By Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Efforts by South Jersey powerbroker George E. Norcross to shut down a governor’s task force investigating the state’s troubled Economic Development Authority were dealt a major blow in court Wednesday after a judge refuted arguments that the inquiry was little more than a political hit job.
Superior Court Judge Mary C. Jacobson dismissed a lawsuit brought by attorneys for Norcross and several business entities with ties to him, who charged that the task force appointed by Gov. Phil Murphy represented an illegal exercise of the governor’s power.
“To prevent the governor from investigating the EDA just didn’t make sense to me,” she said.
The judge rejected assertions by lawyers for Norcross that the work of the task force looking into the state’s tax incentive program “was not a bona fide investigation.” She was especially scathing in her criticism of their arguments in court urging her to ignore the findings of the state auditor who sparked the creation of the task force, while at the same time citing the posts of the political news website New Jersey Globe regarding the case.
“That was very telling to me. You didn’t want me to look at something that was important, but you did want me to look at a blog post,” she said. “The court does find the governor has the authority to initiate an investigation.”
