As the state staggers into another Dems v. Dems budget fight with insiders preparing for a budget shutdown, Governor Phil Murphy slapped down the going perception of a divide between the front office and the legislature.

“We’re in conversations across the board,” he said at an event in Hackensack where local mayors and his treasurer – but no legislators (at least visible at the front of the room) joined him in support of a millionaire’s tax.

“No way I would have signed 290 bills [without a relationship with the legislature],” Murphy said.

Moments later, he identified New Jersey as a middle class backbone boon.

“One of America’s greatest, if not greatest, states,” the governor said.