Gov. Phil Murphy’s seventh State of the State address is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon and while he wouldn’t give much away as to what he plans to talki= about, the governor did tell reporters on Monday that he has a sizeable agenda to unveil.
“You might think that if you’re in the eighth year out of eight, the cupboard may have run dry, and I think we’re going to prove tomorrow that the opposite is true,” Murphy said. “Some of it stuff that is deadly serious, other elements that we hope can hit a high C and do some things that are really cool, that maybe no other states have done before.”
Tuesday is not Murphy’s last State of the State — he gets to deliver one just days before leaving office next year — so it can be seen as a chance to lay out his final set of priorities.
What is Murphy expected to say?
Trenton, NJ — February 27, 2024 — Governor Phil Murphy’s budget address for New Jersey’s 2025 fiscal year.
Those are expected to include initiatives on reproductive rights, property tax relief, education and public safety.
Last year, Murphy announced new initiatives to relieve medical debt, stay competitive on artificial intelligence and expand access to universal pre-K. Affordability has been a common theme for the speech throughout Murphy’s tenure as well with attention paid to ANCHOR and other tax relief programs.
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The efforts to reform the “antiquated” liquor license law were also first mentioned during Murphy’s State of the State two years ago alongside the Boardwalk Fund.
But not everything makes the cut, NJ Transit rarely makes the cut in general, and the fiscal cliff expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars in 2026 never does.
Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Phil Murphy and 2025 NJ State of the State preview