Big Pay Raises Got 'Quiet' Approval, Reports Say

Lawmakers said they didn't want to saddle New Jersey with another tax hike. But they did find enough money to dole out big government pay raises this summer.

Gov. Phil Murphy and the state Legislature "discreetly" and "quietly" set aside $10 million for legislative staff raises when lawmakers nearly shut down the government because of disagreements over the $37.4 billion budget, according to NJ Advance Media and The Record.

The crux of the disagreement was Murphy's desire to raise the sales tax and lawmakers' quest to change state aid to schools.

The budget signed on July 1 included an appropriation of $5 million to the state Assembly and $5 million to the state Senate for operations, NorthJersey.com reported. The money will boost legislative staff salaries at 80 local Assembly offices from $110,000 to $135,000, the website reported. The Senate will take similar steps.

Richard McGrath, a spokesman for Senate President Steve Sweeney, defended the pay raises to Patch, saying the money was used to provide a "much-needed increase to the district offices of the individual senators to maintain their staffing operations."

Most of the staffers haven’t had an increase in 16 years, he said. These offices have staffs with as many as four or five people who are responsible for legislation, constituent services, administrative support, community outreach and other functions "that respond to the needs of the residents in each district," he said.

"These are hard-working people who are devoted to public service," he said. "This increase was done at the discretion of the senate president, who is responsible for the allocation of funds for Senate operations. He believes the increase is needed by the local district offices to best serve the legislators’ constituents.”

The increases drew criticism from some lawmakers because, when the budget was passed on July 1, the pay raises had little to no public scrutiny. That's because the amount allocated for staff salaries for each lawmaker is not written into the budget law, according to The Record. It's used and determined by the Statehouse lawmakers and Sweeney.

“Whether or not it’s justified, allocating $10 million behind closed doors for such a controversial purpose comes off as deliberately evasive,” Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, R-Monmouth, told The Record.

Efforts to contact the Murphy administration for comment were not immediately successful.

Murphy and state lawmakers reached a budget deal after the governor offered a few big tax concessions as New Jersey neared a government shutdown deadline at midnight on July 1.

One of those concessions involved not raising the sales tax and raising the income tax on those who make $5 million or more. Murphy wanted the threshold to be $1 million, and later proposed $1.75 million.

The agreement outline, which carries a $765 million surplus in an approximately $37.4 billion overall budget, included:

• An increase in the income tax to 10.75 percent on filers with incomes of $5 million and above, providing approximately $280 million in new annual revenues
• A corporate business tax surcharge averaging 2 percent over 4 years – the first 2 years at 2.5 percent, which will provide $425 million, and the third and fourth year at 1.5 percent
• Adoption of a Combined Reporting standard which will ensure companies cannot place their profits in other states
• Raising the state property tax cap deduction from $10,000 to $15,000
• Increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) through an additional investment of $27.2 million to help over 510,000 families
• Creating a Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to help over 70,000 New Jerseyans earning less than $60,000 per year care for a child or other dependent
• A $3.2 billion pension payment, the largest in state history

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images