it's getting down to the wire at the State House just two days remain for lawmakers to approve the state's massive spending plan a more than 53 billion dollar budget for fiscal year 2024 the largest in-state history legislators were added until late last night and back again today there's been little dispute over the items in the budget it calls for increased state aid to K-12 schools and fully funding the public worker pension fund along with newly added money for property tax relief but the plan still needs to be approved and signed by Governor Murphy by midnight Friday to meet the state's constitutionally mandated July 1st deadline or risk shutting down the government it's a process and I'm joined by budget and finance writer John reitmeyer from Trenton for the latest John you know we said that there was going to be no drama this year this budget was largely decided Well ahead of time and yet here we are we have really just been watching this process turn out slowly what gives yeah that's right Brianna and you know how these long uh late June days can go in Trenton when the budget's coming together it's a big task for staffers here to take what's been agreed to by lawmakers and Governor Murphy and turn that into legislation with many moving Parks this year there's a lot of legislation related to the budget things that are happening with tax credits and tax relief that are all part of this process and so we we know what's happening we know the the broad strokes and we're just waiting to see the final numbers and some of the final pieces of legislation before they go through committee so um there were a couple of last minute votes last night with some significant add-ons talk to me about those and what do they include yeah that's right and so you for uh families in New Jersey and this is something that the governor had sought a few months ago in his original budget proposal there is a doubling of the state's child tax credit and so that's going to be max out now at a thousand dollars for uh people who meet income eligibility for children under the age of six and so that's a fairly new tax credit in New Jersey and you see this effort now to increase it and becoming much more generous again for those uh who meet the income qualifications and then sort of on the other side of the the generational uh scale we have an increase in Anchor property tax relief benefits for seniors that was part of an agreement that the governor just reached with lawmakers last week on senior property tax relief and that's a 250 dollar increase that's moved through committee already for both senior homeowners and Senior renters and so those are some of the the key elements that are being folded into this budget as we await as we wait for it but some some key changes to state tax policy there both for families and for seniors well and stay in J is important to note John because that was one item that the governor said he was willing to really stand his ground on we could have possibly seen a state government shutdown if they hadn't come to that agreement so will lawmakers meet the Friday deadline to fully approve this spending bill but every indication we're getting is that they will that there's been no hiccup in the process that we're just literally waiting for the drafting of the actual legislation to be completed it sounds like the governor and lawmakers remain on the same page which at this point in the game is very important because there's not much time left uh even when things go smoothly just in terms of the legislative clock so we we don't we don't hear any indications of any last-minute disagreements they still remain on the same page including on the issue of senior property tax relief and trying to to start up a new program that would expand what's offered to seniors but but not until 2026 so that's something that a breakthrough came last week on that yeah so it's being incorporated into this budget for sure we just wait for the for the legislation at this point very very quickly John yeah very quickly are Republicans behind this and do Democrats even need them to be they've got the votes yeah yeah Democrats have majorities in both houses when the senior property tax bill went through committee yesterday most Republicans joined up I I guess two they had some reservations about the proposal but at the same time uh it's a it's an election year and that's a tax cut that's being proposed all right John rightmeyer for us at the State House on this budget slog thanks so much John you're welcome