Trenton, NJ — Former New Jersey governor James Florio, who backed a plan that substantially raised state sales and income taxes that led to his re-election in 1993, died Sunday. He was 85 years old.
His legal partner Doug Steinhardt and current New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy confirmed Florio died in statements Monday.
“Governor Florio was a warrior who never backed down. He was a leader who cared more about the future of New Jersey than his political fate,” Murphy, a fellow Democrat, said in a statement.
Florio was a longtime public servant, serving in many positions at the local, county, state, and federal levels.
A Democrat, he made three unsuccessful runs for governor before eventually succeeding in 1989, when he defeated Republican Jim Courter and became the first Italian-American to serve as the state’s chief executive.
Florio drew sharp criticism in 1990, when he pushed a $2.8 billion tax increase through the state legislature that, among other things, raised a sales tax on toilet paper. This generated massive voter outrage and inspired the formation of Hands Across New Jersey, an anti-tax Grass Roots group that used a roll of toilet paper as its symbol.
Florio was ousted after a term by Republican Christy Whitman, who tapped into voters’ anger over the tax hike and won the race by nearly 26,000 votes.
Before becoming governor, Florio served four years in the state legislature and 15 years in the House of Representatives. In 2000, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for the US Senate, losing to investment banker John Corzine in one of the most expensive Senate primaries in history.
Corzine won the Senate seat that year and held it until he won the position of governor in 2005.
Not long after leaving office, Florio remained an active voice and addressed a number of issues. He was a regular in the halls of the Rajya Sabha during the legislative sessions.
In February 2015, Florio and three other former New Jersey governors urged the state Senate to delay voting on Governor Chris Christie’s candidate for the Southern New Jersey panel overseeing the one-million-acre pine reserve. Ex-governors claimed that the nomination would “undermine the independence” of the commission, but the Senate eventually approved the nominee for the job.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Florio attended Trenton State College (now known as the College of New Jersey) and graduated from Rutgers School of Law in 1967. He also served as an officer in the Navy from 1955 to 1958 and continued as one. Reservoir until 1975, eventually achieving the rank of lieutenant commander.