TRENTON, N.J. — Assembly Republicans said on May 27 they will not file budget resolutions this year, leaving the 23 GOP-held Assembly seats without a formal path to add spending to the governor's fiscal year 2027 budget. Democratic leadership has not publicly commented on the refusal.

Assembly Republican Budget Officer Brian Rumpf called the resolution process a "fictional exercise in fiscal responsibility." Minority Leader John DiMaio said the decision to forego resolutions is a protest against a budget that "still spends beyond our means and sticks taxpayers and businesses with the bill."

The announcement came on May 27. As of publication, Democratic leaders in the Legislature—Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, Senate President Nicholas Scutari, Assembly Budget Chair Eliana Pintor Marin and Senate Budget Chair Paul Sarlo—have not publicly addressed the Republican stance.

By declining to file, no Republican lawmaker will appear as a sponsor on any budget resolution added to the final spending bill.

Budget resolutions are the formal requests legislators file in the final weeks before the June 30 deadline to add spending to the governor's proposal. They are not required by the state Constitution, and the majority party can add items without Republican support.

They also create a paper trail. Lawmakers who file resolutions must disclose business, personal or family ties to the intended recipient and provide a written statement explaining the change. The Office of Legislative Services publishes the documents. The resolution requirement came about as a reform in the mid-2000s, when an opaque appropriations process helped foster public corruption scandals that led to the convictions of two Democratic state senators.

The numbers from fiscal year 2026 show the partisan split. Former Governor Phil Murphy signed a $58.8 billion budget that year with more than $400 million in last-minute Democratic additions. A New Jersey Monitor review found 585 budget resolutions. Of the $83 million in municipal and school district aid that flowed through resolutions outside formulaic awards, roughly $2.3 million went to districts with Republican representation. Only one resolution had a Republican as its first prime sponsor: Senator Bob Singer of Ocean County, who secured $1 million for a Lakewood charity. GOP members appeared as co-sponsors on five other resolutions.

The pattern is not new. A review of budget resolutions from fiscal year 2023 found just three Republican prime sponsors. By fiscal year 2026, that number had dropped to one. Democrats hold 57 of the 80 Assembly seats and 25 of the 40 Senate seats. They do not need Republican votes to pass the budget, nor do they need Republican resolutions to add funding.

The decision formalizes a position that Senate Republican Budget Officer Declan O'Scanlon encouraged during the fiscal year 2026 budget cycle. "The message to all our members was we need to not be part of the problem here," he said in August 2025, adding "If everybody's job in the Legislature is to bring home the bacon, the pig dies pretty quickly." Rumpf is now applying the same stance in his first budget cycle as lead negotiator. He spent two decades in the Assembly, most recently as Parliamentarian, before moving to the Budget Officer role in January.

The Republican action changes nothing procedurally. Republicans can still vote against the final budget. They simply will not put their names on any individual spending request.

Republicans are not filing resolutions under the current rules, but some lawmakers have introduced legislation to change them. In January, Republican Assembly members Aura Dunn, Gerry Scharfenberger, and Al Barlas introduced Bill A3805, which would require budget resolutions to be posted publicly by June 1 each year. Dunn is also calling for a constitutional amendment that would restrict politically connected funding allocations benefiting municipalities, school districts, nonprofits and other non-state agencies. Assembly Democrats Katie Brennan and Ravi Bhalla introduced a separate measure, Bill A3993, which would require the annual spending bill to be introduced by June 1 and calls for a two-week delay between the final draft's release and adoption.

Those bills come from individual Democratic members. Party leaders have not publicly addressed the GOP’s position. Speaker Craig Coughlin's most recent reported public statement on budget matters came June 3 at an AARP telephone town hall. He said Governor Mikie Sherrill's proposed $4,000 cap on the Stay NJ senior property tax relief program is "too low" and that Democrats would "continue to work with the governor" while standing up for seniors. He did not mention the Republican resolution decision.

Meanwhile, Assembly Budget Chair Eliana Pintor Marin defended legislative additions at an April hearing. She called them "funding for organizations that serve our most vulnerable residents" and "improvements to parks where our children play." She has also not addressed the GOP’s decision to forego resolutions as of this writing.

State Treasurer Aaron Binder, the administration's budget chief, acknowledged at the same April hearing that last-minute legislative spending is likely. "Gov. Sherrill has made it clear: She understands there's likely going to be spending at the end of this budget," Binder said. "What she had said was that she would hope we can work together to find additional cuts, so if there are additional spending items that we find cuts to offset them."

The constitutional deadline is June 30. Sherrill's $60.7 billion proposal includes $1.7 billion drawn from the state's surplus to address an initial $3 billion structural deficit. Revenue updates and proposed cuts have since reduced that gap to less than $1.5 billion, according to NJ Spotlight News. The budget cuts roughly $700 million in legislative additions that lawmakers inserted into the current fiscal year's budget.

The Republican decision to not file budget resolutions does not stop that negotiation. It does not stop Democrats from adding funding, nor does it stop the budget from passing on a party-line vote. What it does, however, is ensure that 23 Assembly districts have no Republican voice in a process where Republican participation was already minimal.

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Sources

• WRNJ Radio, "Assembly Republicans decline budget resolutions, citing growing deficit" (May 27, 2026)

• WRNJ Radio, "Assembly Republicans decline budget resolutions, call for more transparency" (June 5, 2026)

• New Jersey Assembly GOP, "Assembly Republicans Forgo Budget Resolutions, Renew Call for Transparency" (June 2, 2026)

• New Jersey Monitor, Nikita Biryukov and Morgan Leason, "Funding for lawmakers' pet projects largely flowed to Democratic districts" (August 18, 2025)

• New Jersey Monitor, "NJ lawmakers defend spending slated for cuts by governor" (April 6, 2026)

• New Jersey Monitor, "Governor's proposed Stay NJ benefit 'too low,' Assembly speaker says" (June 3, 2026)

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• New Jersey Monitor, "NJ legislators OK $128M spending bill criticized by GOP" (January 12, 2026)

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• InsiderNJ, Fred Snowflack, "Rough Sailing Ahead for DiMaio" (November 7, 2025)

• Bill A3805, "Establishes process for submittal and publication of proposed revisions to Governor's budget recommendations" (January 13, 2026)

• Bill A3993, "Establishes requirements for preparation and final passage of annual appropriations act" (January 13, 2026)

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