New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) reportedly spent taxpayer funds at stadium events that included a Taylor Swift concert.
Public records Politico obtained apparently show he dipped into his taxpayer-funded expense account to buy approximately $12,000 worth of food and beverages during the outings, the outlet reported Monday.
Taylor Swift performs during opening night of the Chicago Eras Tour at Soldier Field on June 2, 2023, in Chicago. (Shanna Madison/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
His office claims it has requested the state Democrat Party reimburse taxpayers, the outlet continued:
Murphy’s office said the Democratic State Committee was initially expected to cover the stadium costs but didn’t. The state was left with the bill, which was paid via Murphy’s $95,000-a-year expense account — a longstanding line item in the state budget which has been consistently renewed under Murphy and his predecessors.
Politico noted the expense account is not allowed to be used for personal purposes nor is it allowed to supplement Murphy’s $175,000 salary.
A spokesperson for Murphy said his office believed at the time that state party officials would cover the bills, because that is typical.
“Once it was clear that there were outstanding bills that had not been paid, the state stepped up to meet this responsibility,” Jennifer Sciortino explained.
In June 2022, Murphy was accused of improperly giving $10 million in Chinese coronavirus funds to illegal aliens as stimulus checks, according to state oversight leaders, Breitbart News reported.
“As Breitbart News reported last year, Murphy provided the state’s nearly half a million illegal aliens with rounds of stimulus checks to the sum of tens of millions of dollars — paid for by American taxpayers — that was meant as coronavirus relief for Americans,” Breitbart News’s John Binder noted.
In December 2021, Murphy received backlash for going on vacation to Costa Rica while his state had one of the highest coronavirus rates per population in the country, according to Breitbart News:
Murphy’s Costa Rica vacation marks the third time he has left his state for a personal getaway in the past five months, according to the New Jersey Advance. In August, the governor and his family traveled abroad to his multimillion-dollar 23-room villa in Italy’s Umbria region, Breitbart News previously reported.
In November, Murphy and his family took a three-day trip to Orlando around Thanksgiving, according to the New Jersey Advance.
It is important to note that left-wing Taylor Swift has been urging her fans to register to vote as the presidential election nears.
