Murphy Signs 6 Bills Into Law, Boosts Booker's Presidential Hopes

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed 6 bills into law this week – and one piece of legislation provided a boost for Sen. Cory Booker if he's thinking about running for president in 2020.

Murphy signed a bill Thursday that will allow a candidate to seek a seat in the US House of Representatives or Senate and president or vice president at the same tme.

The bill A4674, obvously seems to appeal to Booker, who is up for re-election as a senator in 2020 but has taken some steps to indicate he's interested in running against President Trump.

Booker hasn't stated his intentions yet, but he recently made trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states that hold caucuses or primaries in the Democratic nomination process.

Efforts to obtain comment from Booker's office were not immediately successful. But Booker didn't make a well-received trip to campaign for New Hampshire Democrats over the past week:

Murphy also signed legislation, sponsored by Sen. Linda Greenstein and former Sen. Bob Gordon, that will require NJ Transit to establish an office of real estate economic development and transit-oriented development.

The newly created office will assess and develop recommendations for economic development and transit-oriented development opportunities for parcels of real property in which NJ Transit owns in order to increase NJ Transit’s non-fare revenue sources, according to lawmakers.

“The establishment of this office will provide needed structure to NJ Transit’s inventory of property assets,” said Greenstein, D-Mercer/Middlesex. “The information and recommendations NJ Transit will receive from the office’s analysis will prove valuable and assist them in efforts to strategically generate additional non-fare revenue sources moving forward.”

The law will require NJ Transit to annually report to the governor and legislature an inventory of each parcel of real property in which NJ Transit owns. That will include the most recent appraisal value of that property, the purpose for NJ Transit holding the property interest, and any revenue NJ Transit receives that would arise out of the property interest.

Murphy signed the following bills into law:

• A4674 (Coughlin/Sweeney) - Clarifies intent of existing statutory law in regard to nomination process for those seeking federal offices.
• S883 (Sacco, Stack/Eustace, Mukherji, Benson) - Authorizes issuance of special Humane State license plates.
• S2333 (Greenstein, Gordon/Lopez, Benson, Jones) - Requires NJT to establish office of real estate economic development and transit-oriented development; requires annual report of certain real property information.
• S2758 w/GR (Vitale, Ruiz/Coughlin) - Increases financial resources provided through Medicaid program for certain hospitals; Establishes County Option Hospital Fee Pilot Program.
• S2921 (Greenstein/Taliaferro, Carter, Caputo) - Corrects project list in P.L.2018, c.85, which appropriates funds to DEP for environmental infrastructure projects.
• SJR96 (Singleton, Cruz-Perez/Vainieri Huttle, DeAngelo, Chiaravalloti)- Designates October of each year as "Disability Employment Awareness Month."

Governor Murphy photo