Did the Murphy Administration break the law to help fund illegal alien handouts?

Phil Murphy and his cronies don’t seem to feel accountable to anyone for anything, Save Jerseyans.

I wonder why?

The latest: we learned on Wednesday that the Murphy Administration (specificall the Department of Community Affairs under the control of Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver) completed two April 2022 transfers of $10 million from the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund (CSFRF) to the Excluded New Jerseyans Fund in the Department of Human Services.

The transfers occurred on April 18th and 29th respectively. According to angry Republican legislators, the transfers may have violated state law. The FY 2022 budget language provided that CSFRF fund expenditures could not “exceed $10,000,000 for each such eligible program” without authorization from the Joint Budget Oversight Committee.

For those of you who don’t know, the Excluded New Jerseyans Fund is designed to give payment of $2,000 to $4,000 to illegal aliens households. 

“The Excluded New Jerseyans Fund (ENJF) provides a one-time, direct cash benefit to eligible households who were excluded from both the federal stimulus checks and COVID related unemployment assistance – including undocumented individuals, residents re-entering from the justice system, and any other individuals otherwise excluded,” explains the program’s official state website.

The transfers only came to light after the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services (OLS) informed budget committee staff in the respective chambers of the legislature. Tellingly, the Murphy Administration’s Office of Management and Budget reportedly failed to reply to THREE requests from OLS for an explanation. “This obviously isn’t the first time that Murphy and his team have decided check and balances aren’t important,” said Hal Wirths (R-24), the incumbent Assembly GOP budget officer. “If you give big government advocates an inch, I can guarantee they will take a mile and take their time to justify it. It’s incredible how power drunk Governor Murphy and his administration gets.”

“The current state budget includes language that allows Governor Murphy to make appropriations of up to $10 million from federal pandemic relief funds for any single relief program without legislative approval,” said state Senator Mike Testa Jr. (R-1), a member of the Senate Budget & Appropriations Committee, in his own statement.. “It seems clear the Murphy administration exceeded that authority by appropriating $20 million for payments to illegal immigrants without the sign-off of the Legislature. Treasurer Muoio should be called before the Budget Committee to explain the Murphy administration’s disregard for the law.”

“The Murphy administration has demonstrated that they can’t be trusted to follow the law on their own,” Testa continued. “This is exactly why Senate Republicans have called for strengthening legislative oversight of Murphy administration spending in our comprehensive budget plan. We need to monitor the administration closely and hold them accountable whenever they try to turn New Jersey Treasury into a slush fund for Governor Murphy.”

Murphy has pushed the boundaries of logic and equity in his quest to out-woke other governors on the issue of illegal immigration. He’s declared a sanctuary state, authorized driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, and allotted millions of taxpayer dollars (see above) for direct illegal alien handouts as well as indirect aid in the form of legal assistance.

Matt Rooney
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MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.