Recorded on 3/20/20, Steve Adubato is joined by Elizabeth Maher Muoio, New Jersey State Treasurer, to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on New Jersey’s budget and how the state will manage the current obligation to balance the budget during these unprecedented times.

Elizabeth Maher Muoio explains that the New Jersey State Treasury will be paying for the needs of each department in the Treasury in real-time and working as quickly as they can, considering the effects of COVID-19 are changing at such a rapid pace.

The Treasurer also discusses how the proposed budget and budget cycle will change. Technically, the budget has already been presented to the legislature, but there many changes to consider. Says Maher Muoio, “It’s going to take an enormous cooperative effort, on behalf I think of the administration and the legislature, to look at what the new realities are in terms of expenses, maybe change some priorities, eyes wide open on what our revenues end up being, so it’s all gonna come into play and take a real level of cooperation between everybody to get through this budget cycle, “ she says.

One of the Treasury’s goals for the past two years has been working towards creating a budget that would help meet rainy day needs, for instance, during the Great Recession, the dot com Crisis in 2001, and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In regards to the fiscal impact of COVID-19 she says, “Revenues are going to be a key part to how we work to balance a budget with so many new unpredicted expenses that we’re gonna also have to face.”