Governor Murphy proposes a massive 55.9 billion spending plan delivering his fiscal year 2025 budget address before a joint session of the legislature today at the State House in Trenton it's a little over a billion dollars more than last year's record high spending pledging to fully fund the public education system for the first time in State history and give more than $3 billion in tax relief back to Residents with more money for retirees and families with young children but the item that's getting the most attention especially from business groups is a proposed corporate Transit fee a permanent tax on businesses in the state earning more than $10 million in profits to create a dedicated source of funding for New Jersey Transit which is staring down a fiscal cliff here's what governor Murphy had to say today we all depend on the working new jerseyans who have head our back during hard times and who deserve leaders who have their backs as well so it is for the working in Middle Class families of New Jersey that we have crafted our proposed budget for the 2025 fiscal year it is a budget that delivers on the promise we have made to the people of New Jersey since day one a budget that will make life more affordable for more families by lowering costs and increasing opportunities a budget that balances the responsibility of spending within our means while stretching every dollar to lift up our neighbors in need and it is a budget that will protect our fundamental rights and freedoms from voting rights to Reproductive Rights bless you and to every right in between our proposed budget will once again Lower costs for middle and workingclass families as well as seniors by providing another round of historic tax relief and that includes the single largest property tax relief program in our history the anchor program last year it provided more than $2.2 billion in direct relief to millions of homeowners renters and especially seniors but ankor is not the only program that will help keep New Jersey it will help new jerseyans rather save money on their taxes our budget will also provide over $700 million in direct relief to New Jersey families through the child tax credit the child and dependent care tax credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit among other programs and for and for seniors our budget will invest $200 million more into the stay andj program led by Speaker Coughlin thank you speaker which will make it y with which will make it even more affordable for grandparents to stay close to their kids and grandkids right here in New Jersey our budget will fund a new program we are calling retire ready and J which will provide nearly every worker particularly those who don't have a pension or a 401k an option to invest in a retirement savings plan and I want to thank the legislature for making New Jersey one of the only states in America to offer this opportunity to our famili and what's even better enrolling in retire ready NJ is entirely free so you can start preparing for a dignified retirement at no extra cost in counties like Cumberland Atlantic and Essex more than one in five households with children struggle with food insecurity let's be clear no child in New Jersey should ever go home hungry and our budget am and our budget will help prevent that Injustice by investing $30 million more into providing free School meals to 60 60,000 additional children you cannot put a price tag on the health and well-being of our children I believe this is the most sacred investment that we can make and for that very same reason I am honored to report that the single largest investment in our budget is dedicated to New Jersey's best in the nation public education system our budget our budget please remain standing sorry our budget will increase funding in New Jersey public schools by more than 900 million and with this funding and with this funding our Administration is officially delivering on a promise we have made since day one we will be the first Administration in our state's history to fully fund New Jersey's school funding formula and with our budget we will build upon this economic momentum by creating new opportunities for young new jerseyans to launch their careers especially in fields that continue to see critical Workforce shortages like education and Health Care our budget will provide funding for student teacher stiens to help aspiring yeah to to help aspiring Educators begin their careers as well as $5 million for New Jersey teacher loan Redemption program to provide student loan relief to Educators throughout our state and our budget and our budget will also invest $5 million into creating a new nursing Workforce initiative it will help address our nursing shortage by recruiting and supporting aspiring nurses across New Jersey from helping pay off their student loans they said from helping pay off their student loans to funding training grants with our budget in that Spirit we are committing to ending veterans homelessness in New Jersey once and for all we will invest we will invest over $30 million over the next two years to ensure every veteran has a safe dignified place to call home and for veterans struggling with the disease of addiction as well as every New Jersey in struggling to find their own path to recovery our budget will also invest tens of millions of dollars into combating the opioid crisis now we are already making we are already making progress in Saving Lives from opioid use disorder last year we saw far fewer of our neighbors die from a suspected drug o overdose than the year before but let me be clear any precious life lost to the disease of addiction is one life too many last month as an example of our leadership we announced two of the largest offshore wind projects ever in America they're going to be built 40 miles off the coast of Atlantic City and create over 4,000 good pay paying overwhelmingly union jobs yeah you it's funny I'm not getting any more complaints there must be no whales 40 mil offshore just making sure you're paying attention out there because I am so New Jersey is racing toward our goal one of the most ambitious goals in America to run on 100% clean energy by the year 2035 and to ensure we meet this goal our budget will also invest $40 million into modernizing our state's energy grid an investment we plan to double through Federal match funding so that means that means we are literally going to put thousands of electricians Engineers construction workers and more to work so they can build the literal foundation for New Jersey's Clean Energy Future a future that will be handbuilt by the finest union workers in all of the land as our friends in the Press are fond of reminding me I have said many times that I would fix NJ Transit even if it killed me bear with me I appear to still have a pulse but better yet I have a new proposal to support NJ Transit for years to come today we are proposing a corporate Transit fee it will provide a dedicated funding stream for NJ Transit at no additional cost to our Working Families with the with this with this fee we're going to ask the biggest corporations with net incomes greater than $10 million to support NJ transit's future