FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 4, 2017

In the wake of the NJ State Government shutdown, 17th Legislative District Senate challenger Daryl Kipnis (R-Somerset) spent the past few days meeting residents in the district to hear their concerns and to discuss the issues that have caused it, and also took to social media to keep them informed.

He zeroed in on the vote of his opponent, Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex) along with the Trenton faction spearheaded by Senate President Steve Sweeney in favor of the controversial Senate Bill S4 concerning Horizon Blue Cross / Blue Shield of NJ’s operations, and the abstentions of Smith’s running mates, Assemblymen Danielsen and Egan in the June 30 vote to pass the 2018 State Budget as contributing factors to the shutdown.

Ultimately, the shutdown was resolved on July 4, 2017 with the passage of a new Horizon bill and Fiscal Year 2018 budget. While the revised Horizon bill appears to adequately address concerns that the previous iteration did not do enough to ensure excess reserves would be used benefit ratepayers in the form of rebates and/of premium reductions, the budget which passed created approximately $325M in new spending with no apparent way of paying for it all, other than inevitable increases to the tax burdens of residents facing an unprecedented affordability crisis resulting in the highest outmigration of any State in the Union. It was described in a press conference by Governor Christie as containing “record spending.”

“Senator Smith has been elected to the State Legislature since I was 5 years old in 1985, and it is truly astounding how out of touch he has become to the best interests of the people of the 17th District. If he were actually out speaking with his constituents instead of hanging out in a Trenton backroom scheming up ways for the State government to separate them from even more of their hard-earned money, and negatively impacting so many people with a shutdown of the State Government in the process, he’d quickly discover how they feel,” Kipnis said.

Kipnis added, “New Jersey will never be affordable to live in so long as Smith and his cohorts continue to put the financial interests of their insider cronies ahead of the best interests of the people they are elected to represent. Considering his tenure in the Legislature which has lasted over the course of parts of four decades, his decision to go right along with Senator Sweeney’s cabal in orchestrating the shutdown which ended with the passage of a fiscally irresponsible budget is demonstrative of a lack of leadership and independent judgment that people should expect of a Legislator of his seniority. It should send a clear signal to all residents of Franklin, Milltown, New Brunswick, North Brunswick and Piscataway that he is completely undeserving of another term in the Senate, and they should stand up and demand the real representation in Trenton which they deserve at the polls this November, which it will be my honor to deliver.”

Kipnis welcomes contact from residents of the 17th District, and can be reached via email at kipnisforstatesenate@gmail.com or by phone at 732-595-5298. His campaign page may be followed on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Kipnis17 and he may be reached via Twitter at @DarylKipnisEsq.