The Senate Majority Office pushed back against claims by national figures who have come Governor Murphy’s aid in the budget showdown, such as Al Gore and Howard Dean, that Murphy’s budget is more progressive than their budget.

They also sent out a statement (largely the same as the below) refuting state religious leaders who’ve publicly sided with Murphy in a statement released by the NJSDC this morning.

The SMO issued the following statement:

‘The New Jersey Democratic Legislature has restored funding for valuable PROGRESSIVE programs that Governor Phil Murphy cut when he presented his budget in March.  It is surprising that progressive national figures have endorsed Governor Murphy’s budget that:

• CUT Funding for Abused Children
• CUT Aid to the Disabled
• CUT Aid to Battered Women
• CUT Property Tax relief for the Low-Income and Seniors
• CUT Aid to Re-Entry Services
• CUT Aid to people with Tourrette’s
• CUT Aid to Cancer Research
• CUT Aid to People with Autism
• CUT Aid to Higher Education
• CUT Aid to Social Workers
• CUT Aid to Ask Risk Youth
• UNDERFUNDED School Districts
• CUT Aid protecting people from Lead Poisoning
• CUT Aid to Reduce Homelessness
• CUT Aid to People suffering from ALS

Their comments to the press do not reflect an accurate understanding of what the Legislature has proposed.

Feeding the poor, sheltering the homeless, cancer research, educating all our children equally, taking care of our veterans and our seniors, making housing affordable and keeping taxes to a minimum – these ARE Democratic core values. And these programs were all CUT by the governor.

The Legislature’s budget restored these programs without raising taxes on individuals. That is progressive.

The facts speak for themselves. While we respect our Democratic colleagues across the nation, we also expect them to respect our constitutionally mandated role as legislators to craft and pass a balanced budget. And we did that and presented a budget that fully reflects the values of all Democrats.’

They also released the same list of cuts in response to religious leaders across the state who’v publicly sided with Murphy.