Shortly after sweeping into office in 2018, Gov. Phil Murphy vowed to build a state bank. He wanted to restore the sales tax to 7%. And he set the stage to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

There was no mention of the bank idea on Tuesday during his third budget address. Nor was there any talk of a sales tax hike, despite the nearly $600 million bonanza it could yield. And legal pot, for now, seems like a pipe dream.

In some ways, Murphy sounded like a governor preparing for reelection. He talked bread-and-butter issues, with a progressive tinge, and began brushing up his administration's record on property taxes, an issue that has come back to haunt past governors seeking a second term.

So what did Murphy really say Tuesday? Here are five keys to this year's budget speech

Channeling his inner populist

Murphy, groomed at Harvard and then Wall Street before he raised mega bucks for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, channeled the anti-establishment chord that has fueled the rise of left-wing Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders

The Goldman Sachs governor again cast himself as the champion of middle-class virtue struggling against corrupt power brokers, corporations and millionaires. The man with the mansion along the Navesink River has his finger on the pulse of the Average Joe.

"The choices we make come from a belief that the conversations taking place around the kitchen table are more important to our future than those happening around any backroom table," Murphy said early in the speech.

He also pitted the middle class against millionaires as he made a pitch for raising taxes on $1 million or more in income from 8.97% to 10.75%.

"It isn’t the wealthy who bear the burden of our tax system — it’s the middle class," Murphy said, recycling a trope that he used in his two failed attempts at boosting the rate.

"Asking the wealthiest 22,000 New Jerseyans to pay 2 cents more, in income tax, for every dollar they make over $1 million so we can provide nearly $500 million more in property tax relief to New Jersey’s families is simple fairness,'' he said.

It is worth noting, however, that the tiny minority of 22,000 millionaires already pay the bulk of the state's gross income taxes, set to climb to a whopping $17.8 billion in fiscal year 2012, or about 43% of all projected revenues.

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Yet after being rebuffed twice, Murphy has sharpened his pitch in a way that makes it easier for the average voter to understand.

Murphy's "2 cents'' reference echoes the campaign pledge of Warren, the Massachusetts senator, who says her "2 cents" wealth tax on incomes of $50 million or higher would finance universal child care, cancel student loan debt and boost the pay of child care workers, among other things.

Murphy also framed his case for a reform of corporate tax incentives as a fight for the average person against powerful corporate interests — a pitch right out of Sanders' playbook.

"Are we on the side of small businesses, and the entrepreneurs, women, veterans, and people of color who want to start a business, or do we only welcome the big fish and the well-connected?'' Murphy said.

Takes diplomatic tack with Sweeney

Murphy's political fight with Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, has been well documented. But the governor went out of his way twice to praise Sweeney, most notably by thanking him for "his willingness to embrace a millionaires tax in this budget."

Murphy was referring to Sweeney's surprise announcement last weekend that he would be willing to back the tax hike as long as Murphy vowed to pump an additional $1 billion into the state's troubled pension funds. That would force a major rewrite of Murphy's budget plans. But Sweeney was at least open to negotiations — a major pivot from his obstinate refusal in the past.

Murphy, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany, went with the diplomatic approach for obvious reasons. After two years of humiliation on his signature issue, Murphy finally has a dose of momentum. And, without saying so, Sweeney is hoisting the white flag of surrender on his "Path to Progress,'' a sweeping call to cut government spending, in part, by requiring future public employees to pay more for their health and pension benefits.

Sweeney insisted that he would not entertain a millionaires tax hike until the Path to Progress reforms were considered. Now he has dropped that insistence.

Status quo for NJ Transit

Murphy stressed that commuters were spared a fare hike for a third straight year, and that he was boosting the state's subsidy to nearly $600 million, up from $475 million from a year ago.

Yet he is also continuing the practice of propping up the hobbled rail and bus service by diverting funds from the New Jersey Turnpike and the Clean Energy Fund, and by raiding NJ Transit's capital budget — a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul strategy adopted by his predecessor, Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

He made no mention of any plans to secure a constitutionally guaranteed method of funding the agency. Sweeney proposed creating a constitutionally dedicated pipeline that would also derive funding from a corporate surcharge.

Pension payment boast

Murphy announced a proposed $4.6 billion payment for the next fiscal year. "This administration will have put more back into the system in just three years than the preceding one did in eight,'' Murphy said in one of several less-than-subtle jabs at Christie.

That may be true, but Murphy's scheduled contribution still falls short of the $6.1 billion projected by actuaries. And in doing so, Murphy is following in the footsteps of his predecessors, who have shorted the system in one way or another over the past three decades.

Property tax relief

Murphy lauded the "direct" property tax relief his administration has provided homeowners by increasing aid to public schools and by helping accelerate shared service agreements with municipalities and schools. "We are being more effective in combating our property tax crisis than any administration that has come before,'' he said.

School aid and cost-cutting reduce pressures on local officials to raise property taxes but don't provide relief directly to homeowners like the Homestead Rebate or the property tax "freeze" program for middle-class seniors.

Projected spending on the senior freeze is $219 million, the same amount as the current fiscal year, and the homestead rebate will drop from $295 million to $276 million, which officials say reflects a more accurate number of homeowners participating in the program. Murphy's budget also includes $3 million for the expansion of a property tax deduction for veterans approved by voters last November.

Charlie Stile is New Jersey’s preeminent political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jersey’s political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com Twitter: @politicalstile