A conversation with Christopher DePhillips

The New Jersey Globe is continuing its series of legislator Q&As with Christopher DePhillips. Prior installments include Luanne Peterpaul, Dave Bailey Jr., Doug Steinhardt, Al Abdelaziz, Andrew Zwicker, Mike Inganamort, Cody Miller, Chigozie Onyema, and Roy Freiman. 

Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips (R-Wyckoff) hails from the 40th legislative district, which he has represented since 2018. A member of the Health Infrastructure and Science, Innovation, & Technology Committees, DePhillips is also the Assembly GOP’s conference leader. 

He was once an aide to the former Rep. Marge Roukema, and he is now a partner at the law firm Bernstein DePhillips & Kalosieh. 

A list of DePhillips’ floor and committee votes can be found here.
Click here to view a list of bills that DePhillips has sponsored.

The following phone interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

New Jersey Globe: I want to start with something you’ve been pushing for lately, especially during Governor Sherrill’s first budget, which is to lower the corporate business tax. Can you explain why that’s needed for the state? And yeah, we’ll just start there.

Christopher DePhillips: Well, my top priority in Trenton has always been cutting taxes and cutting spending. I believe we need to break the cycle of tax and spending addiction in New Jersey, because that’s what it is. It’s an addiction. 

I’ve always fought to return more money to the people, and my CBT tax cut bill is along those same lines. I actually have a number of bills to cut taxes in New Jersey. I have a bill to cut the sales tax rate from 6.625% to 6%. I have another bill, which is actually going to be up in the Senate Budget Committee today, which would increase from 18% to 30% the amount of rental payments that renters would be eligible to deduct from their property taxes, so hopefully that’s going to be moving in the Senate, as well as in the Assembly. [The legislation, sponsored by Democratic state Sens. Troy Singleton and Nicholas Scutari in the upper chamber, cleared through the Senate Budget Committee unanimously on Thursday.]

My bill to cut the CBT tax rate is a gradual cut over four years to bring it down to 2.5%. Currently, with the surtax on top of the CBT tax rate, the rate is 11.5% in New Jersey, which is completely unsustainable. We have the highest corporate business tax in the country, and we have objective proof that it is causing businesses and job creators to leave New Jersey. So, I think it’s essential that we cut it.

I’m not asking to cut it all at once; I’m asking to cut it gradually. I have spoken to Governor Sherrill about it, and I offered this idea to her, and I certainly hope that we can get bipartisan support for this proposal now more than ever.

It seems like Democrats are open to smaller adjustments here or there — you mentioned the rent reform — but not necessarily the widespread sales tax decreases or business tax decreases. Do you think that the state can remain healthy with smaller adjustments, or is wholesale change needed?

I think the budget is more than healthy in New Jersey. In the governor’s budget address, she proposed another increase in state spending up to $60.7 billion, a 75% increase over the last [Chris] Christie budget in 2017. When I came into the legislature, having been elected in 2017, the budget was $34 billion. So there’s more than enough money in the state budget already. If anything, we need to cut the budget, pare it back, bring it down, and return more money to the people.

What’s your day job?

I graduated from law school in 1992, so I’ve been a practicing attorney for 34 years. I practiced in two very large law firms in New Jersey, and then I was doing general counsel work and was the chief operating officer for a life sciences consulting company in New Jersey. Then I returned to private practice in April 2024, having joined Bernstein DePhillips & Kalosieh as a partner, and we are based in Bergen County.

And how did you get from legal work to running for office?

I would say government and politics have always been in my DNA. My parents were very active in government and politics, and they taught my siblings and me that it’s important to understand what politics is and the good it can do for people. We were the family that sat around and watched the national conventions for both parties — it was almost mandatory growing up, and we were quite young when we were asked to do that. So, I do have memories of watching the 1976 Republican and Democratic national conventions when I was 11 years old.

Was your family Republican?

Yes, my parents were both Republicans. My father served in Governor William T. Cahill’s administration in the Department of Transportation. He was an assistant commissioner from 1970 to 1973. He was a civil engineer who served in several public roles. When he retired, he was the CEO of a civil engineering firm that had offices in New Jersey and four other states.

And my mother was also a proud Republican. They both served on the county committee in Old Tappan, which is in Bergen County. I grew up in District 39, which is right next door to the 40th, and they were active in their Republican club. They were proud Reagan Republicans. They taught us about public service and the need to give back to our communities, politically and otherwise.

You sponsored a bill with your assemblymate Al Barlas that moved through the Assembly Aging and Human Services Committee last month — the bill essentially triples the personal needs allowance of low-income nursing home residents. Why did you write that bill, and what do you hope to do with it?

That bill percolated up to us in our district. We were asked to sponsor that by a number of seniors who were and are still in a nursing home, and Assemblyman Barlas and I thought it was the right thing to do. It certainly has bipartisan support, and we were happy to bring it to the committee.

I’m certainly hoping it will pass both houses of the legislature. I know Senator Kristin Corrado supports it, and when Al and I were on the campaign trail, we visited several senior facilities and nursing homes, and they were well aware of our sponsorship of the bill, and they were very grateful.

Between your bill and other bills, and some of the other legislators I’ve talked with, I’ve noticed the state is looking to focus on helping seniors, especially as New Jersey has an aging population. Do you think the state is doing enough to help senior New Jerseyans? What are you looking for as you try to handle that issue?

I absolutely think the state can and should be doing more to serve seniors. Senior citizens are the backbone of our communities, the backbone of our economy, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for what they’ve done to help build the state to where it is today. When I first ran for public office in my hometown of Wyckoff, I realized how extensive the senior population is in my hometown and throughout New Jersey.

I think seniors are sometimes forgotten by public officials because they are not seen as frequently as younger adults. When I went door-to-door throughout my community in Wyckoff as I first ran for public office in 2009, I could see how many housebound seniors we have in my community. Wyckoff is considered a fairly affluent community, and I discovered a lot of seniors who needed assistance, and that’s where public officials need to step in.

I do most certainly think the state needs to do more to take the pressure off of seniors who believe that they can no longer afford to stay in New Jersey, and we do know from objective data and evidence that seniors are leaving New Jersey because they believe they cannot afford to stay here in their retirement. So that is one of the reasons why I’ve been pushing for spending cuts and tax cuts. We are losing our senior population to other states, and we are breaking up families because younger people are no longer with their grandparents.

It seems like the state has had a decent amount of difficulty helping people in a transition phase of their life, between young adults who find it harder to buy a house and retiring seniors. How can the state support people who are in a transition period? 

I think it’s a crisis that once younger people graduate from college, they feel that they cannot afford to stay here. The average age for the first-time homebuyer is now 40. That’s very high. I bought my first house when I was 31 and my wife was 29, so that number has been creeping up, and it’s because of the high cost of living in New Jersey. So that is top of mind for me.

I have four children, three of whom are in their mid-to-late 20s, and, you know, I would like them to be able to stay and put roots down in New Jersey. I’ve already lost one to Massachusetts — maybe we’ll get her back — but the cost-prohibitive environment is driving young people out.

On the Science Innovation Technology Committee, we’re trying to develop policies to expand innovation, expand job creation in New Jersey, and make the state more affordable so young people can stay here, so my kids can stay here.

I read in the New Jersey Monitor that you were in Minnesota during the assassinations and attempted assassination of a couple of state legislators and their families there. The article mentions how that attack pushed you to propose a strengthening of Daniel’s Law. [The legislation bars the publication of home addresses belonging to judges and law enforcement officials.] What is your proposal?

After Judge Esther Salas’ son was killed, I certainly supported legislation to protect sitting judges from having personal details of their lives disclosed. After what happened in Minneapolis — and I was a mile or two away from where those shootings took place, because I was visiting family in Minnesota that weekend — I strongly felt, and still do feel, that those same protections should be extended to legislators as well.

I think there should be a certain amount of protection around your home address, your family life, your children’s identities. Those types of protections should be extended to judges and public officials. Unfortunately, Judge Salas’ 20-year-old son had to pay the price, but I think Judge Salas has shown us all what courage is about and what protections can be put in place reasonably to protect public officials who are trying to do the right thing.

After the Minneapolis shootings, I thought, Heaven forbid something like that happens here in New Jersey. Every elected official should feel safe in their home. It’s the least we can do to protect public officials and make sure that people aren’t frightened away from serving.