Murphy's State of the State not good news for business

'Givenor' Murphy's State of the State addressed was broadcast Tuesday afternoon, although it was recorded Sunday night at an empty Trenton War Memorial Auditorium. He spewed the usual platitudes about "laying a foundation for a stronger and fairer New Jersey". That's one of his tag lines in his TV commercials for his dark money political organization, New Direction New Jersey.

Yeah, the new direction a lot of hard working, taxpaying New Jerseyans is out of here for the third year in a row, according to a recent survey. There wasn't much to encourage New Jersey businesses in Tuesday's speech according to Eileen Kean, National Federation of Independent Business NJ State Director. The NFIB advocates for small businesses around the country, including the ones hanging on for dear life here.

In case you didn't have the patience or the stomach to sit through the whole speech, thankfully very interested parties like Eileen Kean, did. Here's some of what she had to say about Murphy's speech.

“The governor’s speech had a lot of slick video production but there wasn’t much there for small businesses. As a matter of fact, when he listed his accomplishments, many have been mandates that are harmful to small businesses because they raised the overall cost of doing business.
“Now that many small businesses are hanging on by a thread financially, they may have preferred the governor didn’t borrow over $4 billion to fill a budget deficit because paying that bill and interest will fall on small businesses in the form of higher taxes".

If small business is the backbone of the state's economy, he's got it in traction and with a poor prognosis for recovery. Yet, his chances for re-election later this year look good according to the experts.

It just goes to show, if you put on your best suit, fake sincerity into the camera and don't upset anyone with fiery rhetoric, you can even get over on typically sharp population like New Jersey. Oh yeah, and an unlimited supply of your own vast wealth.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis's own.