By Allison Perrine
NEW JERSEY – Gov. Phil Murphy began his Wednesday afternoon press conference with strong criticism of U.S. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed stimulus bill, calling it “a slap in the face of every governor across the country.”
Murphy said that under McConnell’s plan, there would be “zero flexibility” for states to receive any additional funding amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the first round of federal funding under the CARES Act’s coronavirus relief fund, the state received $2.4 billion.
“What New Jersey has gotten back is a drop in the bucket compared to our needs,” he said. “Because of the pandemic, we are undergoing a historic fiscal crisis, the likes of which has only happened twice in our state’s 244-year history,” during the Civil War and the Great Depression.
In May, the governor’s office predicted having a $9.9 billion budget deficit by June 2021. Similarly, the nonpartisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that states nationwide “are staring down a combined hole of $555 billion” by fiscal year 2022, said Murphy. He said New Jersey has already dipped into its “rainy day fund” to get through the next two months and has directed all state departments to plan for 15 percent budget cuts this fall.
At the same time, the state cannot ignore its current needs to meet “sharply increased costs” for things like emergency response, public transit, small business aid and school funding, which Murphy said is “especially critical.”
“We cannot fully support our districts in their plans for the upcoming school year without help from Washington,” said the governor. “We are staring directly at a $1 billion cut in aid to our public schools and we’ll have to further cut operating aid to our struggling colleges and universities which, by the way, have already cut by nearly $200 million,” he said.
Additionally, Murphy reviewed updates to the list of states on the travel advisory; anyone returning or visiting from a state on the list should self-isolate for 14 days. It now includes 31 states, up from 22 states last week. Newly added are Alaska, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Virginia and Washington.
According to Murphy, the advisory applies to anyone traveling from a state with a positive test rate over 10 per 100,000 residents or a state with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a seven-day average.
“We continue to ask everyone who has been in one of these 31 impacted states to practice self-responsibility and good citizenship, and comply with our travel advisory,” said Murphy. He encouraged everyone to get tested if they feel symptomatic or think they may have been exposed to the virus, especially with free testing now available thanks to Monmouth County government and the Grunin Foundation.
Through this partnership, free COVID-19 testing is available in Asbury Park, Freehold Borough, Keansburg, Neptune, Long Branch and Red Bank. Anyone interested can simply walk up to the site and get tested; no appointment is needed. Tests will be offered six days a week and will rotate from town to town, Murphy said. More information is available at visitmonmouth.com.
“Whether it’s in Monmouth County or your county, we have the testing capacity. The turnaround time to get your results is the challenge,” he said. “That’s a national challenge. But the capacity in this state is as good as any capacity in any state in America.”
As of Wednesday, July 22, the total cumulative number of positive COVID-19 cases statewide reached 177,645 with 13,787 total lab-confirmed deaths and 1,920 suspected related deaths. The daily positivity rate reached 2.48 percent as of July 18.
The article originally appeared in the July 23 – 29, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
