Murphy Pledges to Make N.J. More Affordable in Second Term (2)

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on Tuesday pledged to make the state a more equitable place to live without raising new taxes in his first major policy speech since narrowly winning re-election.

The retired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. senior partner became the first Democrat in four decades to win a second term in November by 3.2 percentage points, an unexpectedly tight race that stunned the state.

Almost two years into the pandemic, amid a spike that pushed the positive rate of infections past 31%, Murphy is defending Covid-19 precautions against critics who say they’re too stringent: He declared a 30-day ...