The N.J. Senate and Assembly are slated to start voting this afternoon in what could be marathon sessions into the night
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) said she anticipates the Assembly will be debating well past midnight.
"The day has come. The day of reckoning," Oliver said. "I think that you will find a significant number of Democratic legislators who are going to want to engage in debate."
Republicans have been engaging in their own debate as Christie tries to cobble votes to get his budget passed in both houses of the Legislature, where the majority Democrats have promised just enough votes necessary, provided the governor gets every Republican to support it.
The deadline for a budget is Thursday.
"You never know how things unfold. (Today) will be an interesting day," Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said. "Right now, the Republicans are probably relieved that (today) is only the 28th, so if they can’t get their votes they have a couple days to spare."
Democrats deride the budget as unfair because of its cuts to programs for seniors, the poor and disabled, while most Republicans praise it as tough but necessary to close a $10.7 billion deficit. It slashes $848 million in property tax rebates for seniors and the disabled, $820 million in school aid and almost $450 million in munciipal aid.
"We’re at an unprecedented point in New Jersey state budget history," said Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak. "No one’s ever had to accomplish this. We wish it hadn’t been inherited in such full ferocity. What everybody needs to recognize is we should never let ourselves get back into such a position again. And that’s what the importance of disciplined reform means."
Republicans still need to work to rein in stray members. Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris) said he opposes it because it cuts proportionally more school aid from suburban districts than urban ones. On Friday, Christie Chief of Staff Richard Bagger, Chief Counsel Jeff Chiesa and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Morris) met with Carroll at a Morristown deli to persuade him to vote for it.
Carroll said he’s still unlikely to vote for the budget, though he said he might if Democrats blame Christie for an impasse.
"Are my feet set in stone? Pretty much. I don’t think this is good budget, but the Democrats could certainly talk me into it, (by blasting Christie)," he said.
Carroll added, however, that his no vote on several related bills that lift tax caps and increase fees would not change.
Both houses will also take up a 2.9 percent cap on property tax growth, which is a Democratic alternative to Christie’s proposed 2.5 percent constitutional cap but with exceptions for pension, health care and utility costs. "We’ll have the battle of the caps, I’m sure," Oliver said.
Other bills up for a vote today would delay implementation of the state’s medical marijuana law until early 2011, provide funding for women’s health clinics, decrease fees for copying public documents, give freeholder directors veto power over county authorities and authorize the state to give out $100 million in tax credits for offshore wind energy facilities.
And unlike most years, when Budget Day means the end of lawmaking for the summer, legislative leaders say there will be more action in Trenton during the hot months.
While they haven’t set schedules yet, Sweeney and Oliver said legislative committees will start meeting again either later this week or next week. Both houses plan hearings on Christie’s 2.5 percent property tax cap and his 33-bill "tool kit" package to reform civil service and collective bargaining.
Another big inititiative to abolish the Council on Affordable Housing, which has passed the Senate, will not advance in the Assembly this summer, Oliver said. "It will not get a vote in committee this summer but we hope to get it to a point where we can vote on it in the fall," she said.