Gov. Murphy’s Proposals for NJ’s Leftover Pandemic Aid 

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is proposing more than a dozen ways New Jersey should spend its remaining federal pandemic aid, with funding for Jersey Shore boardwalks and aid for local governments facing rising employee health care costs among his requests.  

Murphy’s latest plans for deploying the last of New Jersey’s direct COVID-19 aid were included in a proposed state budget currently being reviewed by the Legislature.  

In all, Murphy has identified nearly $500 million in new spending that would be backed by money the state received in 2021 through the federal government’s American Rescue Plan Act, according to budget documents.  

If lawmakers go along with his plans, it will add to the more than $53 billion in appropriations that Murphy requested lawmakers approve as part of his overall spending plan for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1.  

More than $1 billion of the state’s original $6.2 billion allocation has yet to be appropriated, according to the latest official accounting. That means lawmakers will also likely have their own ideas about ways the remaining federal aid should be used as they draft an annual spending bill in the run-up to July 1.  

If past practice is repeated this year, a deal will once again be made behind closed doors, with the public likely learning only in the final days before the budget deadline exactly how Murphy and majority Democratic lawmakers agreed to use the leftover federal aid.