Beware — This new law will cement Governor Murphy’s dictatorship (Opinion)
Gov. Murphy & Company’s latest sleight of hand is one of the least convincing magic tricks the Democrats have ever tried to pull off. It’s a new bill, one that screams that the public health emergency in NJ is OFFICIALLY OVER.
Sort of.
It’s Bill A 5777 and it purports to “end” the public health emergency. And, what’s more, it goes on to revoke any executive order the governor made in response to the public health emergency, since, according to the bill, there IS no longer a public emergency.
Sounds reasonable right? Oh ... except for one thing. I mean 15 things. There are 15 COVID-19 related executive orders that are excluded from the bill. Not to mention the fact that one paragraph of the bill states outright that if he sees spikes again, the governor can completely go back to restricting us.
According to its language, the bill will “.......provide less restrictive measures, unless an increase in hospitalizations, increased spot positivity, or rate of transmission above 1 necessitates a modification that would be more restrictive.”
Huh?
This is akin to stating that something is absolutely legal. Unless it isn’t.
The bill, in effect, allows Murphy to continue restrictions and executive orders into 2022. By law. It goes on to list all of the executive orders that still remain in effect, despite the emergency being allegedly “lifted.”
These orders provide for keeping people from being evicted as well as keeping state money flowing to victims of the exact problems that Murphy caused. It’s a marvelous Jerseyesque catch 22–the kind that Murphy does so well. It’s like saying “The emergency is over and all my executive orders are lifted, except, of course, for half of my executive orders. According to an article on Insidernj
The legislation was mocked by Republican senator Steven Oroho, who said, “Frankly, this legislation has to be some kind of joke”
Some kind of joke indeed.
The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco. Any opinions expressed are Judi Franco’s own.