New Jersey’s Democratic Governor and Senate President are publicly at war yet again. On Monday, Governor Phil Murphy vetoed legislation that would have exempted certain school districts from the state-imposed 2% cap on rising property taxes.

In a statement, Governor Murphy said that Sweeney should first pass a bill that would raise taxes on millionaires – another issue Murphy and Sweeney have publicly quarreled over – before passing a property tax cap exemption. “Before middle-class property taxpayers have to again take it on the chin, we should be asking our wealthiest residents to pay their fair share through a millionaire’s tax,” Murphy said.

Murphy attacked Sweeney directly, accusing him of fast-tracking the bill without considering more plausible options. “State-level decisionmakers should not delay difficult funding decisions until the end of the legislative session and fast track what amounts to a tax increase on the middle class without first exhausting all other options,” Murphy said in a press release.

Senate President Sweeney fired back at Governor Murphy, accusing him of playing favorites for cities like Newark and Trenton while leaving other school districts behind. “The legislation would have provided the same cap relief to suburban and rural districts that are losing Adjustment Aid, taxing below Local Fair Share and spending below adequacy – as determined by the Governor’s own Department of Education – that is already provided to the Abbott districts,” Sweeney said. “It is the height of hypocrisy for the Governor to play politics with the lives of schoolchildren by calling for passage of the millionaire’s tax when he knows – or should know – that not one penny from the millionaire’s tax could legally go to any of the Adjustment Aid districts that would have been helped by this legislation.”

Murphy and Sweeney have been at political war with each other from the moment Murphy took office and proposed a millionaire’s tax that Sweeney is staunchly opposed to. A study has shown that New Jersey has lost billions in wealth due to well-off residents fleeing the state’s prohibitive taxes for greener pastures.