UPDATE: Lawmakers rejected Murphy's offer rejected

Gov. Phil Murphy on Saturday morning is pushing his latest offer to state lawmakers to reach a last-minute state budget agreement and avoid a potential state government shutdown.

In a letter sent to all of New Jersey's lawmakers, Murphy said, in effect: Give me a version of my millionaires tax. I'll go along with a Corporate Business Tax. And if we can agree on those, I'll back away from a restoration of the sales tax to 7 percent.

The letter comes as Murphy and his fellow Democrats who control the state Legislature remain locked in a dispute over competing plans for New Jersey's state budget, which must be approved before midnight Saturday. Without a budget, Murphy can shut government offices, state courts, state parks and state-run beaches.

Top agree they want to raise somebody's taxes.

However, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, have so far opposed Murphy's proposal for a millionaires tax and a bump in the state's sales tax.

Instead, they offered Murphy on Friday a revised version of the Corporate Business Tax and agreed to a millionaires tax on people who earn more than $5 million.

Murphy rejected their proposal.

In the letter, dated Friday, Murphy offers lawmakers to raise the millionaires tax threshold to $1.75 million earners at a 10.75 percent tax rate and a four-year corporate business tax surcharge of 2 percent, according to the letter. He says that would raise about $870 million for the state.

If lawmakers agree to it, Murphy is "prepared to take the restoration of the sales tax to 7 percent off the table," the letter reads.

"Time is of the essence," Murphy writes. "If we cannot have an agreement, it is the people of New Jersey who will ultimately suffer."

Sweeney and Coughlin offered Murphy on Friday a 3 percent surtax on corporations with net income over $1 million.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.