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The governor said he's not ready to help legislative leaders whip votes, given the disagreements on concept. | AP Photo
Murphy, legislative staffers meet on minimum wage, marijuana
By RYAN HUTCHINS
JERSEY CITY — Gov. Phil Murphy said his aides were meeting with legislative staffers on Wednesday to discuss major policy proposals and expressed confidence they were making progress on a bill to raise the minimum wage, though not one to legalize marijuana.
After canceling a meeting last week with Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, the governor said he didn't know when the three men would sit down, but said progress was being made. Murphy said he spoke to Sweeney about the minimum wage bill on Tuesday after delivering his State of the State.
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"I don't know if we have [a meeting] scheduled, but our teams are meeting this afternoon," Murphy said at an unrelated press conference. "We had a lot of good back and forth on both topics over the last number of days. I spoke — very briefly, but I spoke — to the Senate president at a reception we had after the speech yesterday. He and I both think we're close on minimum wage."
The legalization of recreational marijuana, however, appears to be another story. The proposal has been stalled since late last year over disagreements about the tax rate — Murphy's shooting higher, Sweeney lower — and about the structure of a regulatory body that would oversee the new industry.
The governor said he's not ready to help legislative leaders whip votes, given the disagreements on concept. He said "good meetings" had occurred "over the past number of days," but that it was "too early to say" where or when they would land on a final bill.
"The Senate president has said that before, and I'm conceptually fine with that," Murphy said of Sweeney's request that he help drum up support in the Legislature. "But I've got to be comfortable with what we're trying to sell, and that's what we're still trying to get to."
The discussion among staff comes after Murphy's chief of staff, Pete Cammarano, left the governor's office on Tuesday, after a year in the top spot. Cammarano had been the governor's point person on the legalization discussions. He's being replaced on an interim basis by Kathleen Frangione, Murphy's chief policy adviser.
Cammarano's departure will not cause any problems for the marijuana negotiations, the governor said.
"Pete was one of the people who was riding point — he's obviously the chief, so he's at the top of the wrung," Murphy said. "But we have a lot of people — and senior folks as well — who are intimately involved in any big policy or piece of legislation. So we've got some folks. We're not letting any grass grow, we're not letting a gap develop."
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