Philip Murphy

New Jerseyan Philip Murphy did not make a very good impression on his first day as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, according to a Congressional Quarterly report.   Murphy, who was a top executive at Goldman Sachs and the Democratic National Committee Finance Chairman, apparently arrived in Berlin last month on a Gulfstream V jet just as the German press "was describing how top embassy posts in the Obama administration were going almost exclusively to wealthy campaign donors."

The "ostentatious top-of-the-line executive jet that left German Chancellor Angela Merkel grinding her teeth over President Obama's gift of ambassadorships to wealthy donors," the report said. 

From CQ:

Barack Obama has won the support of the final uncommitted superdelegate from New Jersey: Philip Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs partner from Red Bank who serves as Finance Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, announced today that he was endorsing Obama for President. 

One uncommitted superdelegate from New Jersey appears to be leaning toward Hillary Clinton, according to recent comments he made to close friends who have communicated his position to PolitickerNJ.com. Red Bank resident Philip Murphy, the Democratic National Committee Finance Chairman and a former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs (where he was aligned with the faction that essentially tossed Jon Corzine as Chairman in 1999), has reportedly told at least three individuals that he would likely vote for Clinton over Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention – if the nomination comes down to a contest in Denver. 

New Jersey still has three uncommitted super delegates: U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, Rep. Rush Holt, and Democratic National Finance Committee Chairman Philip Murphy. None are expected to announce a preference in the race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton today.

October 31, 2006

Honorable Jon S. Corzine
Governor of New Jersey
Executive Chambers
State House
Trenton, New Jersey 08625

Dear Governor Corzine:

We want to begin by commending you for the leadership you demonstrated in pressing to end legislative inertia on the property tax issue by calling for the current special session on property tax reform.

Regrettably, we believe your strong intervention will again be required if New Jersey residents are to get the long-promised and much needed property tax relief that you spoke of in your July 28 address to the Legislature.

You convened the special legislative session to address property taxes with a call for action – “comprehensive and transformative action� that would put the needs of the property taxpayer first. Unfortunately, your mandate for action has been effectively abandoned.

Simply put, the session has become alarmingly stagnant and there is little hope that it will produce the bold action needed to alleviate New Jersey’s oppressive property taxes. The committees’ calendar of activities so far has been a blueprint for failure; they have devoted weeks to assessing the problem, retracing the well-worn paths traveled by 20 years worth of study commissions, blue ribbon panels and task forces. Minimal time has been spent reviewing and evaluating proposed solutions, steps that are a necessary prelude to the type of action you rightly demanded.

As members of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform, we have developed and pushed for reforms that would reduce costs and protect the fiscal integrity of those programs, while maintaining fairness for public employees. Our proposals incorporate the recommendations made in the December 2005 report of the Benefits Review Task Force led by your former colleague Philip Murphy. Despite the fact that our committee was directed to use that report as the basis for its work, the committee did not take testimony from Mr. Murphy until last week.

We have received no assurances from the co-chairs that our proposals will get an up-or-down vote from the committee. Co-Chairman Scutari told us last week, “We’ll discuss it.� He said, "I'm not certain we'll have bills come out of this committee or potentially a task force report." As you said in July, the last thing we need is another task force report.

Several of our colleagues on the other committees are also exasperated by the lack of action. Throughout this process Republicans have put substantive proposals on the table that would result in real savings, which have been ignored by the committee co-chairs. This week, roughly two weeks before the end of the special committee process, three of the four committees are not even meeting.

In your July speech to the Legislature, you said that “if we fail to take the necessary steps to achieve sustainable relief and reform by January 1st, then I will call and press for a Citizens’ Convention to be on the ballot in 2007.� We suggest a different approach which would lead to property tax reform much sooner.

The deadline for the special committee reports is November 15. If, as we fear, those November 15 reports do not propose an aggressive action plan that would provide New Jersey’s citizens with property tax relief that will endure, we suggest you call the full Legislature back into session on December 1, and make us meet every day until the task is completed.

A Citizen’s Convention won’t produce relief until 2009 or 2010, if ever. The people of New Jersey have suffered long enough. There are already plenty of proposals before the Legislature that would address the root causes of our property tax crisis. There is only a lack of will to act. Your intervention may well be the impetus needed to produce real results.

Sincerely,

Senator William Gormley Assemblyman Kevin O’Toole

GORMLEY AND O'TOOLE: STOP STONEWALLING ON BENEFITS REVIEW TASK FORCE REPORT
CALL ON SCUTARI AND POU TO ALLOW VOTE ON INDIVIDUAL REFORMS

POU: TESTIMONY FROM AUTHOR OF MURPHY REPORT PROVIDES VALUABLE INSIGHT

(TRENTON) - In response to testimony provided to the Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform by Philip D. Murphy, Chairman of the Governor's Benefits Review Task Force, Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Passaic), one of the committee's co-chairs, issued the following statement:

BENEFITS REFORM PANEL TO TAKE TESTIMONY FROM PRINCIPAL AUTHOR OF MURPHY REPORT WEDNESDAY

(TRENTON) - The Joint Legislative Committee on Public Employee Benefits Reform will take testimony from Philip D. Murphy, Chairman of the Governor's Benefits Review Task Force, on Wednesday.

STENDER APPLAUDS VOLUNTEERS ON DNC DEMOCRATIC REUNION
DNC Finance Chair Philip Murphy and Gov. Jon Corzine Attend Rally