Budget Showdown DELAYED: We're not mad - we're just disappointed.

But not nearly as mad as Senator O'Scanlon and concerned taxpayers

TRENTON - CJN reported yesterday that the Senate Budget Committee was prepared to vote on the 2024 Budget Tuesday. Reporters, journalists, lobbyists, and others came from all over the state - in storms, no less - only to find out that it’s been pushed to Wednesday.

It may not even be a showdown after private negotiations, per NJ Spotlight News:

That agreement, reached during private budget negotiations, has likely paved the way for a drama-free final week of legislative action in the run-up to the beginning of the 2024 fiscal year.

Earlier this year, Murphy proposed a $53.1 billion budget for the 2024 fiscal year that, among other things, called for increasing state aid for K-12 public schools and fully funding the public-worker pension fund obligations.

Republican Budget Officer Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) decried the incompetency of it all, saying “it’s outrageous that we’re going to be asked to vote on a record spending bill tomorrow by the Democratic majority without anyone having seen a copy of the bill yet,”

“This is no way to run a government.”

Sen. O’ Scanlon, the leading budget voice on the budget in Trenton, did pay tribute to outgoing Republican leader and fellow budget hawk Sen. Steven Oroho (R-24), adding a moment of levity to an otherwise frustrating day.