Murphy Fights for N.J. Millionaire Tax: ‘Whose Side Are You On?’

(Bloomberg) -- Racing against New Jersey’s constitutional budget deadline, Governor Phil Murphy cast aside his typical diplomacy and said fellow Democrats against his millionaire’s tax were operating “in a bubble” and betraying core party values.

Lawmakers on June 20 passed a $38.7 billion budget that omitted Murphy’s proposed tax on the state’s wealthiest, an opioid-industry charge to help fund addiction treatment, and fees on some businesses whose employees enroll in Medicaid.

“It’s an effort to change the heartbeat of that organization, which is inside of a bubble, used to doing business the same way for decades,” Murphy said at a Paterson news conference. “I’ve kind of had it with folks who can’t answer that very clear question: Whose side are you on?”

At one point, the governor said it was “stone-cold, crazy stupid” for lawmakers to make what he called cuts to a community college tuition program. The Senate Democratic Office, in an emailed statement, disputed the characterization, saying the changes were made so the program could help more students and be expanded to summer semesters.

Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat from West Deptford, said the governor was “living in a fairy land.”

“He is continuing the status quo of raising taxes without any focus on property-tax relief,” Sweeney said in a telephone interview. Murphy could “throw all the temper tantrums he wants,” Sweeney said. “We stand ready to work with him.”

State government will shut down on July 1, the start of the fiscal year, if a budget isn’t in place. Hours from the deadline last year, Murphy’s first in office, he and Democratic leaders agreed to a higher tax rate for those earning more than $5 million, rather than $1 million, and made other concessions to avert a shutdown.

The Paterson stop was the governor’s third public appearance before supporters this week, even as he lamented each time about the budget stalemate. Murphy said lawmakers have had since early March, when he introduced his proposed spending plan, to negotiate.

“They’ve chosen to discharge their constitutional responsibility,” Murphy said. “It’s now up to me to discharge my constitutional responsibility.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Elise Young in Trenton at eyoung30@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flynn McRoberts at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net, William Selway, Martin Z. Braun

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.