Entering his second-to-last year in office, Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday doubled down on promises to make “make life more affordable for all families” in New Jersey and touted plans to ease medical debt, expand abortion access, and explore artificial intelligence as he delivered his sixth State of the State address.
The Democratic governor also promised a new clemency initiative “to help our neighbors who have been unjustly thrown behind bars get back on track.” He called for proposals to increase affordable housing, improve childhood literacy, and allow 16- and 17-year-olds vote in school board elections in the state. He stood by his offshore wind and energy goals despite recent setbacks.
And he stressed the state will fight back against “a resurgent, radical, right-wing agenda.”
“This is an era of unease and uncertainty,” Murphy told an audience filled with state lawmakers, leaders, former governors at the Statehouse in Trenton during his hour-long speech.
”We live in a world rocked by two full-on wars, a surge in hate crimes, inflation, high interest rates, the aftermath of a pandemic and the tail end of supply chain disruptions. And in the face of these challenges, building a stronger, fairer, more inclusive New Jersey has never been more necessary.”
“So here is our task, today: to meet these hard times by working even harder.”
But Republicans sharply criticized Murphy’s remarks, saying the governor’s new proposals are “pie in the sky” ideas that might not make the state less costly and leaders should instead curb big spending in the face of state budget concerns.
Other critics questioned why the speech was missing comments about funding NJ Transit and combatting climate change.
Governors deliver State of the State speeches at the start of each year, painting often bright pictures of how the state’s condition and laying out big goals for the year ahead. This one came as Murphy begins his sixth year as governor, two years before term limits will force him to leave office.
Murphy didn’t unveil any major plans on taxes or the economy. Such proposals could come when he delivers his state budget address next month.
Saying New Jersey “stands tall, resilient, and brimming with ambition,” he did champion how the economy has shown signs of life and how his administration worked with lawmakers to install property-tax relief plans and a minimum wage that just crossed $15 an hour. He said his goal has always been to make the state “the best place anywhere to raise a family.”
New Jersey, though, has a high cost of living and the nation’s steepest property taxes as the nation still deals with inflation. Unemployment in the state is also now higher than the national rate and lagging tax revenues have cast uncertainty on the state’s fiscal future.
Murphy said leaders can do more to help “turn things around” for families.
”When working parents walk through the grocery store — or shop for school supplies — it certainly does not feel like things are working in their favor,” he said.
Affordability has been a focus for Murphy and his fellow Democrats who control the state Legislature in the two years since a stunning 2021 election in which Republicans came closer than expected from booting the governor from office.
Murphy will now have a larger pool of Democratic lawmakers to work with in Trenton. Tuesday’s speech came just hours after the newly elected 221st Legislature was sworn in, with 37 of the 120 members brand new and Democrats having boosted their grip of the governing body by six seats in November’s elections. That’s even though Republicans were threatening to make gains for the second straight election.
“Congratulations,” Murphy told the new lawmakers in the audience. “Especially to those legislators who some predicted would not be sitting here today. I guess being in a picture with me wasn’t so bad after all.”
Tuesday’s speech was also delivered with the backdrop of a massive storm approaching New Jersey. Murphy moved forward with the address despite declaring a statewide state of emergency beginning at 5 p.m. — which stuck the clock just seven minutes after he finishes speaking.
Here are some other highlights:
MEDICAL DEBT PLAN
Noting 1 in 10 New Jerseyans have medical debt, Murphy called on the Legislature to send him a package of bills that would give patients in the state time to negotiate a bill and seek financial assistance before debts can be sent to a collection agency or reported to a credit rating company.
That would build on a $10 million debt-relief initiative funded in the state budget Murphy signed in June.
He said he wants the legislation will be named the Louisa Carman Medical Debt Relief Act, after an health care policy analyst in his administration that died at age 25 in a car crash on New Year’s Day. Murphy called her a “major force behind this legislative package.”
”Pupping people out from crushing medical debt is vital,” he said. “But so is protecting them from falling down that hole in the first place.”
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Top Democratic state lawmakers introduced a bill last month to revamp New Jersey’s complex and often-debated system regulating the construction of affordable housing as the state faces a shortage and advocates say it’s a crisis for many. But it didn’t pass the Legislature before its last session ended Tuesday.
Murphy urged legislators to pass it in the new session.
“Our shared vision is simple,” he said. “Ensuring that everyone raising a family in New Jersey has a safe, affordable place to call home.”
EXPANDING ABORTION ACCESS
Murphy also urged lawmakers to pass another bill that stalled last session: one that would scrap out-of-pocket costs for abortions on state-regulated health plans. It’s something the governor has pushed for the last few years, and he said he’d like it to get done by this summer.
He noted this comes as the U.S. has seen a right-wing agenda “hellbent on coming after our fundamental rights.”
“Women’s health care in America is in a state of crisis,” Murphy said. “So when I talk about making New Jersey the best place to raise a family — that also means ensuring every woman has the freedom to start a family on their own terms.”
“If lawmakers in states like Florida and Texas think they can rip away rights from our fellow citizens, we’ve got news for them: not in the Garden State.”
Gov. Phil Murphy delivers his 2024 State of the State address in the state Assembly chamber at the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton on Tuesday.Ed Murray| For NJ Advance Media
EXPANDED VOTING
Murphy, who has launched several initiatives to expand voting in the state, recently signed a law to allow 17-year-olds in New Jersey to vote in primary elections, starting in 2026, as long as they turn 18 by the general election.
Now, he wants to take it further. He called on lawmakers once again to pass a long-stalled bill that would install same-day voter-registration in the state — which state Senate President Nick Scutari, D-Union, has resisted so far.
“Nobody should ever be denied access to the ballot box because they missed a deadline or forgot to send in paperwork,” Murphy said.
The governor also urged legislators to pass a bill that would permit 16- and 17-year-olds across the state to vote in local school board elections.
This comes as Newark is set to become the first municipality in the state to make such a move, with the city council is scheduled to vote Wednesday.
“I know, to some, this proposal may sound unconventional,” Murphy said. “But voting is a lifelong habit. And studies show that, if a person votes in one election, they are more likely to turn out in the next election.”
STUDENT LITERACY AND PRE-K
Another goal Murphy outlined was to install new programs to improve literacy, including through phonics-based reading lessons — teaching kids to sound out letters and combine them into words.
“Increasing literacy rates makes New Jersey better,” he said. “Because reading books is always better than banning books.”
But Murphy did not provide more details of those plans.
Meanwhile, he promised to once again expand government-funded pre-K in New Jersey, something he has included in state budgets since he took office in 2018. So far, he said, more than 14,000 children benefit from it, though he reiterated his ultimate goal is to make preschool free for all families here.
CLEMENCY
Saying the state “must continue reforming” a criminal justice system “that has failed Black and Brown communities for far too long,” Murphy said he will announce in the next few months “a new clemency initiative that ensure we live up to our promise as the state for second chances.”
Clemency includes pardoning people convicted of crimes or commuting their sentences — something Murphy has not done at all in his tenure. He did not provide details on the new plans.
“We need to reject the notion that compassion comes at the cost of vigilance,” Murphy said.
TRANSPORTATION
The governor mentioned the start of construction in late 2023 on two preliminary projects leading up to building the $16 billion Gateway project to build new rail tunnels under the Hudson River and rehabilitate two existing 113-year-old tunnels.
“We are making it easier for families to get where they need to be, when they need to be there,” Murphy said.
But he didn’t say if NJ Transit fares will remain stable as the state faces how to handle a projected $119 million funding gap this fiscal year that snowballs to $957 million in two years without a funding source and plan.
OFFSHORE WIND
Murphy has long vowed to make New Jersey 100% reliant on clean energy by 2035, including through an ambition offshore wind program. That took a major hit last year when Danish developer Ørsted pulled out of the state’s first wind farm.
But he said the state will “remain firmly committed” to his energy goals.
“This is not just about doing what is right for our planet,” Murphy said. “This is also about creating a generation of good-paying jobs in the industries that will — literally — power our future, like offshore wind and solar.”
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
In a nod to JFK’s famous 1961 proclamation about America going to the moon, Murphy announced a new program designed help make New Jersey a leader in the emerging — and heavily debated — field of generative artificial intelligence.
Again, details were scant. But Murphy called it AI Moonshot, in which “our state’s top minds” would help “pioneer” breakthroughs in AI over the next decade to help “change the lives of billions for the better.”
“Sixty-three years ago, President John F. Kennedy declared we would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade,” said Murphy, a fellow Massachusetts native. “Well, today, our state is lifting off to explore the furthest reaches of science in our time.”
It’s the latest endeavor Murphy has unveiled related to championing New Jersey — home to Thomas Edison’s experiments and other science innovation — as the East Coast’s answer to Silicon Valley on AI. He last year launched a task force for the state to examine the technology and announced a hub at Princeton University devoted to it.
“Think about it this way: If a governor, back in 1994, talked about the transformative potential for the internet, you might have yawned,” Murphy said. “Looking back, we have long since stopped yawning.”
REPUBLICAN RESPONSE
Top Republican lawmakers countered Murphy in a news conference after his speech, stressing New Jersey’s property taxes are still the highest in the nation, while relief programs Democrats have installed are unsustainable and won’t help everyone.
“Our whole tax burden on our society is pretty much miserable,” state Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio, R-Warren, said.
State Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, the ranking Republican on the Senate’s budget committee, said he recently met with business leaders in the hospitality industry with companies in New Jersey and other states.
“They are choosing not to invest here in New Jersey, and that’s because our tax burden is still the highest in the nation,” O’Scanlon said.
Republicans also voiced concerns about the price tag of his new proposals and said the spending spree the state has been on in recent years, financed in large part by federal pandemic relief funds and borrowing, has to come to an end.
“The problem we have is that his actions must follow his words,” Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, said.
OTHER REACTIONS AND CRITICISM
Democrats who lead the Legislature praised Murphy for zeroing in again on affordability and said the state needs to “build upon progress” related to taxes, a woman’s right to choose, and gun safety.
“In the year ahead, we have to maintain our emphasis on the needs of the hard-working people of New Jersey, state Senate President Nick Scutari, D-Union, said in a statement.
But some progressive advocates chastised Murphy for focusing on affordability at the same time he stuck by an agreement to let a corporate business tax surcharge expire at the start of the year — which officials estimate will cost the state more than $300 million this year and $1 billion in the 2025 fiscal year.
Nicole Rodriguez, president of the left-leaning think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective, said while there was “a lot to like in Murphy’s address,” it overlooked “one giant elephant in the room that could unravel it all.”
“By scrapping the corporate tax surcharge for big players like Amazon and Walmart, state lawmakers jeopardize the future of the same investments the governor celebrated in his remarks,” Rodriguez said. “To keep up the momentum and build an economy that is truly stronger and fairer for all, Governor Murphy and the Legislature must undo this tax cut for the most profitable corporations in the world.”
Meanwhile, Peter Kasabach, executive director of nonprofit New Jersey Future, said there was “irony” in how Murphy declared a state of emergency over the incoming storm but “failed to elevate climate change adaptation as a priority.”
From left: Former Gov. Jon Corzine, state Sen. Teresa Ruiz, and former Gov. Jim McGreevey take a selfie before Gov. Phil Murphy delivered his 2024 State of the State address.Ed Murray| For NJ Advance Media
THE AUDIENCE
The crowd included two unexpected guests: former Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat who makes only sporadic appearances at government events, and former Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, the second-in-command under then-Gov. Chris Christie and the Republican whom Murphy defeated to become governor in 2017.
Seated next to them were two other former governors: Jim McGreevey, the Democrat now running for Jersey City mayor, and Richard Codey, who retired Tuesday after 50 years in the Legislature, the longest tenure of any lawmaker in state history.
NJ Advance Media staff writers Larry Higgs and Steve Strunsky contributed to this report.
Stories by Brent Johnson
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X at @johnsb01.
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