Murphy Signs New Law That May Furlough 100K State Workers

In order to avoid outright layoffs of public workers in the state of New Jersey, on Thursday Gov. Murphy signed into law legislation that may partially furlough up to 100,000 public workers.

Murphy said the furloughs are necessary to avoid layoffs.

“The revisions sent back to the Legislature strengthen this legislation by taking advantage of existing programs to ensure cost savings for the state while still protecting our workforce,” said Murphy on Thursday.

While it remains unknown at this time which state employees will be furloughed — and for how long — up to 100,000 public employees in the state could be affected by the new law, according to the Bergen Record.

The COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown has had a "devastating" impact on New Jersey’s finances, the Murphy administration said in this report in late May.

Pain from the COVID response will be felt for the next two years in New Jersey, if not longer: New Jersey is facing a combined revenue shortfall of nearly $10 billion over the remaining months of 2020 and even through the end of 2021.

It's a potential decline that would be worse than the Great Recession, said state budget experts. In this year alone, New Jersey is expecting to collect far less corporate business tax revenue, income tax as well as sales and use taxes.

“(This) is essentially unchartered territory. We are not alone. All across the country, states are facing similar challenges that seemed inconceivable just a few short months ago,” said New Jersey Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio.

Murphy said the possible furloughs of New Jersey public workers will save more than $100 million. New Jersey will also defer cost-of-living adjustments for public employees this year.