Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean said there were no winners in a fight over tax increases between Governor Phil Murphy and Senate President Steve Sweeney, saying taxpayers are the big losers under a compromise tax plan approved by Democrats yesterday.

“All of the headlines today focused on whether the Senate President or the Governor won their budget battle over whose massive tax increases to implement,” said Kean. “The truth is that there are no winners in this fight, only losers. And the biggest losers of all are New Jersey taxpayers who will pay $1.5 billion more this year as a result of the Democrats’ tax compromise.”

Over the last few weeks, Senate President Sweeney and Governor Murphy were locked in a very public disagreement over competing tax proposals.

The Senate President warned that the Governor’s income tax increase would drive residents from New Jersey. At the same time, the Governor warned that the Senate President’s business tax increase would drive employers from the state.

“While their criticisms of each other’s tax proposals were correct, the Governor and Senate President chose to combine both of their flawed proposals into a Frankenstein tax compromise that will drive both residents and employers from New Jersey,” said Kean. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

In addition to the higher income and business taxes enacted yesterday by Democrats, more than a dozen other tax increase proposals were approved by the Democratic Legislature or signed into law by Governor Murphy that would tax grocery bags, ridesharing services like Lyft and Uber, and Airbnb.

Kean warned that other Democratic proposals to increase the sales tax and taxes on home sales and vacation rentals would likely be brought up again next year to fund the Governor’s growing spending plans.

“There’s very little that Governor Murphy and New Jersey Democrats didn’t try to raise taxes on this year to fund billions in new spending,” Kean concluded. “The few taxes they failed to increase as part of their budget compromise will likely be proposed again next year to fund even bigger spending plans. With this single-party government in Trenton, the tax pain for New Jerseyans will only continue to grow.”