well just three years ago the state was staring at an uncertain and potentially catastrophic financial situation with a once in a century pandemic casting an ominous Shadow on revenue and budget predictions but catastrophe didn't strike in fact according to many economists New Jersey is now on better fiscal footing than it's been in decades and today Governor Murphy made the case before a group of financial analysts in New York that his policies helped steer the state clear of that economic disaster senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports Governor Murphy gave a candid appraisal of New Jersey's economic status during a Q&A with financial analysts in New York he noted a big boost in school funding will take center stage in his upcoming budget message as New Jersey reaches the final year of adjustments to State education Aid school funding is still going to be a multi hundred million up that's going to be the the biggest up that we'll have in the budget and that's been the case 5 to 700 million a year now for every year I've been here that will ultimately reach its Mountaintop with the budget that I'll be announcing the governor took a modest Victory lap for helping to stabilize New Jersey's economy raise its credit rating and stow away an extra 8 billion budget surplus but he also ticked off a list of looming economic hurdles among them tax revenues that have fallen short down $530 million or about 3% since last July compared to the prior year but Murphy's hoping to see improvements our revenues excuse me so far are helding up are holding up largely well um January April's a huge month obviously for obvious reasons January is a pretty big month so the state had been in this circumstance where it had a lot of extra money flying around for things like boosting pension payments and increasing K through 12 school aid funding now we we may be in a little tighter environment NJ Spotlight news budget and finance corespondent John Reitmeyer says holiday shopping could help provide the sales tax revenues New Jersey needs to cover the record-breaking 55 billion dollar spending plan that Murphy signed last June the governor could also dip into Surplus or cut spending but more bills are coming due there's a whole new set of challenges that have to be confronted and and they include what to do with NJ Transit what the next Transportation trust fund renewal is going to look like and also how potentially the state will manage its next fiscal year if it's going to if it's going to be playing out in a much tighter Revenue environment Reitmeyer says Murphy sticking to an economic strategy that's earned accolades from financial industry analysts the governor announced New Jersey just paid another $500 million to reduce bonded debt and he'll make another full state pension payment finding stable funding for NJ Transit which Murphy said he do quote if it kills me remains a sore spot we have in many respects fixed NJ Transit through the customers lens reliability safety confidence on Time Performance but we now are going to have to tackle what is a growing fiscal Challenge and we're working on Solutions there meanwhile State lawmakers have promised significant but expensive property tax relief Murphy's message the good value for money equation is hugely important in New Jersey so you know as opposed to realistically we're ever going to be the lowcost state to either do business in or raise your family in the governor's pushing to grow the economy he said expect announcements about offshore wind and a fintech hub the governor's budget message is delivered in late February I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news