Asked about Governor Phil Murphy’s Task Force investigation into the awarding of politically connected tax incentives, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) today offered the following:

“Well, I have enough in Washington to deal with, to be perfectly honest with you, but let me just say, I said before, I’ll say it again: I think the Governor is right to make sure that whatever tax incentive program exists for the state of New Jersey produces the benefits to the people of the state of New Jersey. What is that? It is about creating employment, jobs, good-paying jobs, and you have to look at how much you invest for what you get, and I think that the Governor looking at that is a totally legitimate exercise of not only his authority but actually it’s an important decision to make. If we’re going to collectively use all the monies that we pay to create incentives to companies and entities to come or stay in New Jersey then we have to make sure the result is there, so I think the Governor is totally right on that regard and I applaud him for looking into it.”