political

The top budget analyst with New Jersey's nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services has informed Senate and Assembly budget committees that if the Garden State's economic rebound mirrored national performance, the state would have had roughly $3.3 billion more to spend in the current year's budget.

An internal probe into the so-called Bridgegate scandal has cleared Gov. Chris Christie of any wrongdoing, but the majority of New Jersey residents don't buy that.

To fight the state's surging heroin epidemic, Gov. Chris Christie stresses the need for treatment, not just arrests.

Donors have given $33 million to the Republican Governors Association since New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took the helm late last year.

Job creation, not taxation, is the key to turning around New Jersey's struggling economy according to Paul Sarlo, chairman of the state Senate Budget Committee. But Sarlo feels that raising the gas tax is a must for improving the state's decaying roads and bridges.

First Brick, now Pohatcong. The most vocal critic of red light cameras says this could be a sign of more opposition in the future.

The Select Committee on Investigation, the legislative panel looking into the Bridgegate scandal, continues to comb through thousands of documents while waiting for a judge to decide -- in a ruling expected soon -- if two key players will be forced to turn over subpoenaed information.

Authorities have accused the chairman of the Cumberland County Republican Party of swindling an elderly patient at his rehabilitation center of more than $149,000.

The transfer inheritance tax, one of New Jersey's oldest taxes, dates back to 1892. This 16 percent levy is applied when property is transferred outside a deceased resident's immediate family. Another so-called "death tax," the estate tax, is applied on property valued at more than $675,000.

Gov. Chris Christie would prefer if Bridgegate were never mentioned again, but even with an internal report that clears the governor of any wrongdoing, the public probably won't forget about the controversy any time soon.