The Assembly Budget Committee passed the $29.38 billion state budget bill about 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Senate budget committee, which approved the spending plan Wednesday evening, spent much of the Thursday in limbo as lawmakers worked to get enough votes to pass four budget-related bills to increase taxes or fees.
Developments on proposed affordable-housing changes represented a potential setback for developers, various lawmakers, and the Christie administration.
The Assembly Budget Committee approved a bill that would extend the moratorium on a 2.5 percent nonresidential developers' fee, set to take effect in July, to the end of October. Money from the fee goes toward affordable housing.
In a rare show of solidarity, housing advocates and the development industry spoke in favor of the measure. But it failed to gain the support of two influential men, Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) and Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D., Union), who urged the Assembly to pass a proposal with broader changes to affordable-housing rules.
"It's not moving in the Senate," Lesniak said in an interview. "It's just an absolute waste of time."
The Senate on June 10 passed a controversial bill sponsored by Lesniak that would eliminate the 2.5 percent fee but also abolish the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) and make sweeping changes to how towns may meet their constitutional obligation to provide low- and moderate-income housing.
But the Assembly declined to vote the proposal out of committee last week, after Chairman Jerry Green (D., Union) expressed reservations about how fast the legislation was moving. Assemblyman Albert Coutinho (D., Essex), who sponsored the bill solely addressing the 2.5 percent fee, said Thursday that the lower house had no plans to vote on Lesniak's bill by the end of the month.
