They also accused the Christie administration of "incompetence" for not releasing more budget details three weeks after the proposal was introduced.
"What we have in front of us is a tax-laden budget plan that targets the middle class, senior citizens, and the poor," said Assembly Budget Chairman Louis D. Greenwald (D., Camden). "It's a budget that spares no one but the wealthy and does nothing to cure New Jersey's addiction to property taxes."
He and other Democrats, who control the Legislature, said cuts to school and municipal aid, and the suspension of property tax rebates for 2010, amount to tax increases.
Republicans fired back by criticizing Democratic tax proposals and praising Christie for cutting spending. They said mayors and school boards should likewise reduce expenses.
Years of rising state spending did not hold down property taxes, said Assemblyman Jay Webber (R., Morris).
"While state spending went up, property taxes kept going up," said Webber, chairman of the state Republican Party. "There is a different way to go, and that's what the governor's proposal gives us an opportunity to do."
The back-and-forth likely foreshadows months of debate on the budget, which is supposed to be signed by July 1.
A morning hearing on revenue projections, a relatively dry topic, was full of pointed critiques and snippy exchanges between members of the Assembly Budget Committee.
After eight years featuring Republican criticism of budgets proposed by Democratic governors, the parties switched scripts.
Democrats - who defended similar proposals from recent Democratic governors - slammed Christie for using fund raids to close shortfalls and skipping the state's $3 billion pension payment.
Republicans - who long criticized such fiscal maneuvers as unsustainable gimmicks - came to Christie's defense, using the arguments Democrats previously employed: that if the steps were not taken, even more painful cuts would strike needed programs.
