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MTNJAGMBBlock0228_2024-02-28-16-25-04

Welcome back to ask Governor Murphy. I'm Eric Lanz Kerner. Governor. Uh, again, we're focusing quite a bit on some of your budget priorities. Uh You spoke about school funding at length in the budget saying that the $56 billion plan includes a $900 million increase in funding for public schools. You touted that yours would be the first administration in state history to actually fully fund the school funding formula before we talk more about that, Senator declan o'scanlon had some comments about that. Let's listen, the governor said, uh very specifically, I made a note of it that with this increase in school funding of a 900 some odd million dollars this year, it's gonna benefit every single school child and every single property taxpayer that is blatantly patently false. He's cutting aid to 100 40 districts. He has to say that with a straight face to the kids in those districts who are losing music, who are losing art. We're losing virtually all sports. It's a disaster that easily could have been avoided. Had we reworked the school funding formula over the past few years. All right, governor. So your response. So Declan uh bless his heart again. He's a friend. Uh and uh he's a public servant and I have a lot of regard for him in both respects, but he, he is right that uh 423 districts will see an increase. I'm gonna be in Plainfield tomorrow, which has got a 12 plus percent increase. 100 and 40 will go down and 15 will be flat. Now, why is that? It's very simply the last administration. And when Declan I believe was voting for those budgets uh uh underfunded uh the school funding formula by $9 billion. That's billion with A B uh We have put year after year of historic investments into our public schools. Here is the issue. The last administration not only underfunded the formula, it in fact did not allow the formula to even uh come into effect, which means when we got here, we were eight years behind on the demographics of where the families were moving, where the kids were in school. So we agreed to something called S two with the leadership in our first year to take seven years. You couldn't do that overnight. You'd be too abrupt for a place that had lost kids versus the many more places that are gaining kids. He said, you know what, seven years feels like a reasonable amount of time to let this formula come into play. This is year seven, we're doing exactly what we said we would do seven years ago and if that weren't enough. So again, the last team underfunding by $9 billion we're at record highs. I think we're plus 3.5 billion since we got into office for school funding. And then secondly, if you are a district that's going down, uh putting aside that there's rationale behind that the poor little kids, God bless them. You wanna give every kid a, a fair shot at their American dream. We work with those districts. We have a emergency aid. Uh Our Department of Education under the leadership of Kevin Damer who is outstanding, by the way, will work with each one of those districts and hopefully come to a resting place. That makes sense and I'll give you an example of something that's tough locally. I get it. But this is a reality of some towns that have three high schools. They should have two. So because they, they don't wanna fight the local sentiment and passion against closing a high school, which I completely understand that means, ok, it comes back to, is that on my back or our back or not? So we try to be as fair as we can. Um And if, if for whatever reason it's going down, we work with those districts. We also received a release today from uh community colleges in the state. Uh So very quickly, we're just gonna read you this quick quote. Uh This proposed 12% reduction in state investment significantly undermines the critical work of community colleges to build an equitable, innovative and prosperous New Jersey. Uh We now calling the state legislature to re restore the vital resources we need to serve our students, employers and communities. So, so clearly, community colleges are, are are not happy about what's in this budget. Eric, you could put any number of line items up on that screen. Community colleges is one of them. Let me just say we've got families in this state who are making tough decisions trying to make ends meet. Uh cutting back on some stuff that they would normally be doing in, in, in better times, we can't ask families to do that and not do that ourselves as a state. And remember, we're coming from record investments, particularly in education across the board. Pre K, we've just expanded, uh uh taken a huge step on this budget toward universal pre KK through 12. We've talked about, we're still putting a ton into community colleges and higher ed generally. But if families out there are tightening their belt, we as a government, the legislature and our administration has to tighten our belt as well. Well, uh very quickly, we, we do have another caller to get to, but I wanna just kind of delve into the topic of property taxes because these topics, school funding, property tax, so twined. Um and they just go hand in hand, still the highest in the nation, property taxes. I know we've spoken about the anchor program many times. Uh, the Republicans in the response to your budget address this week pointed out that there was still a 3.3% property tax increase in municipalities in New Jersey when we do have a 2% cap and that the anchor program isn't really saving taxpayers when the increase shouldn't have been more than a 2% cap. So, so, I mean, this is flat out, not true. Do you have any democratic reactions? We could talk about out loud. You're the democratic? Honest to God, it's me against the world right now. Listen, th those property tax increase numbers are gross numbers that don't take into account the, all the various property tax relief programs. We've got Anchors, the biggest folks we have put in this budget $3.5 billion of property tax relief. So when you see numbers that say New Jersey's property taxes went up x that they don't factor in the, the, the, the rebates and anybody out there who's making less than a quarter of a million dollars, uh or even more. So, if you're making less than 100 and 50,000 or even, then more. So if you're a senior, you, you've gone down to levels that you haven't seen in a decade in terms of your property tax when you net the rebate and that's the important point. But that my friends across the aisle are not factoring in. I, I do wanna just ask you very quickly about that 2% cap because that's something we've spoken about many times in the show before. Is there, uh, uh, a way, a reason perhaps to look at that cap again and to not offer as many exceptions for municipalities to go above and beyond that cap. Listen, this is, uh, uh, an age old question of tax rate versus other incentives and other rebates that are, that may be available. Um The reason why I like where we've landed in our entire time here is we means test, um, the, the relief particularly for individuals if you had gross when I say gross, I mean, everybody gets, you take X percent off the top, you're, you're taking X percent off the top from folks who frankly don't need that relief. So we're obsessed with the, you know, community college opportunity grant. You have to be under a certain income level which we've raised over the course if you're below this, uh, it's, you're going to community college for free. Uh, your anchor payment is a lot bigger if you, if you're under 100 and $50,000 of income and, or you're a senior than if you're under $250,000 of income. I much prefer that way because the people who need the relief are getting it more. It's more of a rifle shot into them. Governor. We have Derek on the phone. I'm gonna ask Derek to hold on. We're just gonna take a quick break. We'll take your call when we come back.

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MTNJAGMCBlock0228_2024-02-28-16-31-31

Welcome back to ask Governor Murphy here on news 12 New Jersey, uh Governor. Let's get back to the phones right now. We do have Derek from East Orange on the line. Derek, thanks for calling in. What's your question? Hey, Derek. Uh my uh good afternoon. I mean, good evening, Mr Governor. My name is Derek Phillis. I'm a senior and also a veter veteran with hearing loss. I have a daughter with special needs and I'm currently on section eight, I had to be forced out where I'm living at to get inadequate living on the third floor and it doesn't fit me and my family needs and also uh section eight did not give me the proper resources. So what should I do? God bless you. First of all, Derek, thank you for your service to our nation. Uh What we should do is I'm gonna have somebody on my team call you within the next 24 hours. Uh Jen, let's get M MA K pay to uh reach out to Derek. Uh We put a significant amount of money. It, it so happens uh into this budget which we announced on Tuesday um of over $30 million for a specific program in that case, for homeless veterans to eradicate that once and for all. But Derek, we, we uh I, I need to understand the specifics of your situation, but I promise you. And I said this yesterday, uh we can never repay the debt of gratitude that we owe to our veterans and we will do everything we can, whether it's job training, housing, in your case, health care, uh, retirement, whatever it might be. Um, as I said, we, we announced an exciting new program yesterday. I'm not sure it fits with your needs, but I promise you, we will follow up and again, Mek Bay and our team will be reaching out to you, Derek Hang in there, pal. All right, governor, we have another phone call from Sandra in Jersey City. Hey, Sandra, thanks for calling in. Hi, how are you? Good. How are you? Ok. Um My question was, um, what are the plans for low income housing? Because I live in Jersey City? And when I look at apartments, they're like $1800 and that's for one bedroom. And I wanted to know, um, well, pretty much I'm gonna retire this year. God willing and I'm already 68 and I'm still working. You got me by a couple of 66. What are you gonna do about low income? Yeah. So, uh Sandra, I'm gonna again have, uh, in this case, I'm gonna have Rob Field if I could follow up with Sandra, uh we're doing a lot. Um In fact, last year I mentioned this in my remarks. I was so taken aback by this that I asked folks to check the numbers we, we uh permitted in New Jersey last year, more housing units in New York State and they have 10 million more people and a big chunk of them were, uh were affordable housing units. So we have a long way to go. There's legislation that's moving in our legislature, it's not there yet. But if it gets there, it would completely revolutionized the process which would mean that the unit center would get built a lot faster. We ourselves have a affordable housing production fund uh to get more units done. We have a pretty strict um uh set of regulations around what percent of any uh given development needs, residential development needs and required to have affordable housing units. But I'm, I'm, I'm not gonna tell you otherwise we have a long way to go. Some folks estimate our deficit at affordable housing units at 2 to 300,000. You know, New Jersey is popular. That's a good thing. The challenging thing is whether it's affordable or market rate, we have a huge imbalance between supply and demand and none. No place more. Uh Do you see that than affordable housing? We will follow up with you, Senator. Yeah, governor, we're gonna talk more about affordability and housing in our next half hour. Let's take a quick break. More questions coming up on the flip side.

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MTNJAGMDBlock0228_2024-02-28-16-44-28

Welcome back to as Governor Murphy here on News 12, New Jersey. I'm Eric Lanz Croner. Remember you can continue to get your questions to us. You can do that in a number of different ways. You can get us on by following along on the news. 12 New Jersey. Facebook page hit us up on X just use the hashtag ask govern Murphy, the governor like that and 888 news 12 NJ give us a call. 888639712, formerly known as Twitter. Let's listen, you know, I was just getting tired of saying it, it's very, very wordy. Uh All right. So, uh, before we went to break, we were talking about affordability in the state. So a a as we've been doing, uh, recently, we, we go out before the show, we asked people what they'd like to ask you and affordability came up. Let's listen, let's listen. After leaving the state, I realized it's very expensive here for real estate taxes. My taxes in Maryland are about a third of what they are in New Jersey and I would like to know why it's so much money here I want to know why is it so high for poor people to live here? It's too much. I, I am poor and I had to leave the state of New Jersey. I had to leave everybody, my friends, even my daughter behind to go down south to live because it's more affordable and that's messed up. All right. So God bless them. I don't know their particular situations and New Jersey will never claim and nor would I tell you that we're gonna be the lowest cost state uh in the union. Uh We are the best place in America to raise a family. And that's, that's been uh adjudicated and ranked in every which way. Number one public education system, top five health care quality of life, a transit system that's fixed uh diversity, innovation economy. There's a lot of really good things here. Um But we know it's none of that stuff comes cheap. So it's why we have been laser focused on affordability since day one. When you talk about $3.5 billion of property tax relief in one year's budget. That is historic. Uh And, and almost all of that is means tested. That does not mean and I feel badly for that woman in particular uh who said I'm, I'm poor and I, I had to leave this state and my heart goes out to her. In fact, I'd love to know whether or not we could track any of these folks down is that, is that possible we can track? OK. And then Jen, maybe you could help me. Uh I'd love to understand their dynamics a little bit more. Um But II I would just say I, I I'm gonna speak out of both sides of my mouth. You, we deliver an enormous amount for the price you pay to live here. Um And on the other side, I get it completely, which is why we are with equal passion, not just delivering best, by example, best public education system in America, but delivering billions of dollars of property tax relief. There's a uh a another example away from property tax relief. There's a uh a couple of programs out there for s for seniors in their pharmaceutical prices. We, we lead the nation uh o on programs that get at the high cost of pharmaceuticals. Uh We had 400,000 people sign up for get covered. NJ which is our marketplace for health care. Uh where, where it's more affordable and more accessible for more people. Those are huge nation leading programs that stand alongside all the things we're also proud about. Great schools, great health care, great location, et cetera. Governor. We have another call uh actually related, I believe to property taxes. And this is Maureen from Wayne on the line. Hi, Maureen. Hey Maureen. Hi. Hi, Governor. Thanks for taking my call. I wanna say that my husband. I spoke to you before. My husband was one of the New Jersey State troopers that died during COVID and he made a very, a very nice phone call to me and my family and I still appreciate it. Thank God bless you, Maureen and God rest his soul. Yeah, it's hard. But anyway, my, my question is about the anchor rebate. Um, the website is not updating. The phone refers me to the website. I did apply in August of 23. I got a confirmation number. I have no money and I don't know how to contact the. Ok. Well, you just did. You contacted me and that's unacceptable. What's that? I said you go to the top. Exactly. Go to the, when in doubt, go to the governor. I listen Maureen. First of all, again, II, I remember giving the tribute to your guy and God bless you and, and I hope you're, you're hanging in there, Jen is with me. We're gonna get, um, let's get Rob Field on this and get this figured out tomorrow. Uh, you, you've got, it sounds like you've got everything but the money which is unacceptable. And I'm sick of hearing that. No one's answering the phones. It drives me crazy. And every time after these programs I go back and I'm hardened on our team. We have having said that we've delivered, um, Anchor relief in huge numbers to millions of homeowners and renters. By the way, with a particular added bonus for seniors uh which I'm proud of. And that's also we're gonna continue that in this year's budget. But Maureen, please bear with us. Uh My colleague, Rob Field will reach out. We'll try to figure out what's going on here and get you the money you deserve. Come here. Let's pivot here to offshore wind. Uh This was something that you also mentioned during your budget address, but uh the federal government just approved offshore wind that is Empire Wind One. Empire Wind Two. This is off of long branch, 100 and 40 turbines at least 15 miles offshore. Are these far enough out considering you now have the Atlantic City project that you mentioned yesterday which are 40 miles or more out which, which by the way seemed to have appeased some. Yeah, I mean, I may I take you mo mo mo moment of personal privilege. Uh The folks who are against offshore wind, by the way, I don't get it. It's clean energy in the most densely populated state in America and it's thousands of union jobs and overwhelmingly they're in South Jersey. Uh And there are folks down there typically on the other side of the aisle that uh are against this. I I for the life of me don't understand that. Um But yes, uh I, I'm not an expert but I've felt the 12 miles out was uh far enough out and we've seen renderings that show that I keep promising to bring the renderings here and I keep forgetting I should now bring the 15 and the forties uh with me. Uh The answer is I believe they are um that that's a plus or minus a norm, obviously the, the recent solicitation, 40 miles out. Um everyone loved because uh that that's even further, further on the horizon and you can't see him. And I mentioned yesterday, apparently there are no whales up 40 miles because people have stopped complaining to me. Uh uh let that one sink in for a minute. But the answer is, yeah, I'm not an expert, but I've seen the renderings at 12 and I thought they were fine and 15, I'm sure it'll be a little finer and 40 obviously is even further in the, I'm just, I have to ask, were you expecting to get more of a laugh when you said that yesterday, people, it's one of those things where it's sunk in over time. You sort of heard people chuckling uh when you refer to it, it's the truth. I mean, that's my view is this, let's be straight with each other, whether I agree with you or not. I'm opposed to offshore wind. I'm not gonna hide behind the whales. I'm opposed to it. Ok? I got it. At least you're, you're standing up for yourself. I'm, I'm obviously a huge advocate and by the way, we care about the whales and, and uh we follow all the science and the guidance from the feds governor very quickly. Uh, we do have another call but before we get to that call, uh, we were just talking about Atlantic City a moment ago, casino smoking bill, uh, recently introduced by Senator Berceli, uh, that would still allow smoking on 25% of the casino floor. But there wouldn't be table games in those areas. It would just be slots. Um, does this go far enough? There was an op ed in, uh, the nj.com that called it a quote, incredibly weak bill? Yeah, I don't comment as, you know, on pending legislation. I know if Senator Vitale were here, he would have a very strong opinion uh, that we need to go further. I've not read John's Bill. Um, so I'll, I'll leave it at that, but I have said this and, and I've had a longer history with Senator Vitale on this than almost with anybody. And he does a great job. In fact, both of these guys are great leaders. Uh, I have said from long back, if a bill gets to my desk, uh I will sign it and I'll, that's remains where I am and we'll see what, uh, what that looks like. Let's see if we can take Mi, I, I believe it's midge. Is, am I getting that right? This is about a question about climate change on the phone? Yes. Hi Murphy. Hi there. This is, am from Taco. Um, I support you in your offshore wind. So thank you for doing that. Um We just lived through the hottest year on record and now the hottest February on record. So I'm wondering if you still support the PBS C gas fire power plant at a time when we're obviously in a climate crisis that's caused by burning fossil fuels. Thank you. Thank you. Good question, boy, you're not kidding about a warm February. Uh There are people in Chicago out walking jogging with no shirts on. Uh It, it, it's crazy and there's no doubt about global warming. We haven't made a decision on that yet. Uh And this is, this is a um a plant folks that would be a backup plant uh in Newark. And I've said from the get go, I think there are very legitimate environmental arguments on both sides of this. Uh uh The other side would say, you know what, it's a fossil fuel plant and even though it's gonna run only a few days a month and then only run uh more than that. If there's an emergency like Superstorm Sandy, we don't want it on the other side. I would argue with the environmental disaster that the lack of a backup plant led to during Superstorm Sandy um was pretty awful as well. And so if you only run something 3 to 3 days a month to make sure that the generator is charged, um I think that's a fair trade off. So this is a hard one. I think there are good arguments on both sides but no news to make tonight. All right. Governor, uh, we're gonna take another quick break. We got more questions when we come back.

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MTNJAGMEBlock0228_2024-02-28-16-53-14

Welcome back to ask Governor Murphy here on news, Charles New Jersey, uh Governor, we've got more questions to get to. But first, uh II, I wanna follow up on a Kane in your corner investigation from uh last week that Walt Kane did uh for years, the attorney General's office has claimed that New Jersey had no backlog upon tested rape kits. But last week, as I mentioned, K corner investigation found three and four rape kits take longer than 30 days to process. And that's a definition that the federal government uses to define a kid is backlogged. Well, ask the GS office as you know, how it could justify the claim of no backlog in the light of the numbers. I would really argue that the number is kind of arbitrary, but it would seem like there has to be some sort of standard what is or isn't a backlog kit? I think we have to work on defining what a backlog is in a way that really centers what survivors need rather than like an arbitrary number like 30 days. All right. So Governor, uh what's what's your response to the, the explanation as well as to the investigation. I'm just seeing the explanation for the first time, but I, I can't tell you how good the work that Patricia and Attorney General Matt Black can do on, on in this space. Um, but I'll come back to that in a moment. Listen, I, I read, I didn't see the story but I read the headlines, by the way, Walt was in your seat last time he was and I appreciate that he was here. But, uh, it's when I saw the headlines concerning, I mean, this is, uh, my wife was a victim of sexual assault in college. Uh We've known lots of folks over the years. You, you wanna, you wanna get answers, you wanna have your arms around, what, what happened and what are the consequences and where do I stand? And so we're, we're looking into that. I think Patricia's point, uh is that, and I know they're, they're looking into it so I don't want to speak for them. At what point is that information relevant? I would think it sooner than later. Um But I will say this, that we are working with the feds. We got a federal grant. Um And one of the, one of the um, developments that you're gonna see in New Jersey and please God, you, you're not hearing this thinking, oh God, I, I, I'm gonna be a AAA victim but if you are tragically a victim, there is gonna be complete transparency there is going to be in and when this program is stood up, almost like you uh a fedex package that's tracked, you're gonna be able to track exactly where the this rape kit is in the system. Um And that will be, that'll revolutionary, revolutionize what we're talking about here today. But I have nothing but sympathy for the victims of instructed our team to get to the bottom in terms of the, the data. Again, I think they're doing a lot of really good work and I think in many cases, the A G and with Patricia's great leadership are leading the nation, but I wanna make sure that that's the case, not just in general, but it's the case for every single victim of this awful crime. Do you agree or disagree with what would constitute as a definition of a backlog and, and, and, and is it semantic? Should we, should we just do everything we can to speed up this process? Well, I think, uh I, I'm not an expert on what the, what the definition ought to be, but I just said a minute ago, I'm with you sooner than later. Uh I don't see any other measure. If it takes a few days, then let's not sit on it. And if it takes longer than it needs to, let's find ways to make the system work better so that we can cut that, uh cut that down again. I, I can't say enough good things about what I know is being worked on and I'm convinced that this issue will not only go away, but folks will have more transparency than they've ever had before and probably more than any other state in America governor. Let's get back to the phones. We have Diane from Hasbrook Heights on the line. Diane, what's your question? Hey, Diane. Um, I live in Hasbrook Heights. Not a flood zone. And that pertains to my question um because it's not a flood zone, but yet I had a small um flood policy and because of that, due to hurricane Ida, I was displaced for nine months, denied prima. And so my question is I had to take out a third mortgage with the Small Business Administration. And my question is, is the governor considering forgiving people that had to take out those loans with the Small Business Administration because they got no aid to fix their homes because of hurricane Ida Diane. I can't say, first of all, God bless you, uh that, that stinks. Um And uh my heart goes out to you. I can't say without knowing more of the specifics, but is the governor open minded to try to figure out uh a way that you can land in a better place? You bet you and with your blessing, Diane, I'm gonna ask my colleague Dan Kelly, um who has been in our, in our disaster relief oversight seat since way back to Governor Christie's administration fact, he started as a result of Superstorm Sandy and he's an incredible, incredibly knowledgeable guy who's kind of seen it all unfortunately, because we're seeing more of these storms uh with regularity. But by the way back to that, that power plant in, in Newark, the, the folks who don't like it are hugely passionate about environmental justice and I wanna say unequivocally, so am I uh it doesn't sound uh um it sounds like Diane is not in a, in a uh as, as she says, in a floodplain. So it's a different dimension. But I'm gonna ask Dan Kelly Diane uh to follow up with you and hopefully we'll get you to a better place. And in the meantime, God bless you. All right, governor, we still have a little time left for some more questions. Keep them coming right here. I'll ask Governor Murkey. We'll be right back.

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MTNJAGMFBlock0228_2024-02-28-17-04-46

Welcome back to ask Governor Murphy here on news 12, New Jersey, uh Governor, let's talk about legalized marijuana. Uh New Jersey recently reached a milestone, uh 100 marijuana dispensaries in the state. So, uh certainly notable there. And we do have a question from a viewer who got in touch with us on social media. Mikey wants to know will New Jersey legalize some form of home cultivation of marijuana as other states have? Yeah. First of all, we have gotten to 100 outlets we have done, I think a very good job of getting them into diverse hands uh to undo the damage of the war on drugs, uh which has been one of the main focus points and I'm happy about that. I'd like to see more. Uh And I think the pace of late has picked up. Um And that's, that's a good thing. I'm open minded to that. I, I know there were good reasons as to why not to do it out of the blocks because you wanted to get the industry basically up and running both with the big players and with the mom and pop players. Uh and we wanna make sure this is a success. Is there a moment in time when, uh, you, you can consider homegrown as an alternative without derailing the progress in the industry writ large, including the mom and Pops II. I think that is worthy of consideration. So that's something I've been on the record. I think even on this program is saying that's something I'm open minded to. I'm not sure when, um, but, but that's something I think ultimately it's a question of majority of the industry governor. We spoke at length before about New Jersey transit fixing New Jersey transit. The last thing that we want to see happen is for a repeat of what happened when the Super Bowl was in New Jersey and there were transit problems, New Jersey transit, hopefully everything will be worked out updated fine in time for the World Cup and that's where we're going here. So the World Cup the final uh I mean, could it, could it get any bigger? It's unbelievable. It's, it's amazing. So that news broke actually after, after you had the uh your last show here. Uh John actually know our newsroom asking. He wants to know what is the projected sales tax revenue from ticket sales, parking, food sales and memorabilia. I'm not sure John, I've got a sales tax figure, but the host committee did a study of impact on both on the region which is both Jersey and New York City and the impact is about a $2 billion economic impact and about 14,000 overwhelmingly union jobs created. Now before, let me, let me just say two things that differentiate this cup from the Super Bowl. Uh because people rightfully say, hey, wait a minute, most of the economic activity was in New York City, New Jersey got a lot less of what they should have. First of all NJ transit is an entirely different beast today than it was 10 years ago, overwhelmingly for the better and it will continue to get better. Secondly, the Super Bowl was in the dead of winter and it was one game. This is eight games five, first round, two knockouts and the World Cup final which will be watched on television around the world between 1.5 and 2 billion people versus Super Bowl around 100 and 30 million. Uh It's summer. I I will tell you we'll have official fan fests. You'll have unofficial fan fest. Think about the East Ward of Newark. It'll be a six week party just to pick one place or Liberty State Park where you might have several 100,000 people watching the US games on the west coast. Still a little offensive. By the way, then New Jersey's name a second in that it says New York, New Jersey. Listen, in, in, in reality, we don't win this without New York City and frankly New York City doesn't win it without us. Uh and Eric Adams and his team have been great partners and, uh, I could not be more excited about this. We're, we're almost out of time but does the congestion pricing battle? No rift have any impact here? It hasn't had any impact, uh, to the credit of everybody. You know, we've got a great relationship with both the mayor and the governor. The NTA reports to the governor not to the mayor by the way. And we don't let disagreements blow up the, all the many areas of common ground we have in the World Cup is one of the big ones. All right. So, uh, 10 seconds left for final thoughts. Governor, thrilled to be with you. Uh, I'm proud of the budget. It's the beginning of a process that will culminate in June and I think New Jersey does that budget process as well as any state in America. And I'm looking forward to the next several months. Governor Phil Murphy, thanks as always for coming into the studio. Thanks for, and you've been watching, ask Governor Murphy here on news. 12 New Jersey. 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.

Gov. Murphy answers viewers questions on ‘Ask Gov. Murphy’ program - Feb. 28, 2024

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

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