has been a busy bee since taking office last year; he has raised
taxes for nearly everyone in his state, proposed a so-called
"millionaire's tax" to ensure that New Jersey's millionaires
will pay their supposed "fair share" to shoulder the costs of
Murphy's massive social spending, and has fought tooth and
attempts in the state legislature initiated by his own party (!)
to rein in certain gubernatorial powers Murphy has, due to
their fears about how much revenue he wants his taxes and
programs to raise each year, as the New Jersey guv strives to
wring out of the taxpaying citizenry and businesses all the
money that he can, especially millionaires. The power to
formulate state revenue estimates is essential to determining
how much the state will need to increase taxes in order to
fund spending priorities. The Democrats in the legislature
(and they are in firm control of both chambers with huge
pluralities!) want to transfer this role to a three-member
panel which would supposedly remove the politics from
budget drafting and increase transparency. But Governor
Murphy protests this idea vehemently, stating through a
spokesman that the New Jersey Constitution "carefully
divides the authority in the budget process between ...
the legislature and the Executive (branch) ... "; whether
or not such a measure is constitutionally allowable
according to New Jersey's Constitution, your inquiring
Peasant has no knowledge but would love to find out
and share the facts with you, my grand readers. But the
takeaway here is that New Jersey has a governor who is
such a big tax-and-spender that legislators in his party
are actually drawing a line and telling him "No, you
are being excessive with the budget!". Robert Ripley,
call your office (ever visit the Believe It or Not! Museum?).
Governor Murphy is also doing his very best not to deliver
on a campaign promise to ease overcrowding and to address
service problems with the New Jersey Transit System.
Although Murphy promised to add additional rail cars
to the lines, after leasing eight cars from the Maryland
Transit Administration he stunningly returned them after
just two months (?). One commuter commented that "If (his)
Uber bill was any measure of success, improvement would
not be the term I would use," Many NJTS riders resorted to
Uber and Lyft rides as well as taxis to commute to and from
their jobs due to the two aforementioned transit system
woes.
Away from his office and the legislature, Governor Murphy
has other troubles to deal with: he is a co-owner of a woman's
soccer team, Sky Blue FC, which is facing allegations that
it is grossly mismanaged, provides inadequate living
arrangements and poor practice facilities for its players.
According to Fox News, some of the players were made to
live with an elderly man who consistently made inappropriate
comments to them and made them generally uncomfortable.
Governor Murphy purchased the team ten years ago, supposedly
to show his daughter, herself a soccer player, that women can
play at the professional level as well as at the amateur level.
A wonderful gesture. But Murphy didn't provide his charges
with facilities worthy of a professional soccer team, or really
any soccer team; the training facility he provided has no
lockers, no running water, and inadequate laundry facilities
where they can wash their uniforms, necessitating their
practicing in body odor-permeated clothes. When confronted
with these facts in an interview, Governor Murphy replied
"I don't find the status quo tolerable, and they deserve better,"
but to date has not made any effort to provide better for his
team. Although having invested half a million dollars in the
club, Murphy seems to have shown precious little interest
in it.
Finally, the governor's troubles include his wayward 20-year-old
-son Joshua Murphy. The lad campaigned tirelessly for his dad
in the 2016 election campaign in which the father was elected
governor. In his spare time, though, he managed to get arrested
for underage drinking and disorderly conduct, having shouted
obscenities at the police officer who came to investigate reports
of rowdyism on Joshua's college campus. A few months later
he rolled his car down an embankment (he was not seriously
injured).
So what does this under pressure governor do as a response to
all of this? He took an eleven-day trip to Italy, where the guv has
a 7 million dollar vacation home. He took this little flyer just six
months into his term as governor. And he is sticking New Jersey's
taxpayers with the tab for his personal protection --- $100,000!
With all the trouble he has at home, much of it of his own making,
Governor Phil Murphy might want to stay in Italy. And also pick
up the tab for his protection and other needs. In the meantime,
New Jersey's electorate may want to rethink their having had
elected him governor.
MEM
MEM
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