Dems decry 'one-shots' in budget

Published March 29, 2012
By Michael Symons

TRENTON — Democratic lawmakers critiquing Gov. Chris Christie’s budget plan say its increased reliance on revenues that won’t recur in future years suggests he is shifting away from his pledge to cure the state’s structural fiscal problems.

Nonrecurring revenues in Christie’s budget exceed $1.6 billion, or 5 percent of proposed spending. Included is $391 million for future phases of his proposed income-tax cut and $194 million for future phases of already approved cuts in business taxes, the use of $288 million from the state’s surplus and $642 million in transfers from a variety of dedicated funds.

Overall, that’s up by nearly $414 million and flies in the face of Christie’s emphasis on ending the use of nonrecurring revenues, Democrats said.

“I’m not suggesting that we’re off the track, but there are some things presented in this budget that seem uncharacteristic to this governor’s philosophical approach to doing a budget in his first two years,” said Assemblyman John Burzichelli, D-Gloucester, who said such unutilized funds would be better used to pay down or avoid state debt.

Tax cuts blamed

State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said there would be almost no bottom-line growth in the reliance on nonrecurring revenues if not for having to record the future impact of phased-in tax cuts. He also said the state is still adjusting to the loss of federal stimulus funds.

“When I think of one-shots, I think of the effort to sell Aqueduct Raceway to a public authority in New York State, one of the more famous items of financial wizardry,” Sidamon-Eristoff said.

“It was ironic this year that the number attributable to nonrecurring resources went up, but frankly it went up wholly as a function of the fact that the governor was proposing and continuing to fund tax relief,” he said. “It’s ironic, and it’s sort of frustrating.”

The amount of revenue being obtained by tapping balances in various state funds would rise from $96 million this year to $642 million in the coming year.

Sidamon-Eristoff said the transfer from the Clean Energy Fund isn’t new but acknowledged the $200 million amount is “indeed higher than in previous years.” He said the transfer won’t affect “ongoing clean energy programs” or state Board of Public Utilities spending plans.

Sidamon-Eristoff said a $200 million transfer from an affordable-housing fund and $75 million from New Jersey’s share of the state-federal settlement with large mortgage loan servicers will be used to support programs related to housing for low-income people, the homeless, the developmentally disabled, parolees and other people with needs for housing help.

Environmentalists have criticized the clean-energy transfers, and housing advocates have likewise expressed concern about taking $200 million from the funds builders had paid to municipalities for a since-suspended 2 percent fee on development, as well as the money paid to states to settle complaints about problem mortgages that contributed to the foreclosure wave.

“These may be housing needs, under certain circumstances, but this is not what this money was intended for,” said Assemblywoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-Mercer.

“Right now we have thousands of foreclosed homes, vacant properties, and a huge backlog of unmet needs for affordable places to live,” said Nina Arce of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey. “It’s crucial those dollars be used for the homes our residents need and not to fill budget gaps.”

Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, noted that one-shot revenues accounted for $3.8 billion in Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s last budget, or 13 percent of spending.

“This administration, in their third budget, has more than cut that in half,” O’Scanlon said. “Unless someone is totally not paying attention, a dramatic improvement, and we can all stand up and applaud this administration.”

One-shots in Corzine’s final budget included $1.7 billion in federal stimulus funds and more than $1 billion from the temporary increase in income taxes on the wealthy. The total that year exceeded the $3.5 billion in one-shot funds used in Corzine’s first three years in office combined.