Finding themselves with an extra $400 million for the new state budget, lawmakers didn’t have much trouble deciding what to do with it. Assembly and Senate committees voted Monday to pump the extra cash into the property tax rebate program that otherwise would have been eliminated for all but senior citizens and the disabled. The windfall -raised through an amnesty program that encouraged tax deadbeats to cough up their overdue payments and avoid penalties -will pay for rebates to homeowners earning up to $75,000 a year. That still represents a cutback from last year, when rebates were available to homeowners with incomes up to $150,000. But it allows Democrats running for re-election this year -Gov. Jon Corzine and the majority of Assembly members -to say they did all they could to provide property tax relief to “middle-class” homeowners. Read full Star Ledger article here.