Thomson says Murphy’s re-opening plan overly cautious and calls for rescinding executive orders harming small businesses

WALL TWP., N.J. – Assemblyman Edward Thomson said today that Gov. Phil Murphy’s plan to slowly re-open New Jersey is entirely too cautious and will continue to cause increasing business closures and widespread unemployment.

“While I agree that we need to take necessary precautions, the state’s business owners and their employees cannot afford to keep their doors closed for weeks, or even months, as we try to meet these benchmarks,” said Thomson (R-Monmouth). “This plan will lead to far too many businesses closing their doors forever and taking thousands of jobs with them.”

Murphy unveiled at a press conference today his plan for re-opening the state, which includes six principles and benchmarks to begin reducing restrictions. Those include a sustained reduction in Covid-19 cases and hospital admissions, expanded testing, implementation of comprehensive contact tracing, increasing quarantine and isolation resources and ensuring adequate access to health care equipment.

Murphy said that achieving the goal of doubling testing will likely not occur until the end of May.

Thomson also called for Murphy to rescind his order prohibiting small business from opening while allowing the same products to be sold at large retailers like Target and Wal-Mart that are exempt from his orders.