‘Stop blaming, start fixing’ – Sweeney scolds Murphy about state of NJ Transit

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney lashed out at the Murphy administration Wednesday about the state of New Jersey Transit.

News 12 Staff

Oct 3, 2019, 12:41 AM

Updated 1,879 days ago

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New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney lashed out at the Murphy administration Wednesday about the state of New Jersey Transit.
Sweeney says that the agency is in crisis and he says that Gov. Phil Murphy’s promised changes are not helping.
“Stop blaming, start fixing. You’re the governor. You’re in charge,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney announced Tuesday that he will chair a special committee to investigate NJ Transit and to develop a plan to make it better.
“We have an affordability issue in the state of New Jersey. New Jersey Transit is - I don't want to say ‘train wreck’ - it is a catastrophe right now and it has not gotten better. And I'm tired of hearing, ‘Oh, we're improving.’ Show me,” he says.
The governor’s spokesman Dan Bryan said in a statement, "...this administration is doing the long, difficult work of putting NJ TRANSIT on the path to recovery, and Governor Murphy will not stop until New Jersey commuters have the world-class transportation agency they deserve.”
The statement continued, "We welcome the Legislature's scrutiny and look forward to the discussion of their budgets that were negotiated with Gov. Christie and sent to his desk, which reduced state funding to the agency by as much as 90%.”
But Sweeney says that he is not buying it.
“For them to react that way, just tells you they're not doing enough to fix what's wrong here,” Sweeney says. “And I'm sorry, two years you can't keep saying ‘the other administration.’ And why limit it to Christie? It goes back to Corzine, to Codey, to McGreevey, and maybe even to Whitman.”
This is the latest instance of the political feud between Sweeney and Murphy, who are both Democrats. Their power struggle in Trenton nearly led to a government shutdown twice during budget negotiations.