News & Releases

TRENTON – Senator Ellen Karcher, D-Monmouth and Mercer, a champion for ethics reforms in the State Senate, issued the following statement today regarding Governor Corzine’s budget proposal, issued to the Legislature at a joint session today in the Statehouse:

“Governor Corzine has offered some interesting initiatives to begin to cut waste, fraud and abuse from some of the most notoriously abused State programs. While I think he has gotten off to a good start, I would like to see more safeguards in place in the final budget to ensure that State funds are spent on the public interest, not private interests, and that we pass a budget in June that does not hold middle-class taxpayers in this State accountable for the mistakes of the past.

TRENTON – Senator Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex and a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, made the following statement after Governor Corzine’s Budget Address:

“It is obvious that this budget is a work in progress and over the next few months the Legislature will make major revisions to the Governor’s proposal.

TRENTON – Senator Joseph V. Doria, Jr., D-Hudson, a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement today regarding Governor Corzine’s proposed budget, which was presented to the joint Legislature today in the chambers of the General Assembly:

“Today, Governor Corzine presented the Legislature with a vision for the State’s budget, that will be scrubbed and rescrubbed by the Legislature before being adopted in June. He has made difficult decisions on the State’s priorities and finances. Now, the really tough work on the budget can begin.

TRENTON – Senator Wayne R. Bryant, Chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, said he hopes the Legislature can improve Governor Corzine’s $30.9 billion State budget proposal by making it “friendlier to working families.”

The Camden County Democrat, the Senate’s top budget expert, said it is premature to endorse the Governor’s proposal to raise the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent or to back any other proposed revenue raisers to help close a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall until State tax totals over the the next 60 days are assessed. He said he is “extremely concerned” by the estimated $300 million “negative impact” the Governor’s proposed spending plan would have on higher education in New Jersey.

TRENTON – Senator Joseph Coniglio, D-Bergen and a member of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, made the following statement in response to Governor Corzine’s Budget Address:

“As the Legislature is handed Governor Corzine’s budget proposal, it is clear that we have a lot of work ahead of us in creating a final budget.