On Jan. 11, Gov. Phil Murphy declared a public health emergency. In so doing, he maintains in place powers and mandates that would otherwise have expired.
Murphy first declared a public health emergency in Executive Order 103 March 9, 2020. It was a time when little was known about the emerging threat of SARS-CoV-2. Most agreed that emergency measures were needed. Few had a grasp on what those measures should be. Fear ruled, as science struggled to learn enough to inform the world’s public.
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It is time to allow the normal structures of
government in Trenton and locally to return
to their roles in the collective governance of the state.
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The World Health Organization declared a pandemic two days after Murphy’s emergency declaration.
Just over a year later, in June 2021, Murphy ended the public health emergency when he signed bills that he had negotiated with the state Legislature. That legislation continued to give the governor extraordinary powers to manage the state response to the pandemic until Jan. 11, 2022. The legislation even provided that Murphy could gain another 90-day extension of these extraordinary powers in 2022 if Trenton lawmakers agreed.
This month, he asked for those 90 days. The Legislature, dominated by the governor’s own party, did not agree.
Faced with the potential loss of his power to almost unilaterally direct the state’s response to the current omicron-driven surge of Covid cases, Murphy reacted to the rebuff by the Legislature by reinstating the public health emergency.
Murphy cited what he called an “omicron tsunami,” which he said was “washing over the state,” as the justification for his actions.
Why did the Democratically controlled Legislature refuse to extend all the powers and mandates the governor asked them to? Possibly they were reacting to an election that had not been kind to them.
In the 2021 election, Republicans gained ground in Trenton. Democrats maintained control, but they counted their losses, especially the dramatic defeat of the Senate president, and the narrow victory of the governor himself. One of the major issues roiling the election was the handling of pandemic measures.
The schools played a critical role, with strong opposition to Trenton-imposed mandates for masks and vaccination requirements for staff. Regardless of the position one takes on these issues, many voters wanted to see a return to local control over how the schools operated.
The signs were there. Voters increasingly wanted a return to government without extraordinary powers in the hands of one individual. Murphy used his swearing in for a second term as a venue for saying, “I renew my pledge to be the governor for all of New Jersey.”
That tone of reconciliation does not easily accommodate the reinstatement of the health emergency.
It is time to allow the normal structures of government in Trenton and locally to return to their roles in the collective governance of the state, including the response to the health emergency. It is time to rule through the building of public support for policies rather than have them directed by fear.
Yes, the somewhat chaotic way in which normal democratic governance works is, at times, unequal to an emergency, but we are past that point now. Emergency governance must be, by its nature, temporary. It buys time for the normal structures of government to gain perspective and adjust to the crisis.
There must be a point when control is returned to the democratic process embodied in our civic institutions.
We are in our third year of this struggle with the virus. It is time to meet the challenge through our normal avenues of authority and governance be they at the state, county, or local level. To do less is to give the virus a very different kind of victory.
The governor’s declaration of a new public health emergency is the wrong action at the wrong time. It assures opposition that might otherwise be accommodated. It ignores the results of the election and makes hollow pledges of reconciliation. It allows those who would take pot shots at Murphy’s policies to escape the burden of having to actually participate in the development of policies they would have to own.
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From the Bible:
Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4
