TRENTON, NJ – Move your business to New Jersey, abortion is legal. That’s the message New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy sent Texans this month. By the way, Texas, your electric grid sucks too.
As temperatures scorch the Garden State with highs in the 90s amid a crippling heatwave and developing drought, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy took a shot at the state of Texas, mocking the state’s electricity infrastructure.
Meanwhile, temperatures in Texas reached as high as 115 degrees this week as Murphy tore into the Lone Star State. Murphy used an Op-Ed letter published in Texas newspapers to try to lure Texans to New Jersey, the state that leads the nation in pretty much everything bad, from taxes to cost of living. Once home to some of the lowest gasoline prices, New Jersey is now near the top of the chart when it comes to how much it costs to fuel up your car.
New Jersey has one of the worst business climates in America, ranked 8th worst by TaxFoundation.Org.
But abortion is legal in New Jersey and, according to Murphy, that’s why you should uproot your family and business and move to Jersey.
“Unfortunately, we’re not all running in the same direction. New Jersey is running forward, taking the opportunity to enshrine abortion rights and reproductive freedoms within our state laws,” Murphy says. “Others, such as Texas, are running backward and falling over themselves in the process of stripping women of their individual rights and freedoms,” Murphy said in a letter that appeared in the Houston Chronicle. “Abortion rights may not, on the surface, appear to be an economic issue. But the reality is that as more states move backward on individual freedoms, businesses can no longer sit silent. Individual rights and freedoms are an economic issue.”
Come to New Jersey.
“First, in New Jersey you will find a state that unequivocally stands on the side of trusting all of our residents with control of their bodies on the most personal of decisions,” the governor said. “We firmly believe that is between a woman and her doctor to decide what to do with her own body. A woman’s right to an abortion is codified in state law. We are not going to criminalize a woman’s right to her body.”
Murphy also noted Texas is a terrible place to raise a family, citing a Wallethub report that ranks it 30th in the nation. Then he slammed Texas’ faulty power grid which is juiced 23% by wind power, leading the nation in the total wind power output.
That wind power has been blamed for much of Texas’ energy problems of late.
“And, it should be mentioned, New Jersey is also home to energy grid infrastructure that U.S. News ranked 17 spots higher than Texas in terms of its reliability. Certainly, we cannot expect any business to leave Texas overnight,” Murphy said. “But with the criminalization of a woman’s right to her own bodily autonomy in Texas, it raises the question as to which individual rights state lawmakers will seek to overturn next. Marriage equality? Access to contraception? The ability of parents to support their transgender and LGBTQ children? None of these should be considered sacred and unassailable rights to any Texan anymore. But they are in New Jersey.”
This year, Murphy announced the approval of a massive offshore wind energy farm off the coast of New Jersey. Time will tell if New Jersey’s energy rating will soon join Texas.
For now, Murphy’s plea to businesses appears to be nothing more than hot air as many parts of the Lone Star State are booming economically. According to TaxFoundation.Org, Texas has the 11th best business climate in the country. New Jersey is dead last.
