New Jersey Reaches Deal on Budget

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

From Atlantic City casinos to construction on the Jersey Turnpike, New Jersey is about to get back to business. Lawmakers have reached an agreement on a new budget, and that will end a sixday shutdown of the state government. Terry Sheridan of member station WBGO joins us from the New Jersey state capital, Trenton, and Terry, the issue here was how to close a $4.5 billion gap in the state budget. I want you to remind us how Governor John Corzine wanted to do it and what he heard from the legislature.

Mr. TERRY SHERIDAN (Reporter, WBGO): Well, what Governor John Corzine wanted to do, was to raise the state sales tax one percent, from six to seven percent, and he wanted that to go to close the budget gap. Now what the state legislature, specifically Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts - he didn't, at first, want anything to do with a sales tax increase - and then he wanted the sales tax increase to go, 100 percent of that, to property tax relief. And the compromise was that half of that, so onehalf of one percent, would go to close the budget and the other onehalf of one percent, would go for property tax relief. And, as a result, New Jersey will have a budget soon.

SIEGEL: It sounds like it'll also still have something of a deficit, if not all of that money is going to reduce expenditures or to reduce the budget gap.

Mr. SHERIDAN: Well that's, as they say, the devil is in the details and that's what they're working out now. And this is where Governor Corzine was very coy. When he was asked for these details, he said, well, we still have to work that out. There will be budget cuts, there will be other savings, there will be, he didn't want to use the word tricks, but he said that, yes, the devil was still in the details and that's what they're working on now. So both legislative bodies, their Budget Committees, are back at work now and they are trying to go over the budget or the agreement, line by line.

SIEGEL: Now, let's get our Ds and Rs straight here. Governor Corzine is the Democratic governor of New Jersey, and the speaker of the assembly is also a Democrat, isn't he?

Mr. SHERIDAN: Oh indeed he is, as is the senate speaker, senate president. It was also basically, in this case, it wasn't so much Democrat/Republican, but North Jersey/South Jersey. The governor and the senate president are from the northern part of the state, and the assembly speaker is from the southern part of the state, Camden County. And that seems to be where the fault line was in this debate.

SIEGEL: Now, when do New Jersey state employees start getting back to work?

Mr. SHERIDAN: Well, that was another thing that was gray. The governor repeatedly said that nothing is going to happen for 24 to 36 hours. He said the budget has to be passed in a legal way, and it has to be passed in an orderly way. Now, I've spoken to the lottery people; they say that once they get the word, it's basically a computer command and all the terminals start running again. I was told that the casino monitors, once they are back physically in the casino, it's just a matter of an hour or so before the casinos can start operating again. And as far as the beaches go, just a quick test of the water, make sure the water quality is okay, and they too can be opened.

So once the budget is signed by the governor, it's very quickly - the state very quickly goes back to normal. It's just going to be about 24 hours until the budget becomes law.

SIEGEL: And there'll be 80,000, I gather, state employees who will be back on the job.

Mr. SHERIDAN: Well, it would be the 80,000 people. It would also be the casino workers, because let's remember the casino workers don't work for the state. If the state monitors are out then no one's at the casino - so the casino workers, the hotel workers and the people who drive the food to the casinos, they also didn't have any work this week.

SIEGEL: Thank you, Terry.

Mr. SHERIDAN: You're welcome, Robert.

SIEGEL: That's reporter Terry Sheridan of member station WBGO, talking with us from Trenton, New Jersey.

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