Group claims last year was even worse than state reported

TRENTON — Data released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services shows that Fiscal Year 2009 ended with a new $281 million revenue gap that has been kept hidden by the Corzine administration in an August bond prospectus, prompting Assembly members Alison Littell McHose and Declan O’Scanlon to call for honest numbers from the administration and for a meeting of the Assembly Budget Committee to begin planning for this latest setback. According to OLS, business tax revenue is down $437 million from what Treasury reported in August, sales tax is down $72 million and income tax is up $228 million for a net shortfall of $281 million.