In our spotlight on Business Report tonight.

New Jersey has just over a week to pass a new budget or else it could face a government shutdown.

Negotiations remain ongoing for everything from property tax relief programs like anchor to state aid for public schools.

To discuss more on what we can expect from legislators as the deadline nears.

I'm joined by budget and finance writer John Reitmeyer.

All right, John, thank you for joining me.

Happy to be here today.

So let's talk about money.

We we don't know exactly how much is in this budget.

We know back in May, the governor submitted the total was about $56 billion.

I can change.

Tell me a little bit about that.

Yeah, well, we'll have to see.

So we're in the phase in the process where the legislature actually has the power under the state constitution to draft the spending bill.

And so we're waiting for that spending bill right now to be introduced in Trenton.

We know what the governor last left, where the governor last left things.

They got the final revenue update in mid-May.

And we've been waiting since then for the legislature to put out its budget.

It's likely to change.

It usually does.

They're usually priorities.

The legislature has.

They could add more money.

We've talked before about funding for things like higher education, that lawmakers are prioritizing property tax relief.

So we will wait to see where the number goes.

But the baseline that the governor left it at was 56 billion, which would be the the most expensive state budget in state history at that level.

And we'll see what lawmakers do with it.

Well, speaking about money, we are currently in a transit meltdown nightmare.

Passengers and commuters have been left stranded.

We know that some of that money from the budget can be allocated right to NJ Transit future.

I mean, does that still remain?

What can we see that change?

Well, this is one of those open questions, right?

Lawmakers could have acted earlier this year.

Unfortunately for NJ Transit riders, there's a 15% fare hike going into effect on July one, even as they face the service meltdown that we've seen over the last few days.

That's just for the operating budget.

So a lot of these infrastructure problems, you know, New Jersey Transit's an agency that for years has had to take money from its capital resources to fund its operating budget.

We're seeing all of these decisions sort of long standing come home to roost right now.

And lawmakers, again, they could have taken action earlier in the budget season and averted this fare hike by throwing more money at NJ Transit.

Now, NJ Transit is getting more money from the Turnpike Authority, kind of outside of the budget.

But you know, where lawmakers land on funding for NJ Transit, including a dedicated source of funding for NJ Transit, something the governor has called for.

You know, they've yet to take action.

What are some other items that we can see when we think about the budget?

Especially we think about tax relief programs like Anchor?

Right.

And so the state budget itself, everything is always subject to a year to year appropriation.

So a lot of people are now receiving anchor property tax relief benefits.

And we know what has been set aside in the governor's budget for anchor, which would keep it at the current levels.

It's not finalized until lawmakers come through and draft a budget bill and send that to the governor for adoption.

And so we're waiting right now.

There hasn't been any change that we know about.

The same for school aid funding for K through 12 public schools in New Jersey.

We know what the governor's proposed.

Now we get to find out where the legislature wants to fund that.

At what level the legislature would fund it.

Why are these, you know, late negotiation standard practice in New Jersey?

Does this happen in other states?

Because they feel like we've had this conversation over and over again.

Yeah.

There are a lot of states that already have their budgets, not only through the legislature, but signed into law in New Jersey for whatever reason.

The tradition has always been to wait until the last minute.

It was just a few years ago that lawmakers made a mistake in the drafting of a child tax credit where they put the wrong year in the legislation that was going with the budget.

But funding was in the budget for the tax credit.

So when they rush and do things like this, it takes away the public's opportunity to really see the final budget.

But it also leads to this type of haphazard lawmaking that then they have to do what they call clean up bills constantly because they're always rushing and making mistakes.

All right.

Well, hopefully they will figure it out so we don't have a government shutdown.

John Reitmeyer, thank you so much for joining me.

You're welcome.

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