If taxes are your issue, then New Jersey’s probably not your state. That’s what New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said at Rowan University in 2019. Now, those words are being used as a rallying cry for Republicans and his opponent, Jack Ciattarelli.
“If taxes are your issue, then New Jersey’s probably not your state,” Murphy said.
In fact, the statement was the core subject matter of a recent political ad ran by Ciattarelli.
“You’re kidding me, right? Who says that?” Ciattarelli said. “Taxes are an issue, and in New Jersey, we don’t run from problems, we fix them.”
Now, Murphy said that statement is being used by his opponent out of context.
“The statement I made in – I don’t even know that it was at Rowan in 2019, it was completely taken out of context. I don’t want to get too political,” he said. “Completely taken out of context. It was said about businesses, not about families, and it was said in the following context: you come to New Jersey if you’re a company, I think overwhelmingly for talent and location, and we invest in each of those at a level that no other state in America invests. We do everything we can to make the state more affordable, but neither of those come free.”
Murphy said when it comes to families, taxes are an issue and the statement had nothing to do with New Jersey residents.
” When you’ve got the number one education system in America, a top handful healthful state in America, the best state in America to raise a family, a location that’s second to none with the density that we have, the talent we have, that’s what we sell,” he added. “When we sell to a business when we sell to a family, it’s the best state in America to raise a kid. We’re the best state in America to come and do business.”
