State Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin is "insistent" New Jersey's next budget won't include any tax hikes.

Instead, the top Assembly lawmaker aligned himself closely with state Senate President Stephen Sweeney in what's likely to be the Democrat-controlled state Legislature's next big battle with Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy over reforms of pensions and benefits for public workers.

Coughlin, in a statement to NJ Advance Media, said he looks forward to reviewing a plan Sweeney recently unveiled that, among other things, recommends changes to state-worker pension and health care plans, and merging school districts.

"As always the Assembly will take a thorough and thoughtful approach to analyzing the report but I am insistent that next year's budget not include new tax hikes, which makes it clear that we have to rein in spending," said Coughlin, D-Middlesex.

It's Coughlin's first take on Sweeney's proposal since he unveiled the plan earlier this month.

"I urge the governor to focus on that and on achieving significant cost savings in the areas of pensions and benefits through negotiations with public sector unions," Coughlin said.

Sweeney, D-Gloucester, had convened a panel of experts to give recommendations on how to stem the state's rising property taxes and rein in its public worker pension system.

Their final report was released Aug. 9 and it includes some huge changes for New Jersey, including cutting government employee health care and pension benefits.

Murphy's reaction to the measures has been lukewarm -- at best.

"He continues to believe that protecting tax breaks for the wealthy and special interests while asking the middle class to shoulder more and more of the burden is the wrong approach to getting our fiscal house in order," a Murphy spokeswoman, Alyana Alfaro, said in a statement in response to Coughlin's remarks.

"The Governor's guiding principle is always whether a proposal strengthens New Jersey's middle class and working families - and that's the test he'll use in evaluating any proposal that reaches his desk," she said.

Sweeney's office didn't immediately responded to a request for comment.

Murphy signed his first state budget in July after he wrangled with the Legislature for weeks over whether it should include a bump in the sales tax and a millionaires tax.

Lawmakers successfully blocked Murphy's plan to raise the sales tax from 6.625 percent to 7 percent. But they agreed to an income tax hike for people who earn more than $5 million a year.

The budget included more than $1 billion new in taxes.

But Coughlin said Wednesday he won't go along with any additional tax hikes when it comes time for Murphy to sign his next budget in about 10 months.

But cuts to state worker pensions and health care plans could be a bitter pill for Murphy to swallow. The governor signaled last week he still favored tax hikes to any cuts.

"Whether we agree ultimately with their conclusions or not, you know, we're reviewing this sort of case by case because there's a lot in there," Murphy said at a public event when asked about Sweeney's proposal.

"I want to go through and give more of a thoughtful answer," he added. "The guideline for me though, the sort of guiding philosophy, is the middle-class, the working-class families have been ravaged, ignored, hollowed out in the past -- until we got here. And the very wealthiest among us, the biggest among us doing just fine."

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