NJ Assembly GOP

06/19/2026

Imagine paying the check before you're allowed to see the menu. That's how New Jersey's budget process works.

Every year, about $1 billion is moved around through budget resolutions. Lawmakers submit hundreds of spending requests, but taxpayers often don't get to see them until after the budget is passed. This wasn't supposed to happen.

After a corruption scandal sent a powerful state senator to prison for steering taxpayer money, Trenton promised reforms and transparency. Instead, the loopholes remained.

Assemblywoman Aura Dunn pulls back the curtain on one of the least understood, and least transparent, parts of New Jersey government.

Watch and decide for yourself and give us your comments.

06/19/2026

Add JetBlue to the list!

This week, JetBlue announced it is closing its flight attendant base and technical operations at Newark Liberty International Airport this fall — shifting resources to Florida.

In the same week, the World Cup showed the world what NJ Transit looks like under pressure. And in 11 days, Trenton must pass a budget while Democrats push to restore hundreds of millions in spending the governor herself said needs to be cut.
The pattern keeps repeating:

📦 Samsung → Texas
🛢️ ExxonMobil → Texas
🚗 Mercedes-Benz → gone
✈️ JetBlue → Florida

High taxes. High costs. High regulation. And Trenton keeps spending more.

At what point does the majority party ask why New Jersey keeps losing?

JetBlue is cutting key Newark and LaGuardia bases while expanding Mint premium cabin service at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport this fall.

06/19/2026

The Legislature must pass a budget and the governor must sign it by June 30.

If recent history is any guide, the final budget bill will arrive only hours before that deadline.

Lawmakers are often asked to vote on hundreds of pages of spending decisions with little time to review them before the fiscal year ends at 11:59 p.m.

If the budget is not signed by then, state government shuts down.

New Jersey has experienced only two budget shutdowns in modern history: 10 days in 2006 and three days in 2017.

Before the deadline arrives, Democratic leaders negotiate which spending requests survive and which disappear.

Governor Mikie Sherrill has said she will only consider budget resolutions if equivalent spending cuts are found elsewhere in the budget.

At the same time, legislators have submitted spending requests approaching $1 billion.

Those requests become part of the final negotiations that determine where your tax dollars go.

Then, sometime later, taxpayers finally learn who sponsored what and where much of the money was directed.

By then, the votes have been cast.

The budget has been signed.

And the money has already been approved.

This year, Assembly Republicans submitted zero budget resolutions.

Not because our districts lack needs, but because taxpayers deserve a transparent process that allows the public to see spending requests before lawmakers vote on them.

Tonight: The corruption scandal that was supposed to fix this process and why many taxpayers still don't know where their money goes.

06/18/2026

Remember all that talk about transparency? This is where it ends.

After the filing deadline passes, the public is effectively locked out of the process.

Thousands of spending requests may have been submitted.

But Taxpayers never get to see most of them.

Only the requests that survive negotiations are eventually disclosed, often six to eight weeks after the budget becomes law.

The requests that are rejected simply disappear, despite your money being on the line.

That means taxpayers cannot see the full list of spending proposals, compare priorities, or evaluate which lawmakers were asking for what.

Instead, Democratic leaders and their staffs begin negotiating behind closed doors.

This year, those negotiations involve Governor Mikie Sherrill, Senate President Nick Scutari, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin. Budget resolutions become bargaining chips in larger budget negotiations, as Democrats push more of your money to the middle of the table.

The amount of discretionary spending moving through this process has grown dramatically in recent years.

Between Fiscal Years 2024 and 2026, Democrats gifted approximately $2.1 billion through these spending additions.

In Fiscal Year 2026 alone, the total reached roughly $860 million.

By the time the budget reaches the floor the decisions have already been made.

Taxpayers still don't know where much of their money is going.

But somebody does.

Tomorrow: The final deal, the June 30 deadline, and why lawmakers often see the finished budget only hours before the vote.

06/17/2026

Governor Mikie Sherrill wants state agencies to hunt for junk fees.

Interesting choice. Because asking New Jersey bureaucrats to find junk fees is like asking the inventor of the scam to conduct the audit.

Property taxes. Tolls. Gas taxes. Registration fees. Title fees. Permit fees. Filing fees. Utility fees. Court surcharges. Electric vehicle fees. Endless add-ons, penalties, and assessments. That mysterious "Societal Benefits Charge" on your electric bill that sounds less like a fee and more like a rejected George Orwell book title.

And a processing fee for paying a toll by plate. That's right.

A fee on a fee!

If junk fees are wrong, they're wrong whether they're charged by a corporation or by Trenton.

Maybe start there. 🙄

TRENTON, N.J. – Someone, somewhere, spoke of removing the log from one’s own eye before offering to take the speck from someone else’s. Perhaps that is why Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s June 15 announcem

06/17/2026

🚨 VICTORY FOR TAXPAYERS 🚨

This morning, Assembly Republican budget members demanded state oversight officials review Newark's plan to award lifetime taxpayer-funded health benefits to a retiring councilman.

Assemblymen Brian Rumpf, Gerry Scharfenberger, Al Barlas and Michael Inganamort stepped in and helped stop a sweetheart deal that would have stuck taxpayers with the bill for years to come.

When politicians try to take care of politicians, somebody needs to stand up for the people paying the bills.

Today, taxpayers won.

Republican members of the Assembly Budget Committee are asking the state to intervene as the City of Newark attempts to finance lifetime health benefits on the backs of taxpayers for an ineligible ele

06/17/2026

Here's the part taxpayers never get to see.

Once lobbyists and special interests make their pitch, Democrats begin the spending frenzy.

The tool they use is called a budget resolution. Think of it as a taxpayer-funded wish list.

Lawmakers submit requests through an internal system, identify the amount they want spent, and certify they will not personally benefit from the funding.

The Office of Legislative Services organizes the requests and assigns them resolution numbers. Local officials, advocacy groups, and organizations then lobby lawmakers to sign on as co-sponsors.

This year, lawmakers had just 12 days — from May 14 through May 26 — to submit spending requests.

In that short window, they proposed hundreds of millions of dollars in additional spending.

Here's the part taxpayers don't see:

Unlike legislation, there is no public dashboard tracking these requests. No running tally. No simple way to see who is requesting what with your money.

Joint Rule 42 requires budget resolutions to be filed at least 14 days before lawmakers vote on the budget.

This year, that deadline falls on June 17.

But the rule also allows additional resolutions to be filed later "in a manner determined by the Presiding Officer" of each House.

In plain English: spending requests can continue to appear after the official deadline.

That's where the real fun begins.

The resolutions that survive are largely determined through negotiations among the three most powerful Democrats in New Jersey government and their staffs: Governor Mikie Sherrill, Senate President Nick Scutari, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin.

Budget resolutions become bargaining chips. A project here. A grant there. Funding for a favored organization somewhere else.

They're not negotiating with their money. They're negotiating with YOURS.

Tomorrow: What happens after the filing deadline and why taxpayers still don't know where much of the money is going.

06/16/2026

Legislative Democrats love to spend your tax money on projects that benefit their political allies, favored organizations, and sometimes themselves, but NOT you.

Over the next five days, we'll walk you through how that process works in the backrooms of Trenton. Spoiler alert: it isn't pretty.

It starts with budget hearings held from March through May. Commissioners who run the state’s bureaucracies appear before lawmakers to defend the governor's spending plan. Democrats have turned these hearings into a charade. The public gets a show, while the real budget negotiations happen later behind closed doors.

That doesn't mean the hearings are useless. They remain one of the few opportunities taxpayers have to hear directly from the people spending billions of dollars. Assembly Republicans use those hearings to hold bureaucrats accountable. That's the fun part.

While the hearings are underway, lobbyists are meeting with lawmakers and asking for more of your money. Some of those causes may be worthwhile. The problem is New Jersey is already facing a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit.

According to a New Jersey Monitor analysis, roughly $700 million added to last year's budget through budget resolutions flowed overwhelmingly to Democratic districts.

In Trenton, pork follows power. And Democrats control all of it.

That is one reason Assembly Republicans submitted zero budget resolutions this year.

Another is we will not participate in a process taxpayers aren’t allowed to see before the money is spent.

Governor Mikie Sherrill launched a Budget Report Card website this spring to promote transparency. The problem is it only tracks her original budget proposal from March.

It doesn't show the spending requests, negotiations, horse-trading, and last-minute additions happening right now. That's because the damning part of the process starts after the website stops tracking it.

Tomorrow: How lawmakers request millions of dollars with a few clicks of a mouse.

06/16/2026

Somewhere in Trenton, somebody thinks this is a transportation plan. Glad Governor Mikie Sherrill gets to games on NJ TRANSIT. The people who actually depend on it every day appear to be part of the sacrifice.

06/15/2026

Governor Mikie Sherrill says today she's going to crack down on JUNK FEES. Good. Now do government!

Every year Trenton finds a new way to reach into your wallet, then acts shocked when families struggle with the cost of living.

New Jersey families pay tolls, gas taxes, registration fees, title fees, license fees, permit fees, filing fees, inspection fees, hotel taxes, realty transfer fees, and an endless list of surcharges and penalties.

If junk fees are wrong, they're wrong whether they're charged by a corporation or government.

New Jersey families don't care who is taking the money.

They just know it's GONE.