What to Know
- The state budget needs to be in place by midnight Saturday to avoid a government shutdown — the second one in a row
- The major sticking point has been how much to raise taxes
- A vote is now expected Saturday night
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Democratic legislative leaders say they have reached a budget agreement.
Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin announced the deal Saturday evening, just hours ahead of a midnight deadline.
The Democratic governor says the deal avoids a government shutdown.
The deal will raise income taxes on people making $5 million and above to 10.75 percent from 8.97 percent, according to Murphy. It will also raise business taxes by an average of 2 percentage points over four years. The current rate is 9 percent.
Murphy says the deal is "just the beginning" of moving toward a "stronger and fairer" state.
The Democrat-led state government had until midnight Saturday deadline to enact a balanced state budget, without which state parks, public beaches and government offices would face a shutdown.
Local
If the government had shut down, it would have been the second year in a row and the third in the state’s history. Last year, under then-Gov. Chris Christie, the government shut down in large part because of Christie's insistence that the state's biggest health insurer help pay for opioid addiction treatment.
