TRENTON – New Jersey’s budget is balanced in part through nearly $4.3 billion from emergency borrowing authorized in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but a nonpartisan budget analyst says it’s now clear that wasn’t necessary. At a Senate budget committee hearing Tuesday, Thomas Koenig, the Office of Legislative Services’ budget and finance officer, said the borrowing was defensible at the time the budget was adopted in September. “But from today’s vantage point, the borrowing was not essential to balancing the FY21 budget,” Koenig said. Koenig said that without the borrowing, the state’s surplus would have fallen by only $165 million since Oct. 1 and remain slightly above $2 billion. Revenue forecasts have been upgraded by $3.4 billion, and the budget counts on $1.1 billion in lapses, helping build a surplus of $6.4 billion – over 15% of spending.