The Senate Majority PAC sent out the following email from Senate President Sweeney:

Last year, New Jersey voters made it clear that they wanted representation in Trenton that mirrored their priorities by overwhelmingly electing Democrats to the Legislature, increasing the democratic caucuses in both houses, while also electing a Democrat for Governor. During the past six months, we have taken advantage of this opportunity to enact an array of policies and programs that reflect the values of Democrats such as:

Now, the immediate challenge we have is the new state budget. Democrats in both houses have worked together very effectively to develop a budget plan that we believe addresses the state’s needs and focuses on our values which support an array of services and programs that assist the most vulnerable, aid those experiencing hardship, expand opportunity for the disadvantaged and provides a path for fair and full school funding for all school districts. It was a collaborative effort where we respected the ideas and opinions of each other. In fact, the Democratic legislative budget plan includes almost all the same goals as the proposal offered by the Governor in March.

The principle difference is the source of new revenue. We understand that the Governor wants an income tax increase. That is what he campaigned on and that is what he proposed in March during his budget speech. But the hard working people of New Jersey should not have to shoulder this tax burden. We simply disagree and have offered an alternative solution – an increase in the corporate business tax. This is a fair and reasonable approach because it takes into consideration the windfall profits corporations are benefiting from the Trump tax law. The economic landscape changed and we believe that a tax on corporations is better than a tax on people.

We don’t want the progress that can be achieved by our shared goals and objectives to be lost or compromised by a government shutdown. We all have to be willing to listen to each other and to work together on a budget that moves New Jersey forward. We believe this budget that the Legislature has proposed accomplishes our collective goal that restores our democratic principles and puts us on a path of fiscal sanity.