Issues

Affordability and Property Taxes

Carol Murphy is committed to making New Jersey more affordable and reducing our property tax burden by:

  • Z Establishing a task force to analyze the root causes of high property taxes and develop innovative solutions to bring much needed reform to reduce the burden on New Jersey families.
  • ZLeading the fight as a member of the Assembly Budget Committee to fully fund the senior property tax freeze program, preserve veteran’s property tax reduction and advance middle-class property tax relief.
  • ZAdvocating for policies that tackle our affordability crisis that include reversing New Jersey’s over reliance on new taxes to balance the state budget, national trade policies that reduce our burden at home and forward-looking efforts to address rising gas prices.

Climate Change, Environment and Sustainability

Carol Murphy believes that we have a moral responsibility to address the alarming threat of climate change and has been leading efforts to critical reforms by:

  • Z Improving the availability and access to electric vehicle charging infrastructure, reducing energy consumption and emissions, establishing new financing mechanisms to give property owners the ability to make energy efficient improvements and requiring local governments to consider the risks of climate change when making planning decisions.
  • ZIncreasing capacity for renewable energy production, establishing a solar incentive program, creating large scale solar facilities and positioning New Jersey to be a world leader in offshore wind energy production, which will create cleaner energy and create tens of thousands of jobs.
  • ZEnsuring that everyone has access to clean drinking water by making historic investments in clean water and drinking water infrastructure projects, ensuring the safety of drinking water and removing lead from our drinking water.

Digital and Technology Infrastructure

Carol Murphy has been working to modernize and innovate our state, which severely lags behind in the area of digital and technology infrastructure, and these challenges were greatly exposed during the pandemic. Carol’s efforts to fix the broken infrastructure include:

  • ZAdvancing 5G wireless infrastructure to ensure that residents have online access with faster speeds, greater capacity and better reliability that is essential to our residents for work, school, accessing government services and staying connected to family and friends.
  • ZMandating the state through legislation, Carol has authored, “21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act,” to update web-based platforms that would enhance services to residents that would narrow the growing gap between the digital demands of citizens and the outdated methods that government provides digital services.

Education

Carol Murphy believes that education is the essence of opportunity, a good education levels the playing field and creates fairness in future academic pursuits, and we must do everything to ensure that New Jersey continues to lead the nation with the best school systems. Carol has fought to close a gap of more than 30 million dollars for Burlington County public schools that were underfunded and she is a fierce advocate for teachers, students and ensuring the student success. Now, Carol is leading the fight for improved access to mental health services in our schools for students by ensuring wellness rooms, mental health first aid training for teachers and faculty, and establishing a task force to analyze the necessary services to improve care.

Economy

During the pandemic, Carol Murphy fought to provide financial assistance to small businesses and crafting economic development initiatives to serve as a driver for the local economy by:

  • ZEnsuring businesses can survive while supporting our workforce through providing incentives for job creation and capital investment, disbursing financial resources for small businesses, attract film studios for largescale production projects, maximining benefits of Urban Enterprise Zone program and legalizing and (decriminalizing personal use) cannabis.
  • ZImproving our economy through comprehensive economic incentives to prioritize investments in high-growth sectors and creating viable job opportunities to position New Jersey as a global leader in the innovation economy, ensuring equitable access to healthy and nutritious foods and provide services to communities in need through investments in nonprofit organizations.
  • ZSupporting cultural, historic, food and beverage tourism including online gaming and sports wagering, enabling fixed-odds horse wagering and investing in the promotion of local tourism, historical and agricultural industries.

Gun Violence Reform

Carol Murphy has been a leader is the state legislature to combat the epidemic of gun violence by fighting for common sense laws that protect our residents that include:

  • Z Reduce the size of high-capacity magazines that are often used in mass shooting because they are a danger to our public safety, and have no place in our communities
  • ZStrengthen background checks and require background checks for private guns sales
  • ZProhibit the sale of body armor piercing ammunition

Healthcare

Carol Murphy believes that healthcare is a human right and has been a strong champion at the State Capitol for access to affordable healthcare by:

  • ZDelivering the largest investment in women’s healthcare funding in state history that includes facility improvements, wellness and cancer screenings, prenatal, reproductive and preventive care, and the codification of Roe v. Wade protections to safe and legal abortion access
  • ZExpanding access to mental health services with an emphasis on the extreme pressure teenagers are facing that has intensified during the pandemic
  • ZProtecting the Affordable Care Act through a comprehensive set of measures to ensure health insurance plans cover essential benefits, guarantee young adults continuing coverage and establishing an in-state health exchange to protect our residents

Human Trafficking

Carol Murphy is leading the fight against human trafficking as she has annually promoted the Red Sand project, where volunteers fill sidewalk cracks with red sand to spread awareness of human trafficking. The act of putting red sand in the cracks of sidewalks is used to symbolize those who have been exposed to human trafficking and have fallen through the cracks of our economic, social and political systems. In addition to awareness, Carol is sponsoring legislation to provide victims access to services and increases penalties to crack down on traffickers. She is working in partnership with Volunteers of America and South Jersey Law Enforcement on eliminating human trafficking.

Labor

Carol Murphy is a leader fighting for working men and women by focusing on the wage gap, income inequality and vital benefits for families by:

  • ZSupporting the minimum wage to $15 an hour
  • ZExpanding paid family leave by increasing benefits and doubling leave time up to 12 weeks
  • ZEnacting the strongest pay equity law in the nation to ensure that New Jersey can close the wage gap that at the time of passage had women in New Jersey making 82 cents on the dollar and those disparities drop as low as 60 cents for women of color
  • ZEstablishing an earned paid sick leave benefit of up to 40 hours a year for all workers

Seniors

Confronting issues that specifically affect our senior community throughout New Jersey is a priority in the state legislature and we have worked to address and mitigate disparities in treatment through:

  • ZImproving the long-term care facilities devoted to caring for our seniors to remain positioned to provide care through ensuring they are equipped with the resources they need including personal protective equipment, increasing the minimum wage of staff, prevent social isolation and enforcing requirements for comprehensive plans to navigate public health emergencies.
  • ZEnsuring seniors remain in their homes and are financially secure through the passage of a middle-class tax rebate, cutting taxes on retirement income, increasing the homestead tax rebate, expanding eligibility for the earned income tax rebate and improving eligibility in the PAAD and Senior Gold Prescription Discount Programs.
  • ZStrengthening protections from food insecurity, financial exploitation and discrimination by increasing transparency and enhancing regulatory stringency in long-term care facilities, increasing access to nutritional assistance services, increasing penalties for those subjecting older residents to financial exploitation and mistreatment

Transportation and Infrastructure

Carol Murphy is leading efforts in the legislature to make investing in our public transit system and critical infrastructure improvements a priority by:

  • Z Ensuring record funding for New Jersey Transit and the Department of Transportation to allow these agencies to make crucial investments in New Jersey’s transportation infrastructure while creating thousands of viable job opportunities
  • ZImproving Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) services by streamlining MVC functions to better serve the public, ensuring remote license renewal services, designating senior hours to safely conduct services to older residents and increasing efficiency and accessibility to alleviate the backlog developed during the pandemic
  • ZImproving school bus safety protocols and operations by keeping unsafe individuals out of the driver seat, establishing a central registry for safety concerns and increasing penalties for those who fail to follow safety protocols and regulations
  • Z Increasing public transportation for individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities and the senior community, providing reduced fare, increasing coordination between local and state networks and ensuring that the needs of these individuals are considered when making decisions concerning transportation.

Veterans

Carol Murphy is the daughter of a Bronze Star United States Army veteran, who died from complications to Agent Orange exposure, and she has made fighting for veterans and their families a priority to honor their sacrifice by:

  • ZImproving affordability for military families by ending the tax of military combat bonus pay, providing in-state tuition to family members and service members stationed in New Jersey and expanding eligibility for veterans’ property tax exemption
  • ZEnsuring women service members previously banned from serving in combat roles with the historic passage of the Constitutional Amendment to make peacetime veterans eligible for the veterans’ property tax deduction
  • ZInvesting in military families to maintain a robust military presence in New Jersey and protect the critical role that Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst plays in our national security as the East Coast hub for refueling missions
  • ZPrioritize safety of vulnerable residents in long-term care and veteran homes by improving oversight of veterans’ homes to protect those residing by requiring weekly reports during a public health emergency and quarterly meetings with caregivers, establishing a resident advocate, stricter protocols for administrators’ experience and allowing guardians the autonomy to remove veterans from state facilities in lieu of emergency situations.

Voting Rights

Carol Murphy has worked tirelessly to ensure the integrity of voting, expand voting accessibility and took important steps to modernize our election system. Carol fought for laws that safeguard and expand the right to vote by strengthening vote by mail protections, remove technical barriers and establishing an early voting process to help increase voter participation in our democracy.

Water Infrastructure

Carol Murphy believes that water is a vital resource and that the state legislature has historically neglected, which is exactly why she has made infrastructure improvements including the systems that provide clean drinking water, remove wastewater and manage stormwater a priority by:

  • ZEnsuring the longevity of our water infrastructure by working to protect and improve our drinking water while combating the effects of climate change and confronting pollution in lakeside communities
  • ZWorking for the safety and wellbeing of our residents through passing historic lead remediation legislation requiring the replacement of lead service lines to protect vulnerable residents and reduce the risk of lead poisoning
  • ZImproving infrastructure and job creation while promoting economic and environmental benefits with critical efforts in infrastructure projects from lead service line replacement and lead remediation and removal projects leading to the creation of high-paying jobs
  • ZUpholding the security and transparency of water systems, protecting limited drinking water resources, and spearheading efforts in safeguarding critical resources to improve the safety, reliability and administrative oversight of water infrastructure and require that systems are protected against cyberattacks

Women

Carol Murphy is a devoted and staunch advocate for women’s equality in the legislature and has prioritized addressing the discriminatory treatment and gender-based disparities magnified by the pandemic by:

  • ZMitigating the impacts of the pandemic that disproportionally impacted women including lack of paid leave, family caregiving responsibilities and health concerns which were only expounded particularly on women of color and low income by expanding paid family leave, establishing a statewide apprenticeship-mentoring program for women, minorities and individuals with disabilities and ensuring allocation of assistance to small minority and women-owned businesses
  • ZAddressing implicit bias and racial disparities in the medical system by introducing landmark legislation to improve maternal health, expanding Medicaid coverage for postpartum care, establishing a newborn home nurse visitation program and spearheading efforts to combat maternal mortality rates by developing initiatives to support new and expecting mothers and requiring implicit bias training to maternity care providers
  • ZImproving child care accessibility and affordability by providing federal relief aid to support childcare providers by creating workforce development supports and childcare landscape studies, technical assistance to providers for facilities improvements and provide grants to childcare providers or their employers for workforce retention and hiring
  • ZStrengthen domestic violence and sexual assault services, improving protections for human traffic survivors, combatting sexual violence in prisons and the military, creating a sexual violence restorative justice pilot program, reform the legal process to become more victim-centric and passing a series of reforms to protect those incarcerated from sexual assault