The Monmouth University Polling Institute is out March 11 with its latest release. The new poll examines Gov. Phil Murphy’s job performance in addition to presenting New Jerseyans’ views on several issues, such as the recently proposed Corporate Transit Fee to fund NJ Transit.

Murphy’s overall job performance rating stands at 50% approval and 42% disapproval among all New Jersey adults, as well as with the state’s registered voters. Monmouth says these numbers are in line with its last poll, in August, but are slightly more negative than the start of Murphy’s second term.

The institute noted a larger number of independents disapproving of Murphy’s performance.

The poll was conducted by telephone from Feb. 29 to March 4, 2024, with 801 New Jersey adults.

Other notable toplines include:

Managing the state’s finances over the past six years

• 53% say the governor has done a good job, 43% say he has done a bad job.
• 25% say Murphy’s program priorities are in line with their own, 45% say his priorities are too liberal for them, and another 18% feel his priorities are not liberal enough.

The Fiscal Year 2025 proposed budget

• 45% have heard about the FY 2025 spending plan.
• Meanwhile, opinion on its merits is split – 5% are satisfied, 19% not are particularly satisfied but can live with it, 16% are dissatisfied, and 60% have no opinion or have not heard about it.

How Murphy’s policies have affected six different constituency groups

• Property taxpayers – 24% helped, 48% hurt
• Middle-class residents – 27% helped, 47% hurt
• Poor residents – 35% helped, 33% hurt
• Wealthy residents – 26% helped, 21% hurt
• Businesses – 39% hurt, 30% helped
• Transit riders – 19% helped, 28% hurt

The Corporate Transit Fee

• 40% approve of the proposed tax, 28% disapprove and 32% are unsure.
• On whether it would achieve its aims – 6% are very confident and 35% somewhat confident. Meanwhile, 26% are not too confident and 30% are not at all confident.

“The prevailing opinion is that Murphy does a decent job keeping an eye on the books, but there is disagreement on where he chooses to focus his efforts,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “This is more of a general sense about his priorities than a specific critique on any given policy, given that few New Jerseyans actually follow the budget process.”

“Public transportation is an interesting policy issue because while not everyone uses it, everyone is affected by it,” Murray added. “There seems to be qualified support for Murphy’s corporate fee proposal but also sizable amount of doubt that it will work.”

Corporate transit context

In response to the poll, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association called for more context on the CTF question/issue. The NJBIA is advocating hard against the fee on behalf of the business community.

“The Monmouth University Polling Institute typically does very fine work that we appreciate. But with great respect, it would have been nice to provide some additional context in its question about the proposed Corporate Transit Fee that noted it would be an additional surtax on businesses – one which would give them the highest corporate tax rate in the nation, by far,” said Christopher Emigholz, chief government affairs officer, NJBIA. “Even the context that New Jersey’s largest corporations are already paying the fourth-highest top CBT rate in the nation would have been welcome and appropriate in the question.”

After ticking through a number of criticisms about the policy proposal and overall situation regarding corporate tax rates, Emigholz conceded that poll questions have limited space.

“Even with all that unavailable context, however, there was not overwhelming support for the tax increase,” he continued. “For our part, the popularity of the proposal pales in comparison to our take that it’s simply terrible policy, one that is punitive to our businesses that deserve much better from our policy leaders – and one that would ultimately hurt New Jersey’s economy.”

The full poll results are available here.