The new initiative would distribute $900 million in relief to nearly 1.8 million homeowners and renters across the state.

The governor used much of his budget address – his first in-person speech at the statehouse in two years – to list economic successes he attributed to his administration’s policies. The address also put property tax relief at the center of the governor’s agenda and seemed designed to reassure residents and businesses that Murphy had taken to heart concerns about affordability.

The proposal from the governor's office would provide assistance for 1.5 million of the former and 600,000 of the latter, and comes as several Senate Republican lawmakers say they plan to introduce a bill to provide automatic, refundable tax credits to anyone that earned less than $500,000 last year.