New Jersey Governor Says He Doesn’t Know Cost of Raises He Just Gave Workers

Governor Phil Murphy said he doesn’t know the cost to taxpayers of raises he gave to 35,000 New Jersey state workers.
Phil Murphy

Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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Governor Phil Murphy said he doesn’t know the cost to taxpayers of raises he gave to 35,000 New Jersey state workers, members of a union that supported his candidacy.

Communications Workers of America ratified a four-year contract retroactive to July 1, 2015, and with 2 percent raises for 2017 and 2018, according to a May 1 announcement from Murphy’s office and the union. The costs were figured into the fiscal 2019 and 2018 spending plans, the governor’s office said, without providing a total amount.