In response to Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2024 State of the State address, two Republican leaders in the State Legislature are saying that the governor and his fellow Democrats are prioritizing “pie in the sky” policy goals at the expense of fiscal responsibility and lower taxes.
“The governor talks a good game, but there’s fundamental changes that need to be made in New Jersey that aren’t happening,” Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown) said at a press conference immediately following Murphy’s address. “We have fundamental, basic needs in New Jersey that aren’t being met.”
Murphy focused on a wide variety of topics, including tackling medical debt, further expanding abortion access, passing new voting reforms, and making New Jersey a hub for artificial intelligence development. He also highlighted the efforts the state has already made to improve affordability through property tax rebate programs and minimum wage hikes.
But DiMaio and State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Little Silver), the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, argued that those programs haven’t been nearly enough to make the state truly affordable or fiscally stable.
“New Jersey is the single most unaffordable state in the nation,” O’Scanlon said. “If we improve on that marginally, I guess you could pound your chest and say that’s a wonderful thing. But our affordability situation still sucks. We are still the highest-taxed state in the nation.”
DiMaio and O’Scanlon also threw cold water on several of the policy proposals made by the governor today. Allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in school board elections undermines the basic agreement that 18 is the age of majority, DiMaio said; talking about abortion access is “an absolute garbage red-herring issue,” according to O’Scanlon.
“We have abortion rights in New Jersey,” DiMaio said. “They passed the bill; it stands. We’re more interested in the pocketbook issues that affect the people who live in New Jersey… The abortion issue is a non-issue in New Jersey, frankly.”
But with Democrats expanding their legislative majorities in last November’s elections, there may not be much Republicans can do to prevent Murphy’s proposals from becoming reality. Democrats have more than enough members to pass nearly anything they want on party-line votes, and Republicans will have to fight for their continued relevance against that tide.
“We are hopeful for New Jersey,” O’Scanlon said. “We are hopeful that Republicans will be at the table, and that our friends on the other side of the aisle will begin to see the sanity and the fiscal reality that we have been pitching and continue to pitch.”