Though the state approaches its new budget with a huge surplus, analysts are cautioning a fiscal cliff could await a year later. Federal funds might delay it.
The state's emergency COVID borrowing cannot be repaid early, but Treasury Department says it makes more sense to repay other debt with higher interest rates.
After interest-only payments are made in 2021 and 2022, yearly payments are expected to be slightly more than $500 million for the 10 years that follow.
To make up for projected declines in revenue projections, the 2021 state operating budget is balanced in part through $4.5 billion in general obligation bonds.
The state plans to borrow $4.5 billion to balance its budget and boost its surplus to $2.5 billion. Spending is higher than Gov. Phil Murphy had pitched.
It took a worldwide pandemic – plus $500 checks to middle-class families in an election year – to get a millionaires tax back on the books in New Jersey.
Business groups are hammering Gov. Phil Murphy’s budget plan over its more than $1 billion in tax hikes, two-thirds affecting the wealthy and corporations.