New Jersey Lawmakers Reach Budget Deal to End Shutdown

New Jersey lawmakers reached a compromise that is bringing the Garden State's three-day government shutdown to an end, just in time for beaches and state parks to re-open for the Fourth of July.

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney told reporters, ""I'm sorry for the inconvenience. But ... we have one hell of a budget we can be proud of."

Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto and Gov. Chris Christie had come to a virtual stalemate over a measure that called for restructuring Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state's largest health insurer, and taking millions of dollars from its reserves to fund state health programs. Christie threatened to use a line-item veto on Democrats' pet projects unless they passed the bill — which left Prieto unable to come up with a majority of Assembly measures to approve the budget for the fiscal year that began on Saturday.

The compromise came hours after a meeting that included Prieto, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Horizon Chairman Robert Marino. A state official in Trenton said the compromise could mirror how Pennsylvania resolved a similar conflict in 2002, in which the state determines each year whether nonprofit insurance companies have excess surplus, then requires those companies to come up with a plan to disburse money or return it to policy holders.