Time to End Governor Murphy’s Emergency Powers

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Middletown NJ, Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (NJLD13-R) has one word for Governor Murphy as he seeks an extension to his emergency powers next week – NO!  This preemptive, definitive statement comes as news broke that the New Jersey Governor is officially requesting a 90-day extension to his “limited” Emergency Powers during the January 10^th voting session in the State’s Legislature:

“We don’t have to wait until the voting session, he can have my vote now if he’d like – NO,” Scharfenberger exclaimed. “Rather than looking to extend the Governor’s emergency powers, we should be revoking the constraints that have been in place since March 2020 which, if these policies worked, we would have been over this a year and a half ago. Life has to continue and even the CDC is finally admitting such.”

In June, legislation (A5820/S3866) was passed by the Democrat Majority in Trenton under the guise that it would officially end New Jersey’s public health emergency as well as the overbearing COVID-19 Executive Orders implemented by the Governor. However, a loophole was purposefully added that would allow the executive branch to seek extensions in the following year and retain certain capabilities.

For those very reasons Assemblyman Scharfenberger voted against it in the first place, for fear that it would be exploited after the gubernatorial election. That fear is seemingly becoming a reality as the loophole is now being exploited:

“New Jersey already lost a third of its businesses, done incalculable damage to our children’s education, lost thousands of seniors in our nursing homes, and trampled the rights of every resident in the state,” Scharfenberger continued. “It’s well past time for the Governor to have some confidence in the people he represents to deal with this situation, not as his office and one man sees fit. No more nanny state overreach.”