>> Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM insurance group.

And by the PSEG foundation.

Briana: Tonight, Governor Murphy delivers his annual state budget address, promising major investments to address affordability concerns in the state.

>> 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.

Briana: Also, the Republican party responds reacting to the governor's new $55.9 billion spending plan, as New Jersey battles the rising cost of living.

>> Let's tell the taxpayers what's really going on.

Briana: Plus from Israel -- Briana: Plus from ANCHOR spending, our team breaks it down into the priorities for fiscal year 2025.

>> A big portion is going to fund education in addition to K-12 public schools, there is a pre-k component and money set aside for property tax relief for seniors.

Briana: And looking for a musical instrument or telescope and don't want to buy it?

Don't worry.

The public library now has you covered, with a library of things.

>> It is squarely our mission to serve the needs of the community, and what I think -- in what I think is a creative, unusual and delightful way.

Briana: NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

♪ >> From NJ PBS studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi.

Briana: Thanks for joining us this Tuesday night.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

Governor Murphy proposes a 59.9 million-dollar spending plan before a joint session of the legislature today at the Statehouse in Trenton.

It is 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 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 Jerseians who deserve leaders who have their backs as well.

It is for the working and 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, Teddy productive rights -- to reproductive rights, and everything in between, lower costs for middle and lower class families as well as seniors by providing another round of historic tax relief.

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 ANCHOR is not the only program that will help keep New Jersey -- that will help New Jersey save money on taxes, our budget will also provide over $700 million in direct relief to New Jersey families for their child tax credit, the child and dependent care tax credit and the earned income tax credit, among other programs.

[APPLAUSE] And for seniors, our budget will invest $200 million more into the state -- the state and jay program which will make it -- yeah.

[Applause] 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 NJ, which will provide nearly every worker particularly those who don't have a pension or a 401(k) an option to invest in a retirement savings plan.

I want to thank the legislature for making New Jersey one of the only states in America to offer this opportunity to our families.

[Applause] And what's even better, it is entirely free, so you can start preparing for a dignified retirement at no extra cost.

And counties like Cumberland, Atlantic, 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 hungry.

[Applause] And our budget -- And our budget will help prevent that injustice by investing $30 million more into providing free school meals to 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 the single largest investment in our budget is dedicated to New Jersey's best in the nation public education system.

[Applause] Our budget -- [Laughter] [Applause] [Laughter] Please remain standing.

[Laughter] Our budget will increase funding in New Jersey's public schools by more than $900 million.

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 stipends to help aspiring -- Yeah.

To help aspiring educators begin their careers.

As well as $5 million for New Jersey's teacher loan redemption program to provide student loan relief to educators throughout our state.

And our budget -- [Applause] 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 -- [Applause] From helping pay off their student loans, to funding training grants.

With our budget, in that spirit, we are committed to ending veteran homelessness in New Jersey once and for all.

[Applause] We will invest over $30 million over the next two years to ensure that every veteran has a safe, dignified place to call home.

And for veterans struggling with the disease of addiction as well as every New Jerseyan struggling to find their own path to recovery, our budget will also invest tens of millions of dollars into combating the opioid crisis.

[Applause] We are already making progress and saving lives from opioid use disorder.

Last year we saw far fewer of our neighbors die from A suspected drug overdose than the year before.

But let me be clear, any precious life lost to the disease of addiction is One Life to many.

Last month, as an example of our leadership, we announced two of the largest offshore wind projects ever in America, they are going to be built 40 miles off the coast of Atlantic City and create over 4000 good paying overwhelmingly union jobs.

Yeah.

[Applause] It's funny -- I'm not getting any more complaints, there must be no whales 40 miles offshore.

Just making sure you are paying attention out there.

Because I am.

[Laughter] New Jersey is raising 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.

[Applause] So that means we are literally going to put thousands of electricians and engineers, construction workers and more to work so that 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 appeared 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.

[Applause] With this fee, we are going to ask the biggest corporations with net incomes greater than $10 million to support NJ transit's future.

Briana: Senior political correspondent David Cruz was in the chamber for the speech and is in the statehouse now with Officer Scanlon for more on the GOP response to the new budget.

David.

Reporter: Republicans as you might expect reactive to this budget with some skepticism.

We spoke to Senate budget officer Scanlon who called it tragic.

$56 billion ish, initial reaction from you.

Reporter: Kind of the same -- >> Kind of the same.

This is a coasting budget.

We all believe in mental health and addiction services.

That's all great.

But this is a continuation of missed opportunities by this administration, in this era with so many opportunities to remake our budget and make sure that it was long-term, solvent, and sustainable, we have not done that.

This year alone, we are spending down our surplus by $2 billion.

That is not a good sign.

That's an indication of a structural budget deficit.

How will these things be sustained when the federal pandemic money is gone and the $4 billion we borrowed that we didn't need is gone?

That is a problem.

Reporter: As far as big-ticket items go, universal pre-k 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.

>> I don't think the governor actually apparently understands the school funding formula and the budget, he said the extra $900 million is going to benefit every kid, every taxpayer in New Jersey, that's absolute garbage.

To be fair, I've already spoken to the administration -- 140 districts are being cut.

Tell that, when the governor says it's going to benefit every kid and every taxpayer, tell that to the kids in the 140's will districts where they are losing music and art and losing sports.

It's a disaster.

It's been a disaster.

For the last three years.

The administration has done nothing to help them.

That has to be fixed.

It's a serious flaw.

If he's going to claim that increasing school aid cuts property taxes, in almost half the districts, they are either increasing due to inflation or outright cutting, he's got to accept that he is increasing property taxes, it's disaster for the school districts.

Reporter: You've got to reform the whole funding formula you are saying.

>> The school funding formula dates back to 2006-2008 it was formulated.

It is so outdated.

To claim we are fully funding it is not a great achievement.

And should not be seen as that by the borders because it is an old formula.

We have not reworked at the last five years.

That is a huge missed opportunity.

Reporter: What is your feeling about this corporate transit fee that will be dedicated specifically to New Jersey transit?

This is the kind of new version of the corporate business tax surcharge, except it is going to affect companies that are making over $10 million.

>> Whatever.

We all pay it.

Corporations don't pay taxes.

People pay taxes.

They are going to increase prices into whatever they need to do to make that whole.

Sorry, I don't believe it.

This was the same CBT surcharge the governor a year ago was saying he should be credited for letting lapse.

Now a year later after Republicans said that this would happen, it is back and it will be reinstated.

We could have solved NJ transit's problem by again over the last few years remaking our budget, reforming, another round of pension, health benefits, it would've helped bend the curve and save billions of dollars.

Throw in the school funding formula reform, we could've also saved billions, we would not have to -- we would not have had to raise any of these taxes.

The increases in tolls and taxes and fees and labor the Governor-Elect's estate doesn't exist, but nonetheless in his own budget you can see it.

Reporter: two big programs intended to be tax favors for folks is the ANCHOR program of course, that's going to be refunded, then money put into the state NJ program, I know it's one of your favorites.

It doesn't kick in until 2026.

But tell us how much you love stay NJ -- stay in J.

>> It was an election year gimmick.

.

The funding we are putting and now is pennies compared to was going to be needed over time.

It's ever going to happen.

Mark my words be a not in the form the governor is claiming is going to happen.

It's good that we are fully funding ANCHOR.

But also at the same time there is $150 million cut to municipalities in this budget which will increase property taxes on everyone.

So let's be honest.

Call spades spades and tell the taxpayers was really going on.

Reporter: As has been the case for some time, Republicans will have little to do with the outcome of this budget but they expected keep railing against it until they finally pass -- it finally passes in the late hours of June 30.

I'm David Cruz.

We are in the State House.

Back to you.

Briana: Thank you, David.

So how does the governor get the legislature on board with this new transit proposal and the budget?

And joined in the studio by senior writer Colleen OJ and budget and finance writer John r. But to have you both back onset.

Let me come to you first, John, on this corporate transit fee.

What are the nuts and bolts?

It sounds a lot like this former corporate business tax surcharge .

>> It's not a surcharge but it certainly looks a lot like one in many ways.

That surcharge we use to levy in New Jersey on top earning businesses for the last several years went out on December 31, this new one would start retroactively on January 1, but instead of hitting companies with net profits over $1 million, it'll hit companies with net profits over $10 million.

That is a key difference because the pool shrinks from a couple thousand companies to a few hundred companies.

The way this tax rate, 2.5% rate, the same rate of the former surcharge, the way it will be applied, it will generate around the same amount of money projected from the former surcharge which is about $1 billion of which the governor wants to dedicate as a funding source for NJ transit which will be subject to the legislature's approval and the budget process as it plays out.

Briana: Which is what we have heard folks, advocates beg for years, to have a source of -- a dedicated source of funding for that.

Calling, is this a budget the legislature can get on board with?

It seems like a lot of the programs are carrying over.

Is the governor going to be able to get everyone together on this?

>> I think given the problems we are seeing in the economy and the tightness of this budget as we understand it, I'm not sure that there's a lot more that this governor can do.

Certainly talking about school aid, fully funding the formula, there's going to be some legislators and some districts that are thrilled and a lot more who are not going to be thrilled because they are going to lose money.

Those legislators I presume are not going to be voting for anything like this but I would think that most of the Democrats are going to be behind this.

Briana: What else stood out to you, John?

It looks like the state will have to tap some of the record surpluses that were built into previous budgets in order to achieve this.

Did that stand out to you?

>> Absolutely.

It's going to be beauty is in the eye of the beholder for this budget in a lot of ways and that is one of the ways.

You are seeing budget reserves basically drawing down to sustain the spending increase but where is that new money going?

A big portion is going to fund education in addition to K-12 public schools, there's a pre-k component and more money being set aside for property tax relief for seniors.

We are told that is still coming but they are putting away money to try to afford that.

On one hand you are seeing things like surplus reduced and you are saying spending go up at a rate that is higher than any growth in revenue is right now, which is a concern, on the other hand, full funding of the ANCHOR program so it can be carried over into the new year, education and mass transit, a lot of things that a lot of groups in New Jersey would be happy to see funded at the levels that we see them in the governor's budget.

Briana: Affordability of course has been Governor Murphy's tagline and every speech we have seen him give.

His got two more years left in office.

Is he getting closer to that with what we saw laid out today?

>> He's not cutting any of the programs.

When you don't have -- When you're spending more than your revenues are increasing, that is an issue.

At least he's not cutting that back.

We have promises there's going to be this stay in J program coming in but we are so far away from that.

There's a little more coming in but there's certainly nothing huge that I think we have seen in this budget.

Briana: All right, Colleen and John, thanks for being with me.

On Wall Street, stocks were mixed today.

Here's how the market closed.

♪ Briana: Finally tonight, we are used to checking out a trove of books when we had to the library, but visit a local branch and you will find you can take out so much more.

Libraries of things are the new trend, where cardholders can check out a range of goods, from small appliances, to a power washer.

A little something for everyone.

Ted Goldberg has the story.

>> We have a power washer.

Who would have thought you could borrow a power washer from the public library?

Reporter: The Hoboken public library has books.

But you probably knew that.

There are other -- Their other stuff might surprise you.

>> We had everything from A sega Genesis video game one of our very popular items, an electric knife sharpener.

Reporter: The library of things has all sorts of inventory that might come in handy like a stud finder or acorn whole set.

>> If you don't have the space, well, we will store it for you.

Reporter: If you are wondering what a wet/dry vacuum is here, too, they say libraries need to adapt to the people who go there and it might be easier to check something out and use it for two weeks than it would be to buy it and store it.

>> We are always finding new ways to serve the community, this is squarely in our mission, to serve the needs of the community.

And what I think is a creative, unusual and delightful way.

Reporter: The library of things can also serve as a trial run for people who want to invest in older technologies.

>> They don't want to buy a $70 record player so they are like, let me just try it out and see if I want to listen to this online are not or keep it is a pretty decoration in my apartment.

>> People have old tapes they want to be able to play and a lot of people don't have a VHS player anymore.

Reporter: If you are more interested in non-earth activities, a few libraries can hook you up with a telescope.

>> They have seen Jupiter and the rings around Saturn.

I've been able to see the moon, the craters of the Moon.

You would be surprised.

Urban stargazing is becoming a thing.

>> The telescope is really popular because often times folks want to test something out before they purchase it.

Reporter: A couple of counties over, assistant director Mary Lynn Becza also helps people check out Wi-Fi hotspots and snowshoes.

>> Would like to surprise people here at the library -- >> We like to surprise people here at the library.

It's a great conversation starter for us and a great way to get people excited about visiting the library.

Reporter: Their library of things covers all seasons.

>> Are most commonly borrowed item is -- >> Our most commonly borrowed item is our metal detector.

Sometimes it comes back with sand.

People like to take it to the beach.

Reporter: They cater to anyone who loves to play with bubbles, pickle ball, or parse out if their home is haunted.

>> For all of you ghost hunters out there, the EMF meter is really a fun thing to borrow.

We have a huge jigsaw puzzle lending collection, and we are cataloguing boardgames.

Reporter: Terry Hill's library of things includes a seed library for aspiring horticulturists and American girl dolls.

>> It is always for me about making your public library relevant.

Reporter: Director Laverne Mann says they have more than 20 musical instruments, allowing folks to find new passions for free.

>> They and their grandson play them horribly.

But do they have the best time together?

They sure did.

>> It's kind of thrilling to see their faces light up and say, I haven't touched a mandolin in years, I can't wait to check it out.

Reporter: There is no cost to access a libraries of things, just ask your local library for a card and you can start stargazing, gardening, or goes hunting, if that's your thing.

For NJ spotlight news, I'm Ted Goldberg.

Briana: That does it for us tonight, but don't forget to download the NJ Spotlight News podcast so you can listen anytime.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

For the entire NJ Spotlight News team, thanks for being with us, have a great evening, we will see you right back here tomorrow night.

♪ >> New Jersey education Association.

Making public schools great for every child.

And RWJ Barnabas health.

Let's be healthy together.

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