The 2021 state budget will include a restoration of the millionaire’s tax, Governor Phil Murphy formally announced today at a press conference alongside Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) and Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-19). The deal raises taxes on income earners over a million dollars and awards a tax rebate of $500 to those making as much as $75K for a single parent household and $150K for a two-parent household, an estimated 800,000 people.

The political theater setpiece of the announcement itself had a Bertolt Brechtian feel to it, as the COVID-19 crisis ostensibly caused Sweeney to do an about-face on his dug-in opposition to Murphy’s proposed millionaire’s tax.

The event started with Murphy.

“In this unprecedented time, now is the time to ensure the wealthiest among us are also called to sacrifice, literally pennies on their top dollars earned,” said the Democrat. “The revenues will allow us to do more for our schools and our property taxpayers.”

Then it was the senate president’s turn.

A backer of a millionaire’s tax during the Chris Christie years, then resistant to the millionaire’s tax during the Murphy years, Sweeney gave in on the tax and explained his reasoning.

“I’ll bet a lot of yous didn’t expect me to be here today. I’m surprised I am,” the senate president said.

He was quick to credit Coughlin – not long-time rival Murphy, whom he thanked for backing the speaker – for coming up with the idea to strike the deal.

“I vocally resisted the millionaire’s tax for years,” said Sweeney, who led the charge for a millionaire’s tax that for four years running ran into Christie’s veto pen, then adamantly opposed the measure when neophyte Murphy took office.

“It wasn’t a political thing but the pandemic hit,” said the senate president. “We have to face the reality [of the conditions created by COVID-19].  A lot of families are hurting here. Until he [Coughlin] came to me, I wasn’t really there. Helping middle class families makes all the sense to me in the world.”

He celebrated the benefit to 800,000 families and anticipated that lawmakers will finish the budget before the deadline.

“There are a whole bunch of other ideas out there; we didn’t walk away; there are two sides of the envelope,” said Sweeney, clubbed with a question about the status of his Path to Progress plan, which obviously did not include a millionaire’s tax.

Positioning himself at the podium on the heels of Sweeney, Coughlin tried to modestly melt into the background.

“We did it together,” he said.

“Credit I don’t deserve,” he insisted, taking pains to praise the governor.

“Proud to be a part of it,” he added.

Ever in narrative control mode, Murphy cagely tried to take credit for giving Coughlin credit.

“Thank you for your leadership on so many things, including this,” said the governor, threading the needle between giving Coughlin enough of a nod, while blurring it by putting it in the context of the lawmaker’s broader work in order to emphasize (presumably) executive leadership – without actually saying it out loud.

For his part in a statement, Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-21) panned the deal between Murphy and legislative Democrats “that would raise income taxes on millionaires, costing them thousands of dollars.”

“Governor Murphy’s plan to raise taxes is a gift for the Florida economy and a nightmare for New Jersey,” said Bramnick. “Passing another ill-conceived tax will make outmigration worse and shift the tax burden onto the middle-class when others leave.”

But publicly the crisis indeed brought Democrats together, at least for today.

At the end of the presser, Murphy tried to fire-blanket everybody under his own auspices.

“These are crazy unusual times and we need to have as much cohesion and team work as possible,” said a gratified governor.

Residents will see their rebate checks next year. The millionaire’s tax will kick in with Murphy’s signing of the new budget.

Former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli (R-16), who’s running for governor in 2021, panned the deal.