Eagleton Poll: Most New Jersey voters support Sherrill’s approach to closing budget deficit
NEW JERSEY — A majority of New Jersey voters support Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s proposed multiyear strategy for addressing the state’s structural budget deficit, according to a new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll released Friday.
The survey found that 57% of registered voters favor gradually reducing the deficit over several years to avoid major cuts to public services. By comparison, 29% support closing the budget gap more quickly through deeper changes to pensions, health benefits and school funding. Five percent favor maintaining current spending levels despite the deficit, while 9% remain undecided.
Researchers found little difference in responses whether the budget plan was identified as Sherrill’s proposal or described simply as the current proposed budget.
“A majority of New Jersey voters seem to be on Governor Sherrill’s side when it comes to her 2027 ‘affordability budget,’” said Ashley Koning, an assistant research professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. “Her multiyear approach to the structural deficit is almost twice as popular as the alternative of faster, deeper cuts, and voters back most of the specific items in her budget by comfortable margins.”
The poll also found broad support for several individual proposals included in the governor’s budget plan.
Eighty percent of voters support ending the practice of adding spending items to the state budget in the final days before lawmakers vote on it. Nearly seven in 10 support increasing down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, allocating funding for a new youth mental health initiative in K-12 schools and making the state’s full pension payment.
Sixty-four percent support limiting the amount corporations can deduct from state taxes to generate additional revenue, while 63% support limiting Stay NJ property tax relief benefits to seniors with household incomes of $250,000 or less and capping the maximum benefit at $4,000.
About 61% support increasing state aid for preschool and K-12 education, while 60% favor preserving funding in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund for new affordable housing construction.
The only proposal that failed to receive majority support involved reducing aid to four-year public colleges and universities. Forty-seven percent opposed the reduction, while 42% supported it.
“While most of Sherrill’s budget items enjoy broad majority support, that support is being carried almost entirely by Democrats and independents,” Koning said. “A majority of Republicans are in opposition to most of these proposals, including increased school aid, the youth mental health program and the corporate tax changes. The one item where Republicans align with Democrats and independents is ending the practice of adding spending items at the last minute before a budget vote. That budget-process reform is the only item where partisanship is not the dominant story.”
The statewide poll surveyed 859 registered New Jersey voters from May 15 through May 19 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
