Gov. Murphy’s budget — taxpayers should be ‘up in arms’ (Opinion)

Jim Gearhart and Patrick Lavery each watched Gov. Phil Murphy's budget address Tuesday. And they each took away one major impression:

It was boring.

"The governor took a very long time to say not a lot at all," Patrick says on this week's  Jim Gearhart Show podcast, available here as well on iTunes and Google Play.

The budget's largely been seen as less ambitious and less likely to rock the boat than the spending plan Murphy unveiled a year ago — this time continuing many of the progressive initiatives already put into effect but with few plans for new taxes. In fact, Murphy moved some of the conversation away from spending, focusing on $1.1 billion in savings.

Likely the biggest point of contention? He hasn't given up on a millionaire's tax that was drastically scaled back in negotiations with legislative leaders last year.

A few familiar themes made its way into Murphy's budget address: Expanded tuition assistance. Funding for Planned Parenthood. Revenue from still-yet-to-be-made-legal marijuana sales.

"This to me was the big thing in this — the fact that there was absolutely no productive mention of the 900 pound gorilla in the New Jersey room, which is property tax," Jim says.

And over that, he says, people should be outraged.

"People in New Jersey should be up in arms, especially retired people, older people, people in the middle incomes in which you make too much to qualify for the other programs and not enough to get by," Jim says.

That's just part of what Jim and Bob Williams take on in the latest installment of his podcast. Check out the full episode to hear the rest. And email Jim at Jim@NJ1015.com.

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