Statement from the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce on Gov. Murphy’s State of the State Address

From his first day in office, Gov. Murphy talked about creating a stronger and fairer economy. Over the last seven years, in our estimation, he has created the fairest economy in the nation. However, the stronger side of the equation has had considerable less focus. Today’s speech covered a lot of initiatives to make our economy even more fair by continuing what has already transpired over the last seven years. In November’s elections, the overwhelming message from the public was that they wanted change and for government to focus on economic growth and a stronger economy. Neither of those were addressed in today’s speech. We have been saying for many, many months that our economy, and supporting business, needs to be the main focus of the administration and the Legislature. If that does not happen, the initiatives proposed by the governor will have difficulty being funded.

-Tom Bracken, President & CEO, New Jersey Chamber of Commerce