Jon Bramnick: ‘Murphy’s a nice guy but out of touch’

Governor Murphy in his state of the state is basically spending the money you would spend AFTER you take care of the business of providing for you and your family.

When I watched his state of the state address I kept waiting for the meal. When are we going to lower property taxes? Better yet any taxes? How are we going to make living in New Jersey more affordable? I wanted to feel good about what I was hearing and psyched for another great year, instead I felt empty. I felt hungry. Then again I always feel hungry. .

Hours after he weighed in on Governor Murphy's state of the state address Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R) called into my show and put it in perspective.

"We all have big hearts but we all don't have big wallets, what we have here is a governor who has an incredibly big heart and he's a nice man, but he lives in a different universe even from his own Democrats" Bramnick says, "...even Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin don't even understand what he's doing." Bramnick says, "It's not like it's republicans vs. democrats, it's republicans and moderate democrats vs. someone who's out of touch."

Branmick likes Murphy as a person, he's even had a drink with him but, "Of the 169 new laws he says he signed, not one of them have anything to do with the problems we have economically not one." Murphy talked about free community college, which means I'm supposed to pay for your kids to go when I can't even pay for my own. He passionately spoke about how much we need a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage without mentioning how businesses will be able to afford it. He wants legalized recreational marijuana, and so do I after hearing that speech. In fact, I wanted it immediately.

Jon Bramnick talked about when Governor Christie cut a deal with the democrats and some republicans to cap property taxes at 2 percent, which gave them the lowest rise over the last year. He said, "The tough things that you have to pass to put your fiscal house in order he (Murphy) doesn't do."

I asked Bramnick if there was anything he heard in Governor Murphy's speech that would make someone want to either stay or leave New Jersey.

"I would be concerned that the Governor wasn't laying out a plan to either reduce or cap property taxes or state spending." Bramnick said. "...My concern is that the person who's thinking about moving, thinking about retiring outside the state, they didn't hear anything that Murphy said to change the direction of the state, that's my concern."

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