Gov. Murphy answers viewers' questions on ‘Ask Gov. Murphy’ program – Oct. 23, 2025

Gov. Murphy answers viewers' questions on ‘Ask Gov. Murphy’ program – Aug. 21, 2025

Gov. Murphy answers viewers' questions on ‘Ask Gov. Murphy’ program - July 22, 2025

Gov. Murphy answers viewers' questions on ‘Ask Gov. Murphy’ program – June 24, 2025

Gov. Murphy answers viewers' questions on ‘Ask Gov. Murphy’ program – May 22, 2025

Gov. Murphy answers viewers questions on ‘Ask Gov. Murphy’ program – March 25, 2025

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MTNJAGMBBlock0930_2025-09-30-16-21-10

Welcome back to Ask Governor Murphy here on News 12 New Jersey. Governor, let's get some phones right now. We have Linda from North Bergen on the line. Linda, uh, what's your question? Hey, Linda. Good afternoon, Governor. Um, real quick, Christ Hospital in Jersey City, New Jersey. I have a very dear friend of mine that's been employed there for over 25 years. Her job is at stake because nobody's, they don't have the appropriate funds. What's going on with that? Yeah, Linda, I will ask my colleague Dennis Zealoff. Kieran Scheff is with me in the, uh, studio tonight. Kiren, we'll get Dennis to give Linda a shout. This is a, this is a real, uh, potential crisis right now. You've got a. A hospital here that is, um, is crying out for, for financial relief and in fact our department of health is doing a deep dive as we speak, uh with the system and with Christ, um, and we'll see obviously the last thing we need is a hospital desert, particularly in the most densely populated county in America in Hudson County, um. But these are, listen, these are challenging times for a lot of folks, and that includes the healthcare providers. Um, so, uh, uh, we'll know more soon, Linda, for your friend and for other folks who rely on this hospital and this system. Uh, but we're taking it very, very seriously and we've got our team in there, as I mentioned in the Department of Health at the very highest level, including the commissioner himself. So no news to make tonight, but we're again taking this very seriously. I'll ask Dennis to follow up with you directly. Governor, this is a follow up to a question we spoke about in our last show. um, it has to do with independent contractors at the time you, you didn't have any news to make um, of course it's about a department of labor proposal. That would classify many more independent contractors and just give you the background at home uh as regular employees. Now various lawmakers have said that the proposed rule redefining independent contractors would quote quote, and this is from like Senator Bingoal creates serious disruption for the state's businesses and employees, and both gubernatorial candidates have have voiced varying degrees of displeasure as well. Uh, we have a question. All that being said, um, Fight for freelancers co-founder Kim Cavan. Has a question here. She said last month on this show, Governor Murphy said that he was letting the public comment process play out on NJDOL's proposed independent contractor rule. About 9500 comments were filed. Only about 2 dozen support the rule. A full 99% are opposed. So why is this proposal not rescinded, Governor? Yeah, this is Kim Caven. Kim Caven, OK. Kim, I will get, um, again the aforementioned Dennis Zeveoff to follow up with you. Uh, again, I apologies, uh, but no news to make on this either. We're not quite through this process. There's a lot of passion on all sides of this, um, and as you can see, according to Kim's data on one side in particular, uh, BJBIA also put out the same stats. Yeah, I'm not surprised, bless their hearts, um. So we'll see, uh, uh, comment periods exist for a reason, uh, and that is to get a true sense of, uh, the, the, the passions on any particular issue. We do them. This is a late this happened to be a labor matter. We do them on environmental matters regularly, um, uh, and so this is a process that's playing out. My guess is we'll have news sooner than later. Um, so stay tuned, and Kim, I will ask Dennis to follow up with you. All right, Governor, we have another, uh, caller right now. Uh, Tara, who's the caller? Helen from Point Pleasant joining us on the line right now. Thanks for calling in. What's your question? Hey, Helen. Helen, are you there? Yes, I am. Hi, what's your question? My question is the um anchor checks, I know they went out in October, some of them. Have they finished, uh, mailing them out yet because I didn't receive my email. OK, um, Helen, stay tuned. Um, they, they're not completely out yet, uh, although a big chunk of them are out. I will ask. Dennis is gonna get the trifecta here in the first quarter of the hour of the show. Uh, Dennis will follow up with you within the next 24 hours. The one thing we want to make sure, Helen, is that there is something specific to your check, uh, but as a general matter, the program is up and running. It is fluid. It's functioning well. It has been now for several years. It's the most significant property relief uh tax relief program in the state's history. I'm glad to hear you're a part of it, Helen, uh, and I'll make sure we follow up with you to make sure there's nothing specific, uh, to your check. Governor, we actually had a question related to this on Facebook from a viewer named Krista. She wanted to know about anchor payments going out in paper checks rather than. Uh, direct deposit. You, you do have the option for direct deposit. You do, um, and I, I, uh, do we know how to find Chrissta because I'll give that a 4th call. Yeah, we do, yeah, I mean, one of Christa's concerns were, uh, checks being stolen through the mail. Yeah, I mean, there's a, there's a, a scam we should talk about at some point, similar to the reality of concern with the BPU rebates, um, which we should talk about on the show, um. But Krista, I'll make sure we follow up with you, uh, and, uh, make sure that again like Ellen, there's nothing specific or challenging with your check in your reimbursement. Governor, uh, we're gonna take another quick break. We've got a lot more topics to get to. Keep it right here on News 12 New Jersey's ask Governor Murphy. Remember you can get your questions to us on social media. You can give us a call at 889-888-N NewS12NJ or 888-639-7126. We'll be right back.

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MTNJAGMCBlock0930_2025-09-30-16-30-01

Welcome back to Anna Governor Murphy here on News Cork, New Jersey. I'm Eric Glanz, Kerner. Governor, right, let's get to our next topic. People finally, I think starting to breathe a little bit easier as we get into the cooler months now because they get to give their AC break. Uh, the, the, the bills this summer, as you know, have been horrendous. Um, just a few moments ago you spoke about a scam alert. That you wanted to let people know about the BPU actually just uh put out a release about this. I believe it was uh not that long ago also having to do with people trying to scam homeowners out of this $100 credit. Yep, let me just say very simply folks, this is a rebate. There's no interaction required with any other human. If somebody reaches out to you on as it relates to your energy bill on this rebate, ignore them. Uh, better yet, turn them in. Uh, there's no human, as I say, no human interaction required, um, and so I wanted to make sure and, and Eric, thank you for raising it because we want to make sure far and wide folks know that as you, it's part of a program to basically we put $400 million. I think $430 million on the street in June and it's a series of months where you get your uh a rebate back and if you're in, in a more of an income constrained family, you get a bigger, you get a bigger rebate. Uh it's part of a bunch of different things we're doing to try to ease the pain. On these god awful energy prices, so thanks for letting me say that, uh, Governor, I, I wanna talk about relief here because back in May, Senators Penacchio and Tyber introduced a bill that Republicans said would have saved consumers far more than the program that you were just talking about, the $100 rebate program. The bill would have temporarily suspended the sales and use tax as well as the societal benefits charge on electric bills. That was in May. Nothing happened with it. They said it was ignored. um, what was wrong with that bill? Well, those are two legitimate, uh, sources for the BPU and for the state that, that we use to do all sorts of good for the energy dependency and affordability in the state. Um, beyond that, I don't have the specifics of the bill in front of me. I think we've done a hell of a lot with all due respect, $430 million on the street. We got all the public utilities to agree to smooth out their bills. We're pounding away at PJM, which is the regional consortium that we're a part of. They've got 1600 projects in backlog. 79 of them are in New Jersey. We're, we're, we're striving in a bipartisan way I might add, for, for better governance of that consortium. President Trump, bless his heart, suspended the offshore wind program. When you've got a supply and demand imbalance, the last thing you need to do, which we have right now in energy, a lot of it for good reason because we're popular, we're a hot state. The last thing you need to do is take a big chunk of your supply off the table. That's what President Trump. Uh, did, uh, I signed a huge community solar bill where we lead the nation in that. I signed a huge battery storage, energy storage bill rather. We lead the nation in that. We're doing a whole lot of stuff here. I'm not suggesting that the pain isn't real because it is, uh, but we're not sitting on our hands and we haven't been for a long time. Governor, uh, you mentioned property tax relief. We're talking about the anchor program just a little while ago, so I want to get to this question. This is from Tilla wants to know, uh, New Jersey property taxes remain the highest in the nation, over $9000 annually per household despite your 2017 campaign promise to cut them by 10% within 5 years, uh, with families fleeing. The state and uh administration spending ballooning by nearly 50% since you took office. What steps will you take in your final months to deliver on that pledge and again I mean you did speak about the anchor program, but wants to know what steps you take in the in the remaining months to prevent further exodus from the state. How much time do we have? a little time. OK, good. Til I hate to break this to you. There are more people living in New Jersey right now than ever before. We are one of the hottest states in the nation. We are growing. Did, did I hear you say something about ballooning? Do you know what also ballooned? Our revenues. We're the fastest growing economy in the Northeast. We're one of the fastest growing economies in America. We have increased our surplus from the paltry several $100 million surplus that I inherited to $6.7 billion of a surplus to get us through some challenging times, mostly because of what's going on in Washington. Do you think that money, the surplus money was out of thin air? No, our revenues are booming. Our revenues are up $21 billion since the first budget I enacted. $3 billion have to do with revenue enhancers, taxes. $18 billion of that $21 billion is organic growth in the state of. New Jersey, with all due respect, check your facts. $9000 property tax bill, it sounds about right. Guess what also is correct. That's before any rebates. Millions. I just checked the number on anchor. 300,000 anchor payments have gone out. There's 1.5 million to go. That's 1.8 million households. That represent probably double or triple that number out of a population of $9.5 million meaning half the state is getting a rebate which knocks that $9000 number way down, I might add below what I promised with all due respect, wind him up and watch them go. All right, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back with more questions for Governor Murphy here on News 2.

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MTNJAGMDBlock0930_2025-09-30-16-44-00

Welcome back to Ask Governor Murphy here on News 12th, New Jersey. I'm Eric Glanzkerner along with Governor Phil Murphy, and, uh, remember you can get your questions to us today. We still have about a half an hour left on the show. And if you take a look, that's how you can do it. You can get to us on X. Just use the hashtag #Ask govMurphy and follow along with us on the News 12 New Jersey Facebook page or give us a call 888-9212NJ. That's 888-639-7126. Governor, we do have a caller on line, but before we get to the caller, you just want to clarify something about Anchor? Yeah, a couple of things on Anchor. Number one, Helen asked about her check. Uh, I said this a minute ago just to repeat it, 300,000 are on the street with about another 1.5 to go. So 1 in 6 are out there. Helen will still follow up to make sure you're good. Krista then asked about direct deposit, and I said, absolutely that's an option, just reiterating, in fact, triple checking that that is an option. So that we spent most of the time on the scam front on the BPU side. Christa was concerned that a check could get stolen. Uh, the good news is you could do direct deposit. Thank you for that. Uh, let's get to another call right now. We have Pamela from Highlands joining us. Pamela, what's your question? Hey, Pamela. Hi, good afternoon. Is there a way you can help with the level of music level from these beach bars? I live near the sandbox by the Seareak Ferry. It's a great, lovely place for visitors, but at a mile away I can't leave my windows open in the summer evenings and weekends because the music is so loud. There's legislation. In 2011 that exempted speech bars from the noise restriction and the Noise Control Act of '71, so we have no recourse. Can we find a way to make these, not make, but ask these venues to just reduce the decibel level. They can still have entertainment, but every night all summer long, all weekend, it's a bit much. I, I can imagine, Pamela, you got a, and by the way, Highlands is a community I know well we live right near there. It's one of the great shore communities in this case in Monmouth County in the northern part of the shore. So the good, you, you try to balance the really good stuff, which is the excitement and the energy and the passion and good good times that come with the shore, uh, with you, you got to sleep at night. Um, I will, Pamela, with your blessing Kiron, let's get Rob Field to follow up with Pamela, uh, and we'll see what we can. Run down for you again, getting the balance right, I think is the key here. We all want to have fun, have a good time, stay safe, but also get a good night's sleep, which I understand. Speaking of having fun, Governor, Eda has a question for us here. Uh, says if I can make my own alcoholic beverages at home. Why can't I grow my own pot at home? Both are recreational. She goes on to say the pot that they're selling. It's not as good as it used to be. Private industry ruins everything. They're now taking all the good out of it for profit. I don't have a personal, uh, uh, view on what it what it is now versus what it used to be. Um, I have thought at uh from day one, and I think I've said this on this program over the years, I understand why they didn't let home grow at the beginning because you wanted to get the, the businesses up and running. I was frustrated at the beginning that it was very slow. I have to say, relative to other states, including in our neighborhood. Uh, A, we've picked up the pace, which is good, but B, we've done it well. I have to say the cannabis regulatory Commission deserves credit. Uh, we'll all take a little bit of credit for getting this over the goal line, which wasn't easy, but I always thought that it was just a question of time until homegrown made sense. So that's something I would still hope to see happen whether it happens while I'm still in office, I can't say, uh, but it is something that I would like to see happen. Uh, by the time, uh, at least some point soon, whether it's by the time we leave or not, I think there's a maturity now in the industry, um, that, um, would allow for that. We also have these can we have these cannabis lounges that are open up. We've got 3 open, another 3 on, on board again slowly, but let's make sure, you know, when you're dipping your toe into a new realm like this, let's make sure we get it right, but so far so good. Governor, I want to turn to a much more serious topic right now, uh, on the heels of the assassinated assassination of Charlie Kirk, uh, we've seen some, and you've seen it, some pretty vile rhetoric, including many people celebrating his death here in New Jersey there's a bipartisan bill, uh, this is by Senator Steinhardt and Stack to, uh, classify political violence as a hate crime. Do you agree? Yeah, let me just say God rest the soul of that guy, uh, whether you agree with him or not and uh probably pretty obvious on a whole bunch of stuff. I didn't agree with him. This guy was, you know, one of God's children. He's married to a pretty special, uh, spouse, father of two, and by the way, engaged in nonviolent. Like I'm here, prove me wrong, I think was the phrase, right? The prove me wrong table. So whether you agree with him or not, that doesn't matter. The fact of the matter is that he was a nonviolent guy, uh, just an awful, awful tragedy. Violence has no place period in society, but certainly in political, uh, exchanges and dialogue. My buddy Spencer Cox, the Republican governor of Utah, has set the standard here, and I take my hat off to him. Uh, Doug Steinhardt, by the way, to his credit, we do a lot with Doug. I'm a big fan of his. He reached out to me and gave me a heads up the minute before this got dropped. Conceptually it's something I will say this we, as you know, we don't open our bills when they're this early, uh, on, but conceptually it's something that, um, I'm, I'm intrigued by. Doug's in this business for the right reasons. Brian's in this business. I love Brian, both a senator and a mayor. If their names are on something that's. I'm going to take very seriously. Two other senators you know very well, Senators Bramnick and Cryan, a Republican and a Democrat, once again, have launched a college civility tour. I love talking to the leaders of tomorrow to to try and get them to think about engaging in polite civil debate, public discourse, uh, you know, without the acrimony. I love it. 22 really good guys, two guys also who are in this for the right reason. I'm particularly struck by, by John Bramnick's profile, you know, running throughout the entirety of the Republican primary sort of in the headwinds with the current, um, sort of trends in, in our very challenging political reality, but I love that he's doing on Joe as a, as a friend and as an outstanding. Senator, um, I did this once, by the way, Joe Carlos and I did this. Our kids had gone to the same, um, elementary and middle school, and Joe and I showed up when he was still in the Senate. Joe, for those of you watching may not know, was an outstanding Republican senator who's since hung up his cleats, and he's a personal friend, dear personal friend. We did it for the students and I think it made an impact. You, you walk, you walk into a room, a Democrat and a Republican, and, and they're, you know, they're clearly disagreeing. This is what Spencer Cox thing was disagree better. It isn't a plea that we all go kumbaya and we all agree with each other. We're gonna have disagreements. The question is how do you disagree, uh, and everyone I just mentioned are outstanding, uh, leaders, and I take my hat off to them. Governor, I want to talk to you about a cane in your corner investigation. 5 years ago, your administration launched a police use of force dashboard. Uh, advocates applauded this as as a victory for transparency. But a news 12 investigation found the data is incomplete. 1 in 4 deadly shootings are not in the database. Would you like to see New Jersey do more to ensure that police departments comply with the directive to publish these use of force reports? Yeah, I, I, the short answer is yes, because I think we've seen the transparency is always on the margin the right way to go. And even when body cameras were waiting, so when I ran the first time, this was like a third rail issue. I think you'll find that the overwhelming majority of members of law enforcement out there. Uh, have adopted, have adopted it and have adopted happily, uh, that there, it turns out these are of enormous use. So the, uh, the answer has to be the same for a use of force dashboard and, and, uh, I'm, I'm proud, I'm proud of a lot of big steps we've taken over. The, uh, the past 7, almost 8 years on the transparency front, including in law enforcement, we could arrive together which is transformational in terms of mental health, uh, challenges, um, so yeah, the, the answer is, uh, hard to, hard to argue against that. Governor, we're gonna take another quick break. We'll be back with more. Ask Governor Murphy on the flip side.

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Let's get back to the phones right now and get to Tim in Allentown. Tim, thanks for calling in. What's your question? Hey, Tim. Good afternoon, Governor. With all the warehouses being built along Route 195, traffic has become incredibly congested and frustrating. Are there any plans to widen Route 195 in the future? Tim, at the moment, to the best of my knowledge, no, but I'm gonna have Fran O'Connor, our outstanding commissioner of the Department of Transportation, give you a shout. I'm not aware of any, um. Let me also say, Tim, that that's a road I travel. If not daily, almost daily, because if we live in Monmouth County in Trenton, there's only one way to go there basically, and that's taking the parkway south to to 195, uh, but it's a good question. You know, the good news is we've got the largest port on the east coast and depending on the day, the largest port in America. Uh, and that spins off. I, I, I was in India last week. I mentioned leading an economic mission. One of the top points if you're in a country as far away as India is, is how connected are you? So that's really good. Uh, the airports, the ports, um, population density, all good. Lots of warehouses get sprung up as a result of that. You then again like balancing the noise in Highlands with the fun of summer, you balance the economic development objectives with environmental issues, traffic, convenience issues, so these are all things that you're. Trying to keep in balance, but I'll have Fran follow up Tim on the specific question of uh Route 195. All right, so you just mentioned the Indian trip. Let's talk about that very quickly. Uh, it was an economic trip, as you mentioned. Talk about the importance of the mission, any fruits that it could bear, and, and some of the challenges, uh, because of the evolving, uh, revisions to the H-1BB's program. So fruits 400 to 500 jobs, uh, in the here and now and a lot of really good seeds planted. For the long term, both jobs and investment, higher education, I think we signed 10 or 12 memorandum of understanding. We had Rutgers, NJIT, Montclair State, uh, with us, uh, and Kean University with us, government to government interactions. So we, uh, you know, New Jersey gets most of the meetings they asked for. So one of the meetings we asked for was the minister of trade. What's going on with tariffs? Understand how the Indians are seeing this. A lot of headwinds, but Jersey sells really well internationally. This is our 14th economic mission. India is the only country that we've gone to twice to give you a sense of how important it is. As you know, we've got one of the largest Indian diaspora. Uh, we're in the center of the state right now. A huge amount of that population is here, thousands of jobs from Indian companies. I think over 3000 created since I've been governor. That was before this trip. Um, challenging headwinds, tariffs, um, student visas. We have over 2000 Indian students who still haven't gotten their visas for the fall semester that started a month ago. And then, as you rightfully point out, H-1B. Uh, was a gift that dropped in our lap while we were there. I personally, listen, I'm not a tariff guy. I want President Trump wants to manufacture more stuff in in America. Sign me up. I want to do that in New Jersey, but what we've done is a carrot not a stick. We have a massive $500 million incentive program to manufacture here. No other state has that. I want to open up the H-1B programs because I believe that helps American workers, does not hurt them. Uh, I wanna get those students in India their visas to study in our universities. Uh, so they, sometimes we see the principal or the core issue the same way, but the solution we see dramatically differently, but a great trip overall. Uh, here's a controversial story over the past week, Governor, uh, a cop killer, prison escapee and fugitive Joanne Chesimard died last week in Cuba. I fled there in '84, about seven years after being convicted of murdering Trooper Werner Forest. I can't even tell you how many times I've driven over the uh Werner Forest Forester overpass uh in Middlesex County. Uh, but in a sign of, I don't know, maybe moral rot, I guess is what we can call it, the Chicago Teachers Union honored her in a post without mentioning her crime, and the mayor of Chicago refused to denounce that. So I, I, I just want to get your take on, on, on what you were seeing transpire on social media as a result of her death. What in God's name are they thinking? This woman murdered a New Jersey state trooper in cold blood. By the way, a guy born in Germany but served our country in Vietnam, married to Rosie, who lives in Florida. They have a son, Eric. God bless both of them. Colonel Pat Callahan deserves a lot of credit here. I give Secretary of State Marco Rubio a shout out. He has been working on this case with us. Our hope was to get Chesimard back to New Jersey alive and return her to incarceration. Uh, Secretary Rubio reached out to me, uh, overnight, uh, at the end of last week and said I need to speak to you urgently in the morning, and he and Colonel Callahan and I spoke, and he gave, he broke the news that she had died. We do not support the repatriation of her remains. I don't know what in God's name this teachers union is thinking. This is a murderer of a state trooper in cold blood, uh. She, she, as we, I put out, there are a lot of heroes who are deserving in our society. She ain't one of them, period. Governor, we're gonna take another quick break. We still got, uh, several more minutes to get some more topics in today's ad. Governor Murphy. We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Ask Governor Murphy. Governor, uh, let's get to some more questions right now. This one is about the Jersey shore. Let's listen. All right, so I guess we don't have that one, Governor. I'm sorry. Was it a good one? I, I, I thought it was a pretty good one, but OK, all right, we'll we'll, we'll move on then. You wanna paraphrase No, no, no, no, you, you, I won't do it justice. Uh, let's talk about very quickly the, the future of PBS. Um, Charlie Style penned an op ed in uh North Jersey.com last week titled Did Ken Burns Know Governor Phil Murphy had slashed NJPBS when they died? It's relevant, of course, because, uh, as you know, they'll be closing down in 2026. Charlie noted. The 75% cut in uh in the current budget in here in New Jersey, but he also noted in addition that Congress clawed back a billion dollars from the corporation for Public Broadcasting. Um, group of bipartisan lawmakers in the state want to see what they can do to save PBS thoughts? Yeah, I hope Charlie's listening, by the way, uh, Charlie, if you are listening, name the only governor who ever put money in a line item in the budget for our public broadcasting. Entity, you're looking at them. Cumulatively $3.25 million literally the only governor in the history of the state. So with all due respect, the big cardinal sin here is the big beautiful bill, which is a disaster. It's an embarrassment and it does so many bad things including shutting down the Office of Public Broadcasting and gutting, as you said, a billion dollars. That's the big sin here in the budget process, every year we present the budget. We usually shave things back and then we have a negotiation with the legislators to try to figure out where we wanna add back resources in some cases we'll have priorities, some cases they'll have priorities. I've heard from a few legislators, but I heard from them several weeks, if not several months after the budget was signed. uh, so listen, do I want to find a solution here? Absolutely. We're looking at other options including other entities that might be able to step into the shoes. Um, but I wanna make sure everyone knows what the facts are. This is like that, uh, who was our friend a short while ago, Tilla. Uh, let's get the facts straight. I'm the only guy who ever put money in this thing, uh, very open to to working with the legislature at the budget time to have put more in. Now we're in a different ballgame, so we're have to figure out a different. Solution to this, it plays an enormously important role in America and in New Jersey and God willing we'll find some better solution before we walk out of here. Governor, this next viewer seems to be on a first name basis with you. Let's listen, OK. Phil, I would just like to know what you're gonna do to help out the beaches in New Jersey. I feel like I live here in such a beautiful place. I walk this beach every day. It is beautiful, but there's a lot of trash on the beach, and I feel like we can do a replenishment. Kind of thing and it would be great if you can help us clean the beaches or maybe start something like that. Who, who is this? Do we know? I'm not sure. OK. Paul, Paul, Paul, hey, hey, Karen, let's get Rob Field to follow up with Paul. Uh, Paul, again, love you, love the question. By the way, our beaches, our shore generally is one of the absolute American gems, never mind a New Jersey gem. Um, a couple of things. Number one, we've had, we're dealing with replenishment, which is different than trash all the time. Climate change is getting worse. The folks in the Trump administration don't see it that way. With all due respect, they're on the wrong side of history, uh, and I could tell you whether you're in Bay Head or Ortley Beach or North Wildwood, year in and year out, this is a challenge. The state of New Jersey is doing everything it can, by the way, the federal budget has been cut dramatically. Separately, uh, unless it's Island Beach State Park, which we run, which I know well and we keep clean, the beaches are really the purview of the local communities. They charge you your beach tag. They lifeguards clean it up. They do a darn good job, I have to say, but Paul, we'll follow up with you. Governor, we're just about out of time, but very quickly we have a programming note because we want to know if you have questions for Democratic nominee Mikey Sherrill because we invite you to join us for our two part vote 2025 special Ask the Candidate. Uh, if you have a question for the congresswoman, follow News 12 on social media to post your questions or call live during the show. Ask the candidate with Mikey Sherrill is Thursday, October 9th, 8 p.m. and the week after we sit down with Republican nominee Jack Cttarelli again follow News 12 on social media, post your questions, or again, call. Live during the show, asked the candidate with Jack Cttarelli's Thursday, October 16th at 8 p.m. I might call in. All right, all right, uh, Governor Phil Murphy, thank you as always for being here in the studio. Appreciate your time. Thanks for having me, Eric, and we thank you for watching and we'll see you next time on Ask Governor Murphy. I'm Eric Lansko.

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

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