The Murphy Administration paid out $53 million to 119 families of veteran home victims last December. That settlement was announced on a Thursday: the night before Christie Eve. Their clear intent was to bury the news.
Today (Friday afternoon), we learned of a second $16 million veteran home victim payout.
This second settlement follows the Democrat legislature’s decision to kill a bipartisan probe into nursing home deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic. Republican Senator Joe Pennacchio (R-26) was the probe legislation’s co-sponsor, and he’s once again crying foul.
“The Administration just continues to pay out taxpayer money for nursing home deaths without any public scrutiny,” said Pennacchio. “How many more secret settlements will they try to hide from taxpayers?”
Pennacchio also questioned why the Murphy Administration was agreeing to pay tens of millions of dollars to families “if they don’t accept that decisions made played a significant role in the loss of life? They know they messed up. They are trying to make it go away with taxpayer money.”
“Sadly, Democrats in the Legislature have been fully complicit in this cover-up,” Pennacchio complained back in December. “The Democrats initially agreed to join us in a bipartisan investigation, but that quickly changed when the Administration pressured them not to start digging. It’s disappointing Democrats showed none of the courage of the veterans whose deaths they refuse to investigate.”
