The $1 Billion Budget Secret Trenton Doesn't Want You to See

[00:00:00]Democrats say New Jersey's budget process is transparent. That's funny because for 20 years they've been running a billion dollar shell game and taxpayers don't get to see the cards until after the hand is over. It's called the budget resolution process.

[00:00:15]Most New Jerseyans have never heard of it. That's probably how Trenton likes it.

[00:00:20]Here's how it works. Every year the governor proposes a budget. Then lawmakers [music] submit budget resolutions, requests to add spending or move money around. About a billion dollars gets moved this way every year. Your billion dollars.

[00:00:36]In 2003, then Senator Wayne Bryant chaired the Senate Budget Committee, one of the most powerful positions in Trenton.

[00:00:44]He used that power to steer 12.8 million dollars in state money to UMDNJ.

[00:00:50]In return, the university gave him a no-show job paying $35,000 [music] a year. He showed up once a week, read the newspaper, and collected pension credits. Cash those checks. In 2008, a federal jury convicted him on every count. A year later, he went to prison.

[00:01:10]Trenton's response was simple. We need reforms and Senate President Dick Codey announced new rules. Lawmakers would have to disclose conflicts of interest and budget resolutions would be available [music] 14 days before the budget vote so taxpayers and reporters could review them.

[00:01:28]The Wayne Bryant scandal was supposed to be the last one.

[00:01:32]That was the promise, but the reforms turned out to be the political equivalent of fixing a pothole with spray paint. From a distance, it looked like they solved the problem, but up close, the hole was still there.

[00:01:46]Here's what actually happened. The rules required lawmakers to file conflict disclosures, but they never explicitly required those disclosures to be made public. Democrats spotted the loophole and they've been driving a truck through it ever since.

[00:02:02]In 2022, lawmakers passed a $50.6 billion budget June 29th.

[00:02:08]>> [music] >> Two weeks later, the budget resolutions still weren't public. A billion dollars in spending requests [music] and the people paying the bill couldn't see any of them. Imagine ordering dinner, [music] getting the check, paying the bill and only then being allowed >> [music] >> to see the menu. That's New Jersey budgeting.

[00:02:29]And it gets worse. In 2023, lawmakers filed [music] 494 budget resolutions.

[00:02:37]Only two disclosed a conflict of interest.

[00:02:40]Two.

[00:02:42]Out of 494.

[00:02:44]And if lawmakers fail to disclose, nothing happens. No meaningful penalties, no real enforcement, no accountability.

[00:02:55]>> [music] >> It's basically the honor system. We've tried that.

[00:03:00]We got Wayne Bryant.

[00:03:02]I served on the Assembly Budget [music] Committee. I saw how this worked from the inside.

[00:03:07]Hundreds of pages of budget documents would be dropped on our desks minutes before a vote.

[00:03:14]Not hours, minutes. No time to review them, no time to understand them, no time to ask [music] questions. That's not transparency.

[00:03:26]That's speed reading a billion dollars [music] spending plan while someone yells, "Vote!"

[00:03:33]It's government by surprise.

[00:03:36]So, this year, Assembly Republicans refused to participate. We submitted zero budget resolutions and not because our districts don't need funding, but because we're done pretending this process is acceptable. If we keep playing along, we're helping legitimize it. Instead, I've introduced legislation requiring every budget [music] resolution to be posted publicly by June 1st. Not hidden in a committee drawer, not released after the vote.

[00:04:06]Posted online. [music] Every sponsor, every dollar, every recipient, every conflict of interest before lawmakers vote, before the governor signs it, before taxpayers get the bill.

[00:04:23]Wayne Bryant went to prison for steering taxpayer money toward people [music] who were paying him.

[00:04:28]The reforms created after that scandal have been quietly hollowed out.

[00:04:33]>> [music] >> And the same party that has controlled this legislature for more than two decades has allowed it to happen. A billion dollars a year moved behind closed doors, hidden from taxpayers until long after the decisions are made.

[00:04:48]Democrats have raised taxes 189 times since taking control of the legislature.

[00:04:53]They've more than doubled state spending, [music] and they've built a budget process where one of the largest pots of discretionary money in state government is divided up in secret. That's not an accident.

[00:05:05]That's not a bug.

[00:05:06]That's a feature.

[00:05:08]I'm Assemblywoman Aura Dunn, and it's time to turn the lights on.