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MTNJAGMBBlock0627_2024-06-27-17-23-50

Welcome back to ask Governor Murphy here on news. 12 New Jersey. We're gonna continue our conversation about New Jersey transit in a moment. But first governor, uh, let's get to the phones. We have Fania from Piscataway on the line. Fania. Which question? Hello, Fana. Good evening governor. How are you? I'm well, I'm doing all right. I wanted to continue on the transportation theme, uh, this evening, uh, there's a commitment in New Jersey to 100% 0 emissions vehicles by 2035. And at this time, all there have been state and federal financial incentives to purchase evs in New Jersey to date. There aren't enough fast chargers on our main thoroughfares in the state, namely the turnpike and the Garden State Parkway to support evs. Um, my question to you, Governor is, what's the short term and long term plan to install fast chargers at the rate necessary where the infrastructure supports owning and driving? Evs in New Jersey? Thank you a great question. And, uh, Natalie Hamilton is with me, Natalie. Let's get Dennis Zello to follow up within the next 24 hours with Fania. When we got in the office, we had this crazy statistic. So New Jersey has, is the 11th largest state population wise and we had something like we were, I forget seventh or ninth of the nation in electric vehicles. So if you're above 11, you're, you're doing well on uh on a metric like that, our infrastructure, it's like 47th. And I said, we gotta, we gotta close this gap. It's gonna take time, we gotta close this gap and we can't close it by dropping from seven or nine, whatever it is down. Uh We gotta close it by by amping the infrastructure. So we've done a, a significant amount of um investment and a significant amount of progress has been made. Uh But we still clearly to find his point, we still need more. Um But there's a contract that's been given out to uh invest in station charging uh stations up and down both the turnpike and the, and the parkway. Um And we're committed to getting the infrastructure up and, and, and uh punching at the same level of, of weight that the ev uh vehicles themselves do. It's funny that uh finally you mentioned this because I actually got an email the other day from this guy Ted in, in Lacy. And uh he was saying that, you know, he was all excited because he saw the charging station start to appear over at the city cruise rest stop and then they just vanished, wondering where they went. I'm not sure what that is. So, I don't know. Maybe, maybe we can find out something about that. Let's try to track that down as well. All right. Uh, Governor, let's get back to, uh, New Jersey Transit right now because where we left off you were talking about whether or not we can delay or do something with that 15% rate hike that's set to take effect in July. And by the way, it's not, it wasn't just Congresswoman Mikey Shara. Plenty of people have, have uh op posed that move including Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw. You had uh Hoboken's mayor Robie Bala who just came out and said we've got to do something about this. Also. Um, you could have vetoed the fare increase when it was approved by the board, the New Jersey Transit Board at the time. You didn't. Um, can you exert some pressure now to influence them to, to delay things? Here's part of the issue and, and who wants to pay more for anything? I don't blame people for having that perspective. I would have it myself. Um But if you look at particularly the post COVID fiscal hole that NJ transit is in, by the way, they're not unique. Look at, at the MT A in New York City, look at all the debate and noise around congestion pricing. Look at the Washington Metro, the M BT A in Boston. They're all plus or minus in the whole 500 to A billion or dollars or more. Um When, when you've gone as we have six years with no fair increase. Again, previous administration 38% with a much diminished service in exchange. Um And you've got multiple sources of funds that you're, you're committed to tapping NJ transit themselves, restructuring uh corporate transit fee which is being debated or in and around the budget, the state continuing to transfer money each year, the NJ transit and a fair increase. Um That combination not measured in how good was the month of June. But you gotta run this thing for the long haul. You gotta run it with 5 to 10 years and it wasn't run that way before we got here. And I'm proud to say again, it's not perfect. I'm not defending the month of June is pathetic and unacceptable. Um All of that being true. Uh The, the organization has made dramatic progress and you gotta manage this thing, you know, in decades as opposed to June to July, were you worried, especially with Copa America and, and all those Lionel Messi fans uh turning out there? Uh Were you worried given what's happened over the past couple of weeks about how NJ transit was gonna perform? No, because they, they've done a really, really good job. There was a K pop band that came in a few years ago and the performance was disastrous. And from that inflection point onward, I'm gonna knock on wood particularly at the World Cup coming in a couple of years. They've managed the big events really, really well. Um and the other night with Argentina Chile, with Leo Messi in the stadium, 81,106 attendees. Uh They did a really good job. People have long memories in New Jersey government and they remember what happened in the Super Bowl in uh in 2014 and, and you know, everything that's gone on the past couple of weeks has had people sounding off on social media about listen, I mean, we can't even get people to and from work. Here's some video from 2014, we can't even get people to and from work and back home to their families. How are we gonna manage something like the World Cup? Yeah. Well, that's a AAA very good and fair question 2014 as it relates to NJ transit might as well have been 1914. Uh seriously this is it, it, it was a when we got here, it was a disaster. Um Not enough engineers all rolling stock late, not safe. One thing after another could not handle big events. Uh The big events I'm happy to say over the past number of years have been well handled. The month of June and the year of our Lord 2024 has not been a good month. I'm not, I don't want anyone out there to think I'm defending it or thinking it's a good month, but the big events is another one tonight. It won't be as big as the other night. They'll have probably 40 or 45,000 folks in the Meadowlands for Uruguay. Uh Bolivia, there's one other big difference. This would normally be a positive, but for what we saw in the month of June, um, the World Cups in the summer, uh, the, the Super Bowl's one event, uh in the dead of winter. Um, that's largely good news, particularly for celebrating fan fests being outside, not having to worry about snow. All of that's good. The challenging news is we've seen Mother Nature and Extreme heat has an impact on these catenary wires. Uh That's that not only do they need to be replaced but the whole infrastructure around them needs to be strengthened and that's a job to be done, hopefully sooner than later. All right, governor, we're gonna take another quick break here on ask Governor Murphy and when we come back, we'll take more of your questions and calls 888 news 12 NJ. We'll be right back.

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MTNJAGMCBlock0627_2024-06-27-17-30-37

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MTNJAGMDBlock0627_2024-06-27-17-45-12

How is he um understanding what's happening here in Jackson, which includes closing a beloved elementary school. Uh when we have 30 trailers uh full of students in order to close a budget gap. Him fully pushing this formula, Governor Murphy, I'm not saying S two is a total failure. But what I'm saying is here in Jackson is not working. So please revisit it, tweak it and help us make it right. We don't want to sell a school. All right. So this is a big story for us this week, governor uh and not just for us and more so for actually Jackson, obviously as you heard. So there's a lot of upset and, and angry parents and educators there because uh they, they're in essence being forced to close an elementary school, uh cut dozens of jobs and end courtesy costing to close an $18 million deficit that that is being blamed on a cut in state aid. So uh uh uh before we give you a chance to respond to that, we, we actually have another question, a caller on the phone right now, who wants to continue along? Uh We have Margaret from Jackson right now, Margaret. Hello, Governor Murphy. So you are aware of the situation in Jackson and we are begging you to please help us. Ok, Margaret, uh to you Nicole and I missed the president of the Board of Ed's name. Giuseppe. Uh Natalie. Could you get Kevin Dahmer to call all of them tomorrow? My guess is Giuseppe's already heard from Kevin because Kevin is our acting secretary um of uh uh commission of the Department of Education. You gotta give me a little time on this one because this is not easy. I don't have the Jackson numbers in front of me, which is why Kevin calling them tomorrow is important because he will have them in front of him. Uh And by the way to Giuseppe's point, the formula is going to get reassessed. Um Let me start with some good news. Everybody. We're the first administration in the history of the state to fully fund the school funding formula. You may not like the formula. Uh That's obviously your prerogative. About 65% of the school districts this year are getting more money than they got last year. About 30 low, 30% are getting less money. Uh And then there's a handful of districts that are about the same. There was a supplemental bill that, um I, I, I've signed several weeks ago at this point that added another say 40 ish million dollars into districts with a certain definition of percentages around them So we not only have fully funded the school fund funding formula, we've over funded at this point. Now, why could it again? I'm I'm not familiar on, on Jackson's specifics, but I promise you our team is and we will, will be responsive to Nicole, Margaret and Giuseppe. There are two reasons broadly speaking that a community could see a so called cut in the state aid side and I I use the word cut advisedly, one is capacity. So you've got a bunch of towns Jackson may be one of them that are growing on the one hand, but they're growing without ki uh a growing number of kids in the public schools. It could be that the kids are going to religious schools, it could be that people are beyond school age kids and they moved to a Jackson or another community like that. But that part of the state has that dynamic. I'm not sure I understand all of the specifics, but that is one particular potential reason. The other is the local share the local wealth, the local ability of the community to pay. So if you look at the total funding for a given school district, uh the state, in fact, may be going down in a year with the ability to pay has gone up and maybe it is over even overcompensated the state side. Now, how do you get out of that? If you've got overcapacity? It probably includes painful decisions about schools and that's not fun. And I get it, it's emotional. There are histories associated with those schools. They're beloved. I know the schools I went to and if I ever heard that the John John Elliott elementary school where I went was closing, I would be, I would be crestfallen. So I get that. But that is sadly, if there's a capacity issue, in other words, you got more seats than you've got kids that is gotta be on, on the list. The other thing that is the other weapon that is available. And I don't know what Jackson's appetite for this is, is to charge more. This is to allow the municipalities that, that are seeing a cut to uh to increase property taxes above the 2% cap. And that's that, that was part of that law that I mentioned a minute ago that I signed. Uh and it's a temporary. We, we, we, we clearly Giuseppe's point is a good one. That's temporary. Why? Because we gotta address, we gotta readdress the school. Are there any fund that these municipalities have to jump through? Anything that they would, would need to qualify, uh would need to meet in order to qualify for this. Yeah, the the there are but uh our folks are very reasonable in terms of dealing with that. I again, I'm not, this is not directed at Jackson one, by the way, the largest geographic community in the state, by the way, um II I it is a, this is a generic comment. Again, if you're from Jackson out there, don't, please don't take it as I'm talking, talking to you. I'm making a generic comment. Mayors boards of education, understandably probably are not wild about. If you're in politics, you're not, you're the first lever you wanna pull is not raising taxes. But sometimes that's the only way around it. We have the nation's number one public education system, whether we like it or not. The fact of the matter is that does not come cheap. It comes because we invest mightily, I believe we remain number one in the nation per capita investment in the kid. Uh which is something I think we should at the macro level, be very proud of. Again, it's uneven at the community level, but again, it's either likely capacity or ability to pay locally that are leading to the to the realities that we're seeing in communities like Jackson Governor, you've mentioned this a few times today. Uh And, and we're focusing heavily on budgetary issues right now. Uh getting ready to pass the budget and you have until theory until the uh in theory until midnight, Sunday night to sign this. The latest version though is $700 million more than what you proposed. And that is not going over well with some critics of the budget, uh uh especially on the Republican side, uh especially given the fact that uh the recent revenue projections revealed that we're gonna have, the state could have more than $2 billion deficit. How can that be just, how can that increase in spending the additional funds in the budget be uh justified? So I'm gonna, I'm gonna uh say both. Yes and no. First of all, they can partly be justified because our revenues actually have strengthened um in some respects because of the interest rates being where they are. So our investments have yielded a much higher return than they otherwise would have. Um And what folks need to look at, I think are putting aside are, are we making the investments in our state in our kids and our future that we should be making? Uh Are we making the investments we need to make in our regaining fiscal responsibility by making the full pension payment or fully funding public education, you name it. So I'm gonna put all that to the side for a moment. I think measured through that this budget is uh is an incredibly strong one. We are making the investments we need to make to have a bright future in the great state of New Jersey, not just but some but for everybody, there are two financial metrics. This is why I think yes and no, that, that I look at more than uh than any others. The budget I presented in uh February had a surplus of $6.2 billion. Um Meaning the, the, the the balance sheet if you will, the equity, if you will in the state was at $6.2 billion. Uh By the way, it was uh 410 in the budget preceding my first year here, 410,000,006 0.2 billion. Um The budget that they're gonna vote on tomorrow is only a little bit less than that. It's 6.1 something. So that's one metric and that is a very strong sense of our fiscal health. The point on the other side, which is a fair one, we are spending more money than we're taking in. Now. That's been a deliberate strategy, post COVID to basically jump start the economy, but you can't do that forever. So we clearly the work to do over the next couple of years is gonna get, get that back into balance. That would, that's either by revenues that are strong and I think our future is bright in that respect or tough decisions on expenses. I still think, which is why the budget that's being voted on tomorrow is a budget. I will sign, I still believe post COVID, we are smarter to overspend right now, but we can't do what Washington does, which is there hasn't been a balanced budget since the mid nineties that cannot happen. You just spoke about jumpstarting the economy. Uh But yet you have business groups like N JB I A and the Chamber of Commerce saying that this corporate transit fee, which is going to be baked in 2.5% on 600 corporations in the state that make at least $10 million. They said that this is going to actually hurt the economy. It's going to, uh, in essence ruin or, or sour New Jersey's reputation among businesses and make it harder to do business for them in the States. Yeah, it's not a lever that you pull happily, but it has some, we believe some symmetry with where you're gonna put the money. The bulk of that money is gonna go into infrastructure in the state at other transit systems. Is it going to be really dedicated and not allowed to be touched for New Jersey transit? This money, there's no constitutional dedication. So it's not gonna be ironclad. Somebody could potentially use it for something else. But there's, there's almost nothing in our budget that is ironclad, uh, whether we like it or not. That that's you are, there's the budget process is in the annual one. There are a lot of folks out there who want to make it a two year process. I actually would be open minded to that, but I, I know we got a break here in a second. I'd love to come back to this if you don't mind. Governor. Uh, keep it right here on as Governor Murphy, we'll be right back and remember, you can always get your questions in. Here's how you can do it, you could do it on X, on Facebook and give us a call. 888 news 12 NJ.

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MTNJAGMEBlock0627_2024-06-27-17-53-02

All right, let's get back to uh our next call right now. Governor. We have Denise from point Pleasant on the line. Denise, what's your question? Denise. Yes. Good afternoon. Um I had called about three years ago about my housing if you remember. And uh I had to write, yeah, about three years ago. Remember I called out my housing waiting since 2008. You did write a letter to my office. Yes. Come on. Seriously. You and I need to go out for a beer. Uh Good Lord. Um OK, Denise. Uh I don't have a crisp answer for you, obviously, but um I'm gonna ask Rob Field Natalie to follow up with Denise. Denise. Is that all right? If my colleague, Rob Field gives you a shout and, and I'll ask him to come to me directly after he gets the facts and figure out what we're gonna do to get this organized. All right. Enjoy the summer governor. Uh le let's move on and, and, and this was a, a story that's still, we're feeling the ver the reverberations, tough word uh even two weeks later. Uh and that has to do with the the indictment of George Norcross uh in South Jersey, of course, as well as uh five others. Uh, you and many others in New Jersey politics were, were very quick to, I don't wanna say pass judgment, but to comment when Senator Bob Menendez was indicted, can you comment about this? About the indictment of George Norcross? Seeing is how he, he is been called time and again, one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful unelected person in New Jersey politics. II, I am not gonna say a whole lot about this because it's a law enforcement matter. But I said something, uh, last week in response to this, that was very, uh, similar to what I said, uh, after Senator Menendez's indictment. So I said, and I'll repeat it here. Uh The, the allegations are very serious, uh, very troubling. No question about that. Secondly, having said that, uh, it's America, you're innocent until you're proven guilty. Uh, and there's a process that will play out and that needs to play out and I'm not gonna have a whole lot more to say about that. Um That's basically what I've said about Senator Menendez as well. Let's set the album and Senator Menendez, I should say is a sitting elected politician and I think for the broader interests, Senator Men Menendez should have and still should step down. Let's set the allegations aside here for a moment and talk about the potential political ramifications because, uh the simple fact that this is George from our cross. Could there be ramifications or some kind of trickle down effect when it comes to upcoming elections here in the state for your party? Yeah, I again, I'm not gonna speculate on that. I, I will say this. We have been committed to South Jersey from day one. I think there was a rightful view that South Jersey didn't get its fair share over the decades and we, we came into office committed to make sure that that was no longer the case. So offshore wind, the investments were made in Camden, like the Walter Rand Center, uh the nuclear power plants still responsibly operational. Um I could go on um I care about every square inch of the state including South Jersey and, and I'll leave it at that governor. Let's move on. Uh because as you know, uh the Kane and your corner team had recently concluded a three year investigation and it found that one in three rape kits, uh rape kit survivors rather uh did not have their rape kits actually tested um regardless of whether or not the survivors actually wanted them tested. And the investigation found that New Jersey is actually one of a dozen states that still allows prosecutors to override survivors wishes here in terms of testing these. Um and since then, there's actually been some bipartisan comment to this. Uh So let's take a look at some of the comments that we've gotten Senator Senate minority leader and Buco saying failing to promptly process these kits only prolongs the trauma felt by rape and sexual assault survivors. And uh let's move on. This is one from State Center and Democrat Vin. Go Powell. He weighed in saying the testing all kits is critical in cases involving serial offenders to ensure justice for survivors. So, so hearing their comments and, and hearing about the results of the investigation, would you support legislation to test all kits? I certainly would be open minded. I don't disagree with a word that either Tony or Vin said in those quotes. I, I would probably take the word serial out. I mean, ee every situation ought to be tested. I know the attorney general has done. His team has done a lot of work on this and they've, they've got a plan in place. Uh, but the answer is, I would certainly be open minded to it. My wife was the victim of sexual assault when she was in college. She lived that, uh and so this is hardly abstract and by the way, I, I don't know. You, you, you may, I, I can't think of a family member where something like this has not been in there. It's a little bit like addiction. Uh It's not abstract for almost any of us. But yeah, that's just, it's gotta get fixed. Um, again, I think the attorney general has a, has a plan that they're executing that will get to a good place. Uh, but I'm definitely open minded to legislation along those lines. Governor, we do have to take another quick break. We do have plenty more time though to take your questions at home. Keep it right here and ask Governor Murphy. We'll be right back.

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ASKGOVMURPHYF

All right, welcome back to ask Governor Murphy here on News 12 New Jersey governor, we still have some more time to get to uh questions. Of course, from right here and from viewers you at home governor, let's talk about uh, your clemency initiative. This was a big deal historic initiative that you announced. Talk briefly why this was such a priority for you and, and walk us through the process about what people need to do to qualify to apply. Yeah, it, it was a huge deal eric, it was one of the most emotional and I think consequential things we've done in office. It will impact thousands and thousands of lives. When you think of clemency and pardons you think of the week between Christmas and New Year's and the last year a governor's in office or a president's in office and it's a onesies and twosies. I happen to know you, someone makes a case on your behalf, whatever it might be. This is not that we still might do that, but we have not done any of that yet. This is cate categories uh measured in one dimension a long time. How many years has it been since you finished serving your sentence? And have you stayed clean? Um Were you under the age of 25 when you committed the offense? And you've stayed clean? Were you the victim of sexual assault and domestic violence where you perpetrated a violent crime? Because you had no choice but you were sentenced in the eighties when there was not any sympathy for your, for your cause. Um That will all be addressed. Uh, nj.gov/clemency, here's the one hitch that I'm concerned about this was like marijuana expungement. Most of the criminal justice records in the state are paper based. They're in somebody's drawer, uh, and it's dispersed. So I'd love to think and someday this will be the case. It won't be while I'm governor because it's gonna take a while where we could press a button and we know that you were or were not eligible. Uh, and, and we know every, everyone in the universe that's not the case today. Folks have to come to us nj.gov/clemency. It's life changing. All right, governor. Uh, we're just about out of time but first, let's, uh, talk about North. Sure. It's getting ready to wrap up. Talk about how successful it's been. And did you have a favorite act so far? So, uh, it's been a home run started in Asbury Park this year. Moved to Atlantic City in Newark, uh, in the brick city to, to finish it out. Uh, it's, it's been spectacular. No, question. My favorite act was my friend Jack Antonoff and his extraordinary band. The Bleachers uh played in the summer stage at the Stone Pony, 4500 people. It was, I'm telling you, you gotta see this guy Eric. This was Springsteen circa 1973. Like the energy, the creativity, uh the, the, the, the, the craft. He's a famous producer. He's Taylor Swift's producer. He's from Bergen County, by the way, which is why he's such a great guy. Loves Jersey. Uh That's my favorite act. But listen, everybody. It's still not too late. The Brick City Newark right now through the end of the weekend, tons of acts literally scores if not hundreds. Uh final thoughts for 10 seconds. Well, happy Fourth of July. Everybody coming up. Uh I wish everyone a safe um birthday for America. Uh And it's, it's getting toward the big one a couple of years from now. We're 250 but I will wish everybody a great summer and a happy Fourth of July. And thanks for having me always governor. Thank you so much, Governor Phil Murphy. Thanks for being here and thank you for watching. Ask Governor Murphy here on News 12 New Jersey. I'm Eric Landsner. We'll see you again next time.

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Gov. Phil Murphy answered viewers' questions on News 12 New Jersey's “Ask Gov. Murphy” program.

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