Phil Murphy will start a rare second term for a Democratic New Jersey governor facing pressure to rein in taxes, fund mass transit and finish the job on Covid-19 recovery.
He’ll do it with the added challenges brought on by his unexpectedly narrow victory over Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli, who has not yet conceded. After leading in recent polls by as much as 11 percentage points, Murphy was declared the winner Wednesday by the Associated Press. With 99% of precincts reporting as of Thursday, he led by 1.5 points—35,718 votes out of 2.5 million counted.
The 64-year-old incumbent confronts one of the highest unemployment rates in the U.S., and has been less stringent than some neighboring states and cities on vaccine requirements. Murphy has denied Ciattarelli’s accusations that he was holding off on a mandate until after the election, saying he was letting science and data drive his decisions, not politics.
Murphy’s win makes him the first Democrat since 1977 to win re-election as New Jersey governor. Past Democratic governors have been ousted over taxes and economic slowness.
Here’s what voters can expect from Murphy on some major issues:
Taxes
Murphy enacted a millionaire’s income tax during his first term and used the money to provide rebates for middle-class homeowners. He has pledged not to raise taxes in his second term. That doesn’t mean that New Jersey’s property taxes—which are set and collected by local governments—won’t continue to increase, as they have done each year for more than two decades.
New Jerseyans paid an average property-tax bill of $9,112 in 2020, the highest rate in the nation. Murphy’s predecessor, Republican Chris Christie, enacted a tax cap that has helped limit annual growth in recent years.
Murphy has worked to blunt the high cost of the taxes by increasing aid to schools and municipalities and giving tax rebates, credits and deductions. He has urged Congress to lift a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions, and has encouraged consolidation of New Jersey’s 21 counties, 566 municipalities, 611 school districts and 400 local authorities and fire districts. But he has not proposed a plan for actual tax reduction.
Jobs
Murphy’s Covid restrictions took a toll on New Jersey’s economy. Over two months, New Jersey lost 720,000 jobs, largely in leisure and hospitality, retail and health care. The state’s unemployment rate more than quadrupled in a month to 16.6% in April 2020. It went from being below the U.S. average to above it.
As of September, New Jersey had regained about 68% of jobs lost during the pandemic. The unemployment rate had recovered to 7.1% in New Jersey, but remains well above earlier lows.
Murphy’s first-term job policies include a higher minimum wage and enactment of paid family leave. He also overhauled the state’s tax-incentive program and has recently lured several tech companies, including Fiserv, which pledged to add 2,000 jobs in Berkeley Heights, and HAX in Newark with 2,500. Netflix Inc. is seeking to turn an old army base in New Jersey into a production facility for film and TV, and Amazon Inc. is looking to add office space in Jersey City.