it was billed as a press conference it

felt more like a rally Governor Murphy

summoned the usual suspects from the

progressive end of the spectrum

Ron rivers the head of a beer and

winemaking supply company that already

pays a $15 minimum wage spoke first then

the governor he said there is one more

voting session for the legislature this

year on December 17th and they should

pass a $15 minimum wage bill then I

think with all due respect if we really

want to give our working families a

boost and make forward-thinking

employers like Ron and his colleagues

the example and not the exception then

let's hope both our holiday wish list

and the Legislature's December 17 board

list include putting New Jersey on a

responsible in certain path to a $15 an

hour minimum wage the current minimum

wage is $8 60 cents an hour it rises to

885 January 1st 860 is 1490 dollars a

month before taxes said an Assemblywoman

with first-hand knowledge of the

predicament it wasn't just a few years

ago that I was working for around about

$9 an hour as a baker and taking four

buses to work and still not being able

to make ends meet the poor are not lazy

SATA pasture we know that the majority

of these people are working two and

three jobs and while a $15 an hour

minimum wage will not solve every

problem ask somebody who's only making

$8 and change and they'll tell you it

will certainly solve a lot of problems

the legislative leaders are on board

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin

published an op-ed this weekend saying

he'll work with Murphy to get a bill

done and said today the assembly is in

the final stages of crafting legislation

senate president steve sweeney tweets

Murphy this is no time for staged

rallies and dueling press conferences he

wrote but said he's on board with the

issue

when Murphy opened it up to questions we

asked whether he favors the new

legislative redistricting plan put

forward last week by Democratic leaders

yeah I'm not I'm not a buyer of a the

senate president an assembly speaker one

different representation on the

commission that will draw a new map and

murphy said for the first time he's

against it I'm a proud Democrat we say

that number one but I'm also I want to

be a believer in democracy and opening

up democracy and transparency and good

processes in government and getting to

the right solutions and I don't think

this meets those tests he said he didn't

know if it was aimed at eluding his

power but that it just popped up last

week and what's the rush

again the good good government realm was

popped up the day before Thanksgiving

happy Thanksgiving by the way everybody

his position got reinforcement from a

social justice advocate it fundamentally

elevates partisanship above keeping

communities of color in particular holes

a part of what the spirit of the

legislation should be is to empower

communities over parties and the reverse

is true about this legislation which is

part of the reason why we oppose it

Murphy was asked why he's talking about

the minimum wage on a day when marijuana

tops the agenda down the street we can

walk and chew gum at the same time he

said and besides raising the minimum

wage has been one of his top priorities

all year let's get minimum wage raised

now to $15 an hour

god bless in Trenton I'm Michael Aaron

and J TV news

you

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