The state treasurer projects a 7 percent increase in revenue for 2013 with an increasingly healthy economy due to lower unemployment, higher wages, and positive signs from the retail sector.
"Let us continue to be the example for the nation in getting our fiscal house in order, in addressing long-term pension problems, in fixing our schools and in becoming a haven and home for job growth," Christie said during his speech in the Assembly chambers.
Specific appropriations to schools and municipalities will not be available until later this week, but municipal aid is unchanged and most school districts are expected to receive a slight funding boost compared with last year.
The school funds would not fully restore the reductions that Christie implemented when he first assumed office, according to the state School Boards Association.
In one of the more drastic cuts in the spending plan, Camden City government could lose much of the money on which it relies to function. Camden Mayor Dana L. Redd, a Democrat, attended the budget address and said she did not know the implications of the proposed 56 percent cut to the transitional aid program for struggling municipalities.
She did not look surprised, however. The governor has said that transitional aid was meant to be just that - transitional. Redd had a positive appraisal of the governor's speech, saying Christie was "balancing the needs" of the overall population and the most vulnerable.
Legislative Democrats, who have until June 30 to approve the budget, were not nearly as kind. But they refrained from declaring any of its provisions dead on arrival.
They echoed earlier complaints about Christie's plan to cut income taxes by 10 percent over three years, saying the savings would be meaningless to those in the still-struggling middle class.
