having to do with infrastructure the last thing our state needs is NJ transit to have to then cut service because by next year they would have faced a near billion deficit which is almost a third of their budget imagine if their budget was cut by a third and then service was cut accordingly how much worse these days would be for the riders that rely on NJ Transit beyond the agreements in principle on the transit tax and the funding of tax relief programs details are still being worked up and the budget proposed by the governor earlier this year might not look exactly like the one that lawmakers will vote on this week the one constant is that Advocates of all Stripes will not know what's in it really until after it's been voted on which creates the annual call for reform there are a lot of different groups representing uh a lot of New Jersey Rich diversity who have called for changes to the process to to make it uh feel more inclusive um but you're absolutely right this occurs pretty much every year uh you could almost write the script for who will play which part in this in this play uh and we'll do it again next year oh David negotiations at various levels start the day the government the governor delivers his uh his budget address so uh they just reach a different level of frequency and sometimes a higher pitch of tone as we close in on the Constitutional requirement to deliver this budget this uh this doesn't seem to be an unusual year and uh it's it's I think it's been pretty even keeled leading up to the finish so expect some surprise Rises last year a billion dollars got added to the budget late in the game but sometime before Monday also expect that this year's annual show of budget wrangling will end in a press conference announcing that the play as it were has come to an end until next year I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight news [Music]