Murphy won't browbeat legislative leaders on millionaires tax

Gov. Phil Murphy’s push for a millionaires tax got a boost from a poll released Thursday that showed residents in the state overwhelmingly supported the proposal, but the governor said he wasn’t planning to use those figures to push Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin into supporting the measure.

“I tend not to beat people over the head with anything,” Murphy said when asked if he’d use the proposal’s popularity to browbeat legislative leaders into backing the tax.

A poll jointly conducted by Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics and Fairleigh Dickinson University found 72% of the state backed the millionaires tax, while 28% opposed the same.

The millionaires tax has been a point of contention between Murphy and top Democrats in the state’s legislature since last budget season, when the proposal became a major hurdle for budget negotiations that almost ended in a government shutdown.

Read more: https://newjerseyglobe.com/governor/murphy-wont-browbeat-legislative-leaders-on-millionaires-tax/