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Jim Florio, New Jersey Governor Undone by Tax Hike, Dies at 85 [1]
['Joseph P. Fried']
Date: 2022-09-26
To his supporters, Mr. Florio — who preferred to be called Jim, and the news media obliged — was a tough-minded liberal with an independent streak. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation gave him its Profile in Courage Award in 1993. He had shown, the foundation said, “courageous political leadership in gun control, education and economic reform,” including having “risked political and public criticism when he swiftly and boldly restructured the state’s income tax system.”
Detractors called Mr. Florio stiff-necked. He shrugged off that assessment in his speech accepting the Profile in Courage Award, saying: “The first thing I learned as governor is that you can’t please everybody. The second thing I learned is some days you can’t please anybody. So be it.”
Mr. Florio won the governorship after two previously unsuccessful races for the office during the 15 years he served in the House of Representatives, where he made a name nationally as an environmental protection advocate. Most prominently, he helped spearhead the 1980 Superfund legislation to clean up dangerous toxic waste dumps and chemical spills across the country.
In Congress, representing the Camden area, he gained a reputation as a hard worker and a frugal one.
“My philosophy has always been, I have one pair of shoes because I have one pair of feet,” he said at the time. “My father always worked, always worked very hard. It is just beyond comprehension that anyone would not.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/26/nyregion/jim-florio-dead.html
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