Topic: Changing the Garden State: A Fireside Chat with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy

Date: Thursday, January 18, 2024

Times: NOTE NEW TIMES
In Person: 11:30 - 1:30 pm (lunch AFTER program)
Zoom Meeting Time: 12:00 - 12:30 pm ET

Locations:
Zoom webinar OR
New York City Bar Association, 42 West 44th Street, NYC

A Zoom recording of this program will be available for one week to everyone who registers in advance.

Details:

In early 2020, New Jersey's budget forecasters envisioned catastrophic revenue shortfalls as the US economy contracted sharply due to the strains of a once-in-a-century pandemic. The state had seemingly been on a slow road to fiscal recovery in 2018-19 until the pandemic derailed those plans, resulting in a short-term cash crunch and credit rating downgrades. Three years later, the picture is very different. The Garden State has accumulated its highest fiscal reserve balances since the mid-1990s, begun covering full actuarial payments on its pensions, and received seven credit rating upgrades. The state appears to be on a new fiscal trajectory. How did this happen, and where is NJ headed?

Please join us for a fireside chat with the Honorable Phil Murphy, New Jersey's governor and a veteran of the finance industry. Governor Murphy spent 23 years working in the financial markets, nearly all of it at Goldman Sachs. During his tenure at Goldman Sachs, Murphy headed the firm's Frankfurt office from 1993 to 1997 and Goldman Sachs Asia from 1997 to 1999, and was a member of the firm's senior management committee from 1999 to 2003. Murphy later served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany from 2009 to 2013 in the Obama Administration. He was elected governor of New Jersey in 2017 and won a second term in 2021, the first Democrat to do so since 1977.

In our conversation with Governor Murphy, we will wade deeply into the strategies pursued by his administration to stabilize New Jersey's long-term liability position, pay down debt, strengthen its finances, and promote budgetary sustainability, including by ramping up payments for the actuarially-determined contributions (ADCs) for New Jersey's public sector pension plans.

This event is open to the press.

Moderator:
Neene Jenkins
Executive Director
JP Morgan Chase Asset Management

Neene Jenkins is a member of the Global Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities (GFICC) group at JP Morgan Chase Asset Management. Based in New York, Neene leads municipal research efforts supporting Tax Aware strategies. Neene is also responsible for identifying investment opportunities in the High Yield and Investment Grade sectors. Prior to joining the firm in 2019, she was a senior vice president at Alliance Bernstein for 9 years, covering Municipal High Yield and Investment Grade sectors. Neene holds a B.A. in applied mathematics from the University of Buffalo and an MPA in public finance from the New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, where she was also an adjunct professor. She is a member of the Society of Municipal Analysts, Former Chair of the Education Committee and of DEI Committee for the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA), currently Vice Chair of NFMA and a board member of the Northeast Women in Public Finance.

Cost:

MAGNY and other NFMA Members
$55 Zoom
$75 In-Person

Non-Members
$80 Zoom
$100 In-Person

Questions? Contact [email protected].

Registration: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER