NJEA All-In for Murphy Again Because Murphy Has Delivered for NJ’s Most Powerful Special Interest

NJEA Secretary-Treasurer Steve Beatty said it all about the NJEA’s endorsement of Gov. Murphy for re-election: “There is no governor in the nation who has worked as closely and collaboratively with public employee unions than Gov. Murphy.”  Another way to put it is: special interests dominate New Jersey politics all the way to the very top.

The NJEA goes on to list what Gov. Murphy has done for them.  Here’s some of them:

• Chapter 78 relief, which reduced health care premium costs for members while saving the state millions of dollars;
• Protecting educational support professionals whose jobs were at-risk due to COVID-19 school closings;
• Due process rights for educational support professionals;
• Subcontracting protections for educational support professional positions;
• Three of the largest consecutive pension payments in New Jersey history;
• Education funding that supports the unique needs of school districts, even in a pandemic.

That’s 8-for-8 (because there were three record pension payments).  But Sunlight wants to add a couple more:

• expanded millionaire’s tax;
• increased corporate taxes.

That’s 10-for-10.  It’s the same old pattern: a co-opted governor raises taxes on NJ citizens and businesses so he can spend more money on his special public sector union pals.  Because of the pandemic, he also saddling NJ with $4.5 billion more debt.  So he’s mortgaging NJ’s future to take care of his special interest pals as well.

And don’t forget that Murphy appeared as front-man in Super PAC New Direction New Jersey’s multi-million-dollar TV ad campaigns that pushed the NJEA’s and Murphy’s shared agenda.  The NJEA funds 70% of New Direction’s budget, so it’s fair to say that Murphy is appearing in the NJEA’s ads while pushing for the NJEA’s agenda.   As expected, these ads are now pivoting to support Murphy’s re-election.

Please remember that due to our rigged system, NJ taxpayers are funding all this influence-peddling.

This is all a monstrous conflict of interest for Murphy, but he doesn’t care.  NJ’s special-interest-dominated status quo suits him just fine.