Governor Murphy – Three Years of a Stronger and Fairer New Jersey

COVID-19 Response

• Led the nation in the administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and considered model state for trending in right direction
• Launched the Community Contact Tracing Corps
• Focused on inclusive economic recovery by directing hundreds of millions of federal dollars into small business grants, child care support, rental assistance, and food insecurity
• Prioritized educational supports through extensive Pre-K-12 and higher education remote learning and reopening guidance and deployed hundreds of millions in federal stimulus funds to school districts and institutions of higher education across the state
• Created nationally recognized public transit response through NJ TRANSIT for early actions to protect customers and employees including implementing capacity restrictions, installing protective barriers, performing deep cleaning methods, providing staff and riders access to PPE, and leveraging technology

Criminal Justice Reform, Elections, And Gun Safety

• Reconstituted the Criminal Sentencing Review Commission to bring balance and fairness to our criminal justice system, and supported the Commission’s recommendations to eliminate mandatory minimums for non-violent drug and property offenses
• Established the Task Force for the Continued Transformation of Youth Justice in New Jersey
• Enacted a package of common-sense gun safety bills that make New Jersey among the states with the strongest gun laws in the nation, created the States for Gun Safety Coalition, and started the Center for Gun Violence Research
• Enacted one of the nation’s most progressive expungement reforms, to go into effect in 2021
• Made New Jersey the 12th state to require Automatic Voter Registration to expand access to voting
• Created an online system for voter registration
• Restored voting rights to over 80,000 residents on probation or parole
• Limited the use of solitary confinement in New Jersey’s prisons
• Ended prison gerrymandering
• Enacted funding to support an early voting initiative in 2021

Economic And Workforce Development

• Unveiled statewide economic development plan to spur job and wage growth and create the country’s most inclusive innovation economy
• Directed the State Comptroller to audit the EDA’s tax incentive programs
• Reinvigorated workforce development programs through the Jobs NJ plan and creation of initiatives like the New Jersey Apprenticeship Network
• Doubled the Angel Investor Tax Credit Program to 20 percent, with an additional five percent for investments in minority and women owned companies
• Increased the allocation of Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credits by 50 percent, which encourages corporations to invest in revitalizing low- and moderate-income communities
• Enacted legislation allowing sports betting at casinos and racetracks
• Reduced Affordable Housing Trust Fund diversions
• Started a dedicated small business unit and created the Office of Economic Transformation at EDA
• Appointed the state’s first Chief Innovation Officer
• Re-activated and funded the Commission of Science, Innovation and Technology
• Opened Choose New Jersey Offices in both Europe and India, and completed trade missions to Germany, India, and Israel
• Developed Opportunity Zone map nationally recognized for delivering long-term capital investment opportunities in low- income rural and urban communities
• Reinstated and then expanded the Film and Digital Media Tax Credit
• Unparalleled support to CDFIs, including over $10 million in dedicated COVID relief funding

Education

• Increased K-12 school funding by over half a billion dollars since FY18 and signed landmark legislation to modernize and equitably distribute school funding
• Increased preschool funding by nearly $200 million since FY18 and made early education accessible for almost 6,000 more children in over 90 districts
• Launched the State’s “Computer Science for All” initiative and introduced the P-TECH educational model to New Jersey
• Adopted a Computer Science State Plan
• Started the transition away from PARCC
• First state to have access to arts education in all public school districts
• First state to adopt K-12 climate change standards across all core content areas
• Launched tuition-free community college in New Jersey for thousands of students
• Developed a higher education strategic plan to improve quality and access
• Introduced an outcomes-based allocation formula to rationalize higher-education funding
• Increased funding for the Educational Opportunity Fund each year and expanded Tuition Aid Grants to support DREAMers and incarcerated students
• Enacted STEM loan forgiveness legislation
• Launched K-12 and higher education grant applications for $500 million in bond funding authorized by the Securing Our Children’s Future Bond Act
• Shepherded the return of full local control to the Newark Public Schools Board of Education after 25 years as a state-operated school district

Energy And Environment

• Banned the bear hunt on public lands and proposed a plan ending the bear hunt statewide
• Created the offshore wind goal of developing 7,500 megawatts (MW) by 2035 and announced solicitation schedule to meet the goal, created the WIND Institute, and announced plans to develop the New Jersey Wind Port
• Unveiled the State’s Energy Master Plan to meet the goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2050 and launched the Protecting Against Climate Threats (PACT) regulatory reform effort
• Steered New Jersey’s re-entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, whose auction proceeds will help launch a Green Bank
• Committed to a goal of 330,000 registered light-duty electric vehicles by 2025 and created one of the country’s most ambitious electric vehicle rebate programs
• Signed historic environmental justice bill to protect overburdened communities from pollutants
• Enacted legislation to ban fossil fuel exploration and drilling in state waters, and banned fracking
• Launched the State’s first community solar energy pilot
• Reduced Clean Energy Fund diversions from those in the previous administration
• Announced significant changes to the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation, and Mitigation (RREM) Program and the Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) Homeowner Rebuilding Program to support those recovering from Superstorm Sandy
• Introduced the Statewide Plan to Address Lead Exposure and made new investments into the Clean Water and Drinking Water programs

Infrastructure And Transit

• Provided record subsidies to NJ TRANSIT and spared commuters from fare hikes for three consecutive years
• Secured funding for the Portal North Bridge (PNB) from the Federal Transit Administration to advance the project to the engineering phase; total economic output in New Jersey is estimated to be $3 billion dollars, supporting approximately 15,000 full time equivalent (FTE) job-years of direct, indirect, and induced employment, including 7,900 FTE job-years of direct employment from construction
• Broke ground on the $600 million project of replacing the 112-year old Raritan River Bridge, with 18 additional key projects currently underway
• Dedicated $2.3 billion in capital projects, not including the PNB project, which increases to over $4 billion when including all construction work to improve transit in New Jersey
• Led New Jersey toward full implementation of Positive Train Control, completing 88 percent of federal interim installation in 10 months following only 12 percent completion during the entire 8 years of the previous Administration
• Unveiled two new transformational plans for NJ Transit: a new 10-year Strategic Plan, NJT2030, as well as a new, five-year Capital Plan that includes more than 100 programs and projects and identifies $17 billion in capital needs
• Funded and entered early stages of the State’s first electric bus demonstration project in Camden, set to be deployed during the middle of 2021; began planning to launch a similar electric bus pilot in Newark and set NJ Transit on path to be a nationwide leader and to achieve an all-electric fleet by 2040
• Graduated locomotive engineers at more than twice the rate of the previous Administration; NJ Transit aggressively advanced locomotive engineer hiring and training at unprecedented levels to replenish the roster, graduating the same number of classes in two years as the previous five years combined, bringing the active engineer roster up to 373
• Enacted Public Private Partnership legislation
• Increased the number of Municipal Aid awards and reach of the program expanding from 516 awards to 505 municipalities in FY2018 to 545 awards to 542 municipalities in FY2020
• Appropriated $60 million in funding to support water and sewer infrastructure, including lead service line replacements

Fiscal Responsibility And Economic Justice

• Put New Jersey on a path to a $15 minimum wage
• Reinstated the millionaires tax
• Increased the Earned Income Tax Credit from 35 percent to 40 percent and expanded eligibility
• Created a Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit and a new tax rebate for middle class families
• Enacted combined reporting to ensure that companies cannot place their profits in other states
• Contributed more to the pension in three years than any other administration contributed in their entire tenure
• Made first deposit into the rainy day fund in over a decade
• Generated over $800 million in health benefits savings over two years
• Oversaw the slowest growth in property taxes in an administration’s first two years since the 1990s
• Appointed bipartisan shared services czars and created the Local Assistance Bureau in DCA, which led to record numbers of shared service agreements in FY20
• Raised the cap for state property tax deductions
• Signed a package of legislation addressing the foreclosure crisis
• Established the SecureChoice savings program
• Established a state-level Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Enacted one of the most expansive paid sick leave programs in the nation
• Signed landmark legislation expanding paid family leave
• Established a Task Force on Employee Misclassification and increased capacity in the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour division to advance the strategic enforcement paradigm
• Launched the Public Bank Implementation Board

Health Care

• Launched the State-Based Exchange to defend progress made through the Affordable Care Act
• Reformed New Jersey’s Medicinal Marijuana Program, more than quintupling the number of patients since 2018
• Allocated hundreds of millions of dollars toward addressing the opioid crisis over three years, generating over 30 evidence-based programs across eight departments
• Rebalanced Children’s System of Care rates for the first time in 15 years to significantly invest comprehensive youth mental health
• Established the Office of Health Care Affordability and Transparency to holistically promote access to affordable care for all New Jerseyans
• Signed laws to continue the individual mandate in New Jersey and implement a reinsurance program, lowering premiums on the individual market by an average of 9.3 percent in 2019
• Enacted the Health Insurers Act to provide over $100 million in subsidies for middle-class families
• Signed legislation to protect consumers against surprise bills for out-of-network health services

Social Justice And Equality

• Signed into law the nation’s strongest equal pay law
• Signed a law prohibiting employers from using prior salary as a basis for employment
• Restored funding to family planning services and expanded Medicaid eligibility for family planning services
• Enacted legislation allowing residents to obtain drivers’ licenses regardless of immigration status
• Ensured that New Jersey DREAMers have access to in-state financial aid
• Allocated over $11 million over three years provide legal representation for residents facing immigration issues
• Limited voluntary cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration enforcement to build trust between local law enforcement and immigrant communities through the Attorney General’s Immigrant Trust Directive
• Assembled the most diverse cabinet in New Jersey history, including the first Sikh-American Attorney General in United States history, the first Muslim-American commissioner in state history, and the first Cabinet in state history to include a majority of women among the Governor’s appointees
• Appointed the State’s first black female Supreme Court justice
• Appointed the state’s first full-time Chief Diversity Officer
• Appointed the first Ombudsman for Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities and Their Families
• Signed bills expanding rights and protections for New Jersey’s LGBTQ community
• Made New Jersey the 2nd state to ban child marriage under all circumstances
• Established the Commission on Puerto Rico Relief
• Challenged President Trump’s actions on DREAMers, tax changes, family separations, fuel efficiency, reproductive healthcare access, natural gas pipeline review, and the inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. Census