Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday used his first State of the State address to champion how he’s made New Jersey more progressive in the year since he succeeded Republican Chris Christie as New Jersey’s leader.
The Democrat also started laying out his vision for his sophomore year in his 53-minute speech at the Statehouse in Trenton.
He renewed his call to raise the state’s minimum wage and legalize marijuana here. And he pushed for new restrictions on how much money the state gives out in tax breaks to corporations.
Here’s a look at what Murphy said, one day before his first anniversary in office:
1. He pushed once again for a minimum wage hike and legal marijuana
Murphy will complete his first full year in office without realizing two of his major campaign promises: increasing New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and legalizing recreational marijuana here.
But the Democratic governor used this speech to renew calls for the Democrat-controlled state Legislature to work with him to reach an agreement on both issues — something they haven’t been able to do even though Murphy and legislative leaders are all in favor of the plans.
Murphy said he’s “eager to build on this progress together” with state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex.
“Let’s start 2019 by finishing what we began in 2018 — putting the minimum wage on a clear and responsible path to $15 an hour, and legalizing adult-use marijuana,” the governor said in his enthusiastic speech, delivered inside the Assembly’s chambers.
Murphy and legislative leaders have signaled for weeks they’re close on a deal for minimum wage. But the back-and-forth between them has dragged on without a clear sign how quickly they’ll forge a compromise.
Sweeney told NJ Advance Media after the speech that “we’ve come a long way” on a minimum wage agreement.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a deal soon,” he added.
As for marijuana, don’t hold your breath. There are scant signs Murphy and lawmakers with make a deal that would allow New Jerseyans to legally light up anytime soon.
2. He took a victory lap
New Jersey governors give State of the State addresses every January, and it’s common for them to use the opportunity to champion what they see as their greatest accomplishments over the previous year.
Murphy was no different. He campaigned on moving the Garden State in a more progressive — or liberal — direction. And on Tuesday, he highlighted how he helped enact some things Democrats long wanted under eight years of Christie.
That includes restoring millions of dollars in funding to Planned Parenthood; signing an equal-pay law, new restrictions on guns; a new earned sick leave law; expanding access to medical marijuana; increasing funding for preschool and community college tuitions.
The crowd — packed with lawmakers, advocates, business leaders, and lobbyists — loudly applauded almost every time Murphy mentioned one of these achievements.
In all, Murphy said, he signed 169 bills in his first year — which he declared was more than any rookie New Jersey governor in decades.
“By any measure, working together — with Senate President Sweeney, Speaker Coughlin and each of you — we had a productive year,” Murphy said.
“And, because of that, I can proudly say that the state of our state is stronger and fairer than it was one year ago.” he added, referring to his often-repeated goal of making New Jersey “stronger and fairer.”
Murphy’s praise comes even though he’s had a sometimes rocky relationship so far with Sweeney and Coughlin, New Jersey’s highest-ranking state lawmakers and the men the governor needs to work with to get practically any proposals passed.
Sweeney told reporters after the speech that Murphy is “entitled” to a victory lap.
“We got a lot of things done, and we should be proud,” he said. “We all should be proud of what we accomplished this year.”
3. But he said more needs to be done on voting, guns, water, and drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants
Murphy also pressed lawmakers to act on a number of other issues he’s supported in the past year.
He said he wants to give New Jerseyans who are on parole the right to vote to “further their reentry into society by allowing them to exercise the most sacred right offered by our society.”
Murphy also wants to allow people who are 17 to register and vote in June primaries if they will turn 18 by the November general election.
On guns, Murphy said he wants to “take additional steps this year to close remaining loopholes — to make it easier for prosecutors and police to keep illegal guns off our streets (and) regulate and track ammunition sales.”
In addition, Murphy said he also wants to improve the state’s aging water infrastructure because water for more than 1.5 million residents has elevated lead levels.
“We must leverage every opportunity to build a modern water infrastructure network that ensures the delivery of clean water to every child, and every family,” he said.
Plus, Murphy called on the Legislature to pass a law to give undocumented immigrants drivers licenses. Advocates fear top Democratic lawmakers are putting that off to avoid controversy in a year in which the entire Assembly is on the election ballot.
Murphy said he often meets residents across the state who “never hesitate to give me a piece of their mind.”
“Frankly, the more time I spend outside Trenton the more I learn that all the answers do not come from Trenton,” he said.
4. He once again lambasted Christie’s tax incentive program
Murphy said he planned on giving a different speech Tuesday — but then the state comptroller released a report last week lambasting the corporate tax incentives that Christie gave out.
The report found state regulators could not verify the businesses poised to receive $11 billion in tax breaks have made the investments in jobs and capital they promised.
So Murphy spent the first section of his speech — about a third of the entire address — reiterating a call he made last week. He said he wants the Legislature to work with him to create a new program that caps the amount of tax breaks the state gives out, has better oversight, and “works to achieve our broader goals by investing in the high-wage, high-growth sectors upon which we must rebuild out economy.”
Murphy said while he isn’t against tax incentives, he believes they should be used “strategically and sparingly.”
He said the report “revealed bad policy, badly run — a program more likely to have been drawn up in a smoke-filled back room than created of New Jersey’s future.”
This could lead to a debate in the Legislature, which approved the program in 2013.
Sweeney, who was in charge of the Senate at the time, said Tuesday “there’s nothing” in the new report that says “the legislation was bad.”
“It was enforcement within the agency,” Sweeney told reporters. “So we have to look within where things went wrong. But to say the programs that we did were bad? I just don’t agree. I believe there’s room for improvement. There’s room for improvement with everything.”
Ben Dworkin, director of Rowan University’s Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship, said he was surprised Murphy made the issue such a large part of the speech.
“He made it a corruption issue, when he didn’t have to go there,” Dworkin said. “And he lead with it.”
5. He wants to make NJ Transit a ‘turnaround story’
Murphy also devoted a section of his speech to NJ Transit, which has been a thorn in the administration’s side as breakdowns and delays have stretched commuters’ patience thin.
He said the state will aim in the new year to improve “customer communications, service and reliability.” He also said he will outline more investments in the state’s mass transportation agency when he unveils his second state budget proposal in March.
“There is still much to do, but I am committed to making NJ Transit the turnaround story of New Jersey,” Murphy said.
But he did not address whether there will be a fare hike in the future. Murphy has promised not to raise fares before June 30, but he has not ruled out one after that.
6. There were no major new proposals, talk of new tax hikes, or mentions of the Katie Brennan investigations
Governors sometimes use State of the State addresses as a platform to chart a new course for the upcoming year. But Murphy’s speech lacked any major new proposal.
Nor did he address whether he would push for a second round of state tax increases — which top Democratic lawmakers say they’re against.
Dworkin, the Rowan professor, wasn’t surprised. He said he expects new proposals to come out when Murphy unveils his next state budget plan in March.
“We’re gonna wait six weeks to see if there are new initiatives,” Dworkin said. “But this was a reinforcement of his progressive vision, which — if the polls are correct — the public is behind.”
Polls have shown about 40 to 50 percent of New Jersey voters approve of Murphy, though many still don’t have an opinion of him.
“What we don’t know is what comes after the $15 minimum wage and legalizing marijuana,” Dworkin said.
Murphy also didn’t address the Legislature’s investigation — nor his own internal investigation — into how the governor’s team responded to Katie Brennan’s rape allegations. Brennan says a top Murphy staffer raped her yet kept his job for months after she informed them.
Public hearings in lawmakers’ investigation continue Friday and could continue to cast a shadow over Murphy’s administration as 2019 rolls along.
7. What about New Jersey’s notoriously high property taxes?
There were no significant plans in Murphy’s speech on how to curb New Jersey’s property taxes, which are the highest in the nation.
But the governor announced the state just saw its lowest one-year increase in property taxes on record.
Murphy’s administration said those taxes rose by less than 1 percent from 2017 to 2018. The average property tax bill last year was $8,767, a $77 increase over the $8,690 bill the year prior.
“We know we have much more to do to crack the back of our property tax burden, including working with our federal delegation to reinstate the SALT deduction,” Murphy said in his speech. “But it’s a start.”
Still, Republican state lawmakers, who have blasted Murphy for his spending and tax increases, weren’t happy with his speech.
“Gov. Murphy has a really big heart,” Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union, said at a news conference after the address. “We just don’t have the wallet to match his heart.”
“The bottom line here is that New Jersey resident have seen 169 new laws and not one law is related to make the state more affordable,” Bramnick added.
State Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union, agreed.
“If you ask many New Jerseyans if we believe we have a state that is fairer or stronger from just a year ago, I think you would find the answer to be, actually, no,” Kean said.
Credit: www.nj.com