TRENTON – Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) today released the following statement regarding Standard & Poor’s decision to change its outlook on the state’s finances to “negative,” warning of a potential future downgrade:
“Last week, we learned that the administration has been telling Wall Street one thing while the governor and his handlers have been telling the people of New Jersey another. Today we got a stern warning from Standard & Poor’s of a potential downgrade and, again, the administration’s talking heads deny the facts.
“The people of New Jersey are grown-ups. They deserve and can handle the truth about our state’s finances. It strains the bounds of credibility to tell investors sitting in a Wall Street board room one thing and another to residents sitting in a town hall. Taxpayers of New Jersey are even more invested in this state than the hedge funds and others who buy our bonds, and yet they are being denied straight-forward talk about the state’s true financial position.
“The governor’s fiscal practices are putting New Jersey at risk of a credit downgrade which would cost taxpayers untold millions or even billions of dollars. The administration’s repeated insistence that revenues are performing in line with their inflated projections is now bordering on the absurd. Forget Alice in Wonderland, this administration is now stepping dangerously close to Wizard of Oz territory.”