Phil Murphy offers tax hike deal to break N.J. budget impasse

Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday pitched a state budget compromise to fellow Democrats who control the state Legislature that would raise New Jersey's sales, income and business taxes.

A letter from Murphy to lawmakers circulated Tuesday afternoon outlines the latest volley in heated budget negotiations leading up to the deadline Saturday. It remains undetermined whether the stalemate ends in a compromise, government shutdown or $855 million in spending cuts.

Murphy says in the letter he's unwilling the accept the budget the Legislature passed last week. He has said that budget, which raises the Corporation Business Tax on the state's largest businesses to the highest level in the U.S., would leave the budget with a $104 million deficit and no emergency reserves.

"I remain ... unable to certify that the revenues contained in this budget are sufficient to fund the programs we all support. Failure to provide sufficient funding places all of these programs at risk," Murphy wrote.

Read more: https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/06/phil_murphy_offers_tax_hike_deal_to_break_nj_budge.html