Listen to this articleThe basics:
- Gov. Murphy sits down with NJBIZ to reflect on his time in office
- Talks about leading New Jersey through COVID-19 and its aftermath
- Points to fiscal recovery, surplus growth and credit upgrades
- Strategic innovation centers, film industry revival, FIFA World Cup 2026 and economic impact highlighted
As Gov. Phil Murphy‘s second term draws to a close, attention is turning to how his eight years in office will be remembered. With his administration entering its final weeks, Murphy sat down with NJBIZ to reflect on his tenure.
The conversation ranged from the COVID-19 pandemic – a once-in-a-generation crisis that dominated much of his governorship – to the state’s fiscal condition, economic development strategy and major initiatives that will continue to take shape after he leaves office.
First, the pandemic. “It’s got to be viewed as one of the major periods of our eight years,” Murphy told NJBIZ. “The unexpectedness, the lack of preparedness as a nation, as a world, the overwhelming loss of life — 35,000 New Jerseyans, precious lives.
“Just the gravity of it. Early on, all of us – public health officials, elected officials – there was no playbook. Remember, there was a huge debate on whether or not masks were good or bad. Ludicrous thinking about that now, but it wasn’t then. Or taking our mail in with our gloves on, putting it on the counter on yesterday’s newspaper – and spraying it with Lysol, to boot,” Murphy reflected.
He said it taught him and the administration how to make decisions based on the facts, science and data — and to never forget the human side of governing.
“We eulogized folks in every one of our press conferences. I spoke to those families, every single one of them,” said Murphy. “Thirdly, teaching us a lesson where if you don’t know all – if you’re not prepared, if there isn’t a playbook, if you don’t know all the answers – how you have to sometimes lead through those situations and make the best.
“And I think all of the above impacted me and us meaningfully.”
Crunching the numbers
The discussion shifted to the state’s fiscal status and budgeting, an area with a number of notable developments during the Murphy administration. That includes nine credit rating upgrades, full pension payments in the last five budgets, a healthy surplus, record school funding and property tax relief. Critics cite a substantially higher topline number, what they feel is a broken budget process and how the school funding has been allocated, among their complaints.
How does Murphy view the state’s current fiscal condition, compared with how it looked when he took office?
“There’s a couple of parts that I want to get into. It’s hard to say the state’s fiscal house is anything other than meaningfully in better order,” said Murphy. “When you look at a surplus, we inherited it at $409 million. And as of a couple of weeks ago, it was just under $7 billion. So, let’s stop there for a second. And that’s after five straight years of over $7 billion a year pension payment, most of which was penalties for bad behavior in not making our full payments.
“Nine credit rating upgrades — previous administration, 11 downgrades. Last upgrade before ours, 2005. Last upgrade before that, 1977. So, it’s hard to say anything other than our fiscal house is in dramatically better order.”
[I]t’s hard to say anything other than our fiscal house is in dramatically better order.
– Gov. Phil Murphy
Murphy then spoke about the school funding formula, which is now fully phased in after a seven-year ramp-up following its 2018 enactment.
“By the way, I’d be open-minded to readdressing the school funding formula,” said Murphy. “About 65% of our districts do better year on year. That’s pretty consistent. About 30% do less well. About 5% are unchanged. Now, those less well tend to be for two reasons. One, is there’s more local wealth that can pay for it. Because it’s a joint venture, essentially between the local school authority and the state. Or it’s because there’s a capacity mismatch – typically too many seats relative to the kids.
“And I’m sympathetic to those towns, but neither of those are my fault. You’ve got more wealth – more power to you. And if you got too many seats, I feel badly. But you got to do something about that.”
‘Look at the facts’
He then pushed back the criticism pertaining to the topline number and spending levels. Former Gov. Chris Christie’s final budget was $35.5 billion; Murphy’s final budget for Fiscal Year 2026 is $58.8 billion.
“The one thing I would take exception to – because people when they say this, they’re not bothering to look at the facts. Or they’re bad at math. I’m not sure – maybe both. Yeah, the topline has gone up meaningfully. Two things that are worth noting. Number one, if you look at our first budget and our last budget – and by the way, we’re tracking almost to the dollar in this current fiscal year, six months into it.
“There’s an increase of about $21-plus billion of revenue. Only about $3-plus billion is due to increased taxes. $18-plus billion of that $21-plus billion delta is due to organic growth. That’s growth in the economy. So, with all due respect to folks who talk about expenses going up.
“And let me just give you the second one, $409 million surplus coming in, just under $7 billion today. So, if you do simple math, say that’s an increase in surplus – let’s call it $6.5 billion – which means of that $21-plus billion increase in revenues from budget one to the current budget, we retained $6.5 [billion] of that – basically for our surplus or rainy-day fund,” Murphy continued.
“Find any state in America that has retained over 30% of the increase in its revenues over an eight-year period. You won’t find them. New Jersey is at the top of that list. So, I reject the premise of those that make that criticism. Either they’re bad at math or they have not bothered to actually look at the facts.”
Find any state in America that has retained over 30% of the increase in its revenues over an eight-year period. You won’t find them. New Jersey is at the top of that list.
– Gov. Phil Murphy
The discussion then shifted to a key priority throughout the Murphy administration: re-igniting the state’s innovation economy and heritage. The work has included a major bet on strategic innovation centers (SICs), facilities that bring together the state (through the New Jersey Economic Development Authority) with partners, stakeholders, innovators, startups, researchers, industry, investors, and more to grow new technologies and companies.
To date, 12 SICs have launched or are in the process of doing so in a number of different sectors. These moves amounted to significant bets on technology.
“I think it’s the most important thing we’ve done on the economic front,” said Murphy. “The general theme was to reclaim the innovation economy. And we used the McKinsey Global Institute playbook critique of New Jersey from about 10 years ago. That was our bible.
“But within that, these 12 strategic innovation centers, I think, will be the engines that bear most, if not all of the fruit in the years ahead. They’ll birth the next J&J or Campbell’s or Prudential. They’re all different. They have different sectoral focuses,” the governor continued.
“But they typically have a common type of partnership. It’s the state’s economic development authority putting real money in. It’s an institute of higher education. It’s a big corporate. And lastly, it’s typically an accelerator, like a Plug and Play, that is in the business of generating startups. They’re going to have an incredible impact in the next five to 20 years. Maybe not tomorrow, although some of them are already throwing off some really attractive startups.
“And they will be right centerstage in our future economic growth.”
Coming attractions
The governor talked about another major area of focus as part of the economic strategy, revitalizing the state’s film, television and digital media production sector. An expanded tax credit program has attracted more productions to the Garden State, with record production spending in 2024. And there were groundbreakings in 2025 for three major film studio projects in Newark, Bayonne and Fort Monmouth.
Murphy said this sector offers huge potential for the Garden State.
“You’re already seeing an economic impact of bordering on a billion dollars – three big studios,” said Murphy. He noted that he will join Netflix leadership for a Jan. 12 event at the nearly 300-acre site on the former U.S. Army base that will serve as the company’s $1 billion production hub. “Lionsgate in the South Ward of Newark, another big campus. 1888, their first tenant, Paramount Skydance, in Bayonne.
“We started out with a mission to reclaim our rightful place in film and television. After all, we were Hollywood before there was a Hollywood. And we did that. Early on in our administration was largely making stuff – Steven Spielberg making ‘West Side Story,’ which by the way, he loved and talks about all the time. In fact, he just made another movie in New Jersey. So, making stuff – we still love that, by the way.
“But we also, a couple years in, said, wait a minute, we could put an incentives package in place that incented bricks-and-mortar investment, soundstages. So that people aren’t just coming through, making something, which we love, but they’re making a 30–40 year investment, state-of-the-art soundstages, post-production, you name it. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing with Netflix, with Lionsgate, with Paramount.
“And I think we’ll see more and more of that in the future.”
Goals
No discussion of the last eight years would be complete without covering the FIFA World Cup 2026, during which MetLife Stadium will host eight matches, including the Final on July 19. A number of fan festivals and activations are also planned around what will be the largest ever iteration of the most watched sporting event on the planet.
Murphy played a central role in NYNJ serving as a Host City as well as landing the Final at MetLife Stadium.
“It’s a big deal,” said Murphy of the World Cup. “Eight matches, five great first rounds, two eliminations, and then the World Cup Final on July 19, which will be watched around the world by 3.5–4 billion people. So, that’s not a bad day’s work for New Jersey. But look at the economic impact. The Host Committee thinks it’s $3–$4 billion, 30,000 jobs, upwards of 2 million visitors into the region, including New York City. Big shoutout out to them as great co-hosts.
“This is incredible. It’s going be a game-changer, not just for the sport, but for the economy, for the reputation of the region — all of the above.”
‘It’s a different state than it was’
Given all of that, what does Murphy see as his most important achievement?
“I’d say the accomplishment may not be the answer you would guess. And I feel strongly about this. I’d say it in a couple of different ways. Number one, we are who we said we’d be. We didn’t campaign on one basis and govern on another, which happens a lot in this line of business,” said Murphy. “We didn’t do that, and I’m proud of that.
“Whether folks like what we did or not is a separate question. Secondly, we stuck to our guns in terms of the foundational pieces: stronger, fairer, more responsible. Stronger is grow the economy. Fairer, shrink inequities. More responsible is being a state you can trust again,” he continued.
[W]e stuck to our guns in terms of the foundational pieces: stronger, fairer, more responsible. Stronger is grow the economy. Fairer, shrink inequities. More responsible is being a state you can trust again.
– Gov. Phil Murphy
“We stayed in those lanes almost exclusively. And then thirdly, a different way to put it, we turned the state around. There’s kind of no arguing that. Whether it’s economic. Whether it’s based on equity. Whether it’s fiscal responsibility. Whether it’s our reputation. The buzz around the state. It’s a different state than it was.
“And I’m proud of all of the above.”
‘Responsibility of a lifetime’
He then talked about regrets, coming back to the pandemic.
“How could you go through COVID and lose 35,000 lives and not say, ‘God, if we only.’ And I think the big – if we only – there is none of us, including public health officials, had the requisite knowledge early on that we needed to have,” said Murphy. “There was no playbook. And one of the things I’m proud of, as it relates to COVID – and I’m frankly shocked that we’re the only government that I’m aware of – we have done a full-bore, arms-length postmortem.
“The first day we read any part of that report was the day it was published, over 900 pages, good, bad and ugly. I sat for many hours of interviews, as did all of our team – 33 recommendations. We’ve been working on them and we’ll continue to work on them right through our last day, Jan. 20, at noon,” the governor continued.
“That’ll give you a quick sense of how we see things.”
Murphy spoke fondly of getting to serve in this role over the last eight years.
“It’s been the opportunity and responsibility of a lifetime – the most important chapter in my life. And one that I’ll miss enormously,” said Murphy. “But also, term limits make sense. And it’s time to hand the keys over to Mikie [Sherrill] and Dale [Caldwell]. And I’m thrilled for them. Could not be happier that she is coming in behind me. And she’ll take the state to new heights.”
Sherrill ‘does it all’
Looking ahead, Murphy assessed his successor.
“As they say in baseball, she’s a five-tool athlete. She does it all,” said Murphy. “She’s already been an elected official. She’s got a resume that the rest of us would die for, including a prosecutor, Naval Academy, helicopter pilot, congresswoman, mom of four. She’s got it all.
“And, by the way, people don’t know [Lt. Gov.-elect] Dale Caldwell as well. He’s a rock star. I’ve known him for many years. He’s the real deal. I just think they’re incredibly well-prepared, whether it’s a life matter or specific to this job. They’re going to be great.”
Finally, Murphy offered an extremely brief preview of his final State of the State address, which he will deliver Jan. 13.
“I won’t make any news on that. But this is not going to surprise you. Given I will only have seven days to go when I deliver the speech, it will largely be reflective,” said Murphy. “It normally would have aspirations for the year ahead. There’s some of that, for sure. But there’s also a fair amount of reflection – largely good, but also some nostalgia and acknowledgement of some of the challenges we’ve had.”
