Déjà Vu All Over Again

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By Michele N. Siekerka, NJBIA President and CEO On Apr 29, 2025

Yogi Berra was famous for his witty Yogi-isms about baseball and life, but his “déjà vu all over again” quip about the back-to-back home runs that Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hit during an inning in the 1961 pennant race transcends sports and time. 

In fact, Yogi’s “déjà vu” wisecrack seems just as apt today for the state budget hearings in Trenton as it was 64 years ago in Yankee Stadium. Not because Gov. Phil Murphy’s $58.1 billion budget proposal is a home run for taxpayers, but because it repeats what recent state budgets have continually done: Overspend, raise taxes and fees, and perpetuate a structural deficit.

The proposed FY26 budget for the new fiscal year that begins July 1 is $1.4 billion (nearly 3%) higher than the current year budget and $23.4 billion (67%) higher than the $34.7 billion budget Murphy inherited just seven years ago. This rapid spending growth is not sustainable and has left New Jersey in a vulnerable budget situation where repeated structural imbalances are caused by appropriations significantly exceeding revenues.

There is $1.2 billion more in spending than revenues in the proposed FY26 budget. While that structural deficit is down from the $2.1 billion imbalance in the current FY25 budget, there has still been a structural imbalance in six of the past seven Murphy budgets, with an astounding cumulative total of $7.6 billion more appropriations than revenues. 

The FY26 budget proposal is also antibusiness and antigrowth because for the second year in a row, the governor proposes over $1 billion in new or expanded taxes. Last year, the burden fell on New Jersey’s largest job creators who were saddled with the highest corporate business tax in the nation (11.5%). This year, proposed tax hikes impact almost every individual or business. 

The governor wants to levy a new truck-warehouse tax, expand the sales tax to many currently exempt products and services, increase the realty transfer fee, raise taxes on internet gaming, online sports betting, alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis and more. All will make New Jersey less affordable and less competitive for business and families. At the same time, he wants manufacturing, innovation and higher education cuts that will undermine New Jersey’s pro-growth innovation and workforce development efforts.

NJBIA is asking the governor and Legislature to do a better job holding the line on new spending items and better prioritize discretionary money available to grow the state’s economy. The $1.2 billion in new and expanded taxes should be rejected, and discretionary spending should be prioritized on initiatives that improve innovation, workforce development and infrastructure.

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