The fifteen members of the Senate Republican caucus urged Governor Phil Murphy to listen to the common concerns that have been raised repeatedly by constituents during the seven weeks that New Jersey has been locked down and to act on proposed recommendations.
“Senate Republicans are working hard to serve the families and communities we represent in all corners of New Jersey during this extremely difficult time. Keeping people safe is the highest priority of government,” said
Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean (R-21).
“Over the last seven weeks, the members of our caucus have had conversations with tens of thousands of people who are struggling with different aspects of the governor’s executive orders that shut down large segments of the Garden State economy. We believe Governor Murphy should listen to the common concerns we’ve received from our constituents and take immediate action on our recommended solutions.”
The top three concerns raised by our constituents across New Jersey include:
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Fixing the broken unemployment system
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Addressing nonsensical disparities in business restrictions
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Allowing New Jerseyans to access all health care and dental services
“The bottleneck in processing unemployment claims seems to be manpower, which is perhaps the simplest issue to address,” said
Senator Mike Doherty (R-23).
“We have tens of thousands of State workers who are sitting at home collecting paychecks at taxpayer expense while unable to perform their regular jobs. There is no reason they cannot be reassigned temporarily to the Department of Labor and quickly trained to process claims. California is doing something similar. It’s beyond belief this reassignment didn’t start six weeks ago when we started seeing the huge and completely predictable surge in claims that resulted from the closure of most New Jersey businesses. If there are civil service concerns, let’s work together to address them.”
“When the governor shut down ‘non-essential’ businesses, he was acting out of an overabundance of caution as New Jerseyans learned about COVID-19 and adjusted their attitudes and lifestyles to minimize both their personal risk and that of vulnerable communities,” said
Senator Kip Bateman (R-16).
“The simple fact is that we’re all different people than we were seven weeks ago. We’ve all adjusted in ways that would have been unthinkable just months ago. If New Jerseyans can be trusted to shop safely in a grocery store with masks, social distancing, and other safety measures taken, why can’t the governor trust them to visit a sporting goods store, a clothing shop, or countless other small businesses that remain closed? If a business wants to stay shut, that should be their choice. If a consumer doesn’t feel comfortable walking into a certain establishment, that should be their choice too. Most importantly, people deserve the opportunity to be trusted and to make decisions for themselves.”
