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Governor Phil Murphy seems to have been hitting the pre-presidential run checklist (more here). I'm here to tell him to forget about it! If he cannot serve New Jersey, he should not set his sights on the whole Nation. Let's unpack.
The straw that broke this camel's back lies in the $521,000 our supposedly climate-focused Governor spent on 8 gas-guzzling Chevy Suburbans purchased for the "Executive Protection Unit." What, they don't have cars now? He tries to justify a tie to Covid funds by saying they (NJ State Police driving the cars?) "...show leadership and provide support blah blah blah..." Did I mention he used Federal ARP (Covid relief) funds? Oh yeah. According to Politico, "The administration was permitted to make unilateral spending decisions regarding the American Rescue Plan funds for appropriations of less than $10 million, for up to $200 million total. Anything more than that required the approval of JBOC, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers from the Senate and Assembly." Imagine, no need for approval or even oversight, it seems, for spending under $10million per expenditure, up to $200 million dollars combined! Apparently Governor Murphy needed an anti-microbial ride to visit vaccine sites and tour hospitals so it makes sense that he would spend over a half million dollars of ARP funds to pimp his caravan. It's Presidential dress-up, and may he never land that role. Do better for New Jersey first! Read more here.
American Rescue Plan funds can be used in a multitude of ways. Covid wreaked havoc on NJ in countless ways after all. Pimping Phil's ride, as well as that of his entourage, is NOT on my list of ways to help New Jerseyans to thrive semi-post-Covid, while Covid is still a threat.
Covid caused warehouse prolifica because of online ordering, but all trends show that people want to get back to brick-and-mortar, TOGETHERNESS. Industry is trying to steer the markets away from doing in-person retail business, despite the waning warehouse boom, the layoffs and reduced footprint of giants like Amazon. Builders want to build, and they don't care if they build a warehouse graveyard. They build and leave. The workers work and the developers develope and they get paid and that's all that matters. UNLESS... Unless someone with power happens to have his eye on the Oval, then it's a whole new game.
Anyone recall the "EMERGENCY PACT rules?" Murphy ordered the DEP to enact them in response to the climate crisis and the imminent peril that is NOT still in question, due an abundance of science behind it. Murphy says, tweets and repeats how climate is the single greatest threat to humankind. But does he mean it or is he pleasing his base? Well, considering the builder's lobby was able to write him a letter and wave away any imminent peril, with no science to back them, just greedy, morally bankrupt developers clinging to their profits, and put an end to the PACT rules, I'd call him a DINO. While I hate to quote the former buffoon-in-chief, the acronym works here. Murphy is a Democrat in name only. Climate is the greatest threat to humankind, but only on paper it seems. He succumbed to the lobbyists and no more PACT rules. Now, it is the long and drawn out, Inland Flood Rule that may be too little too late if certain projects (BRIDGE POINT 8) get grandfathered in, meaning they get to build and pave, only prepared for storms of 1999 and earlier. The builders whined and sobbed that they had already invested in their outdated stormwater calculations and they would lose money if they had to do it over! Forget the cost of lives lost and billions in relief funding in perpetuity... let's protect the profits of billionaires - yeah, that makes sense. Don't get me started. Refresh your memory here.
If Covid taught us anything, it's that open space is crucial to the health and safety of New Jerseyans. During the pandemic, the only way we could get together was OUTSIDE. We are not out of the woods. Covid can and will flare again, and/or it could be an entirely different virus. We cannot box out so much of our great state and move all life indoors. We need more outdoor spaces where we can find respite from the stress of being boxed in at work, at home, at school, reduced to life in front of screens.
In August, I presented an argument to the Governor to help West Windsor to preserve a 653 acre parcel of land for open space. Our community is already half developed. I say we cap it here. Green heals. Nature heals. It heals us and it heals the planet, otherwise, as George Carlin suggested, we are a surface nuisance, Mother Earth is gonna shake us off like a bad case of fleas. If you want your kids and grandkids to enjoy what's left of our Garden State, possibly lost forever under Governor Murphy's tenure, now the Logistics State... I suggest you take action. Defend NJ like you live here!
Click here for info and directions on giving the DEP your two cents about the Inland Flood Rule. Only the morally bankrupt could support permitting builds designed for floods of 1999! Seriously - who are these people? We'll get to them later.
To Governor Murphy I say, if you try to walk the middle you will fall. If you try to please everyone, you'll please no one. Are you a Democrat who actually cares about the climate emergency or are you more interested in the support of the builder's lobby, should you decide to run for the office of President? Choose. I will tell you that your base far outnumbers your donors and we will not stand for you selling out to them for political favor. New Jersey will not support you in a run for President. Do the job you have; preserve and protect New Jersey, the Garden State... what's left of it. No more paper governance - make something happen!
Write to the Governor here.
