Lawmakers set to debate how to spend billions from taxpayers

Get ready, New Jersey: The wrangling over billions of your tax dollars is getting started.

Gov. Chris Christie’s $34.8 billion spending plan is headed into the legislative hopper and to public hearings before New Jersey’s Democrat-led Legislature in the coming weeks.

Christie unveiled the fiscal year 2017 budget this week in a speech peppered with attacks against Democrats for their proposals to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour and amending the constitution to require quarterly pension payments.

But Christie also opened the door to debate over the state’s thorniest issues, like funding for transportation and pensions.