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News 12 Staff

MTNJAGMBlock1218_2025-12-18-16-21-55

Welcome back to Ask Governor Murphy here on News 12 New Jersey. I'm Eric Blakar along with Governor Phil Murphy. Governor, uh, you started talking about the school funding formula before the break. We have a question here from Kim, and, and, and, and this, this hits right now, especially because this week we were covering, uh, some of the money problems in the Montclair school district and how they were going to address that in terms of a referendum when I'm not. They went up not addressing that particular part of it last night, but Kim writes to us saying, let's talk education. Many of the districts in the state are suffering with a multi-million dollar deficit. Our children are struggling. We're being told high school athletics and clubs will be cut. Class sizes are going up to 33 per class. How is Trenton helping districts balance the budget and not make our students suffer? How are you helping our students see education is imperative and keeping us in New Jersey? All good questions, Kim, and the answer is not a simple one. So let me just warn everyone up front. First of all, let me ask Kevin Dahmer, who's our great commissioner of the Department of Education, to follow up with Kim. And get into this in more detail. Uh, let me just remind everybody, we are the #1 rated public education system in America. Uh, we've been rated that most years I've been governor. Top 3 at worst. Uh, we just got named number 1 again by US News and World Report. Number 2, with, as I mentioned, uh, uh, before the break, we're the first administration in New Jersey's history to fully fund the school funding formula. Now, every year, approximately 65% of the districts get an increase in their funding from the state. Remember, this is a joint venture between the state and your local board of education and municipality. About 30% see a diminution in their funding year over year, uh, and about 5% are basically unchanged. Now, why would you see a diminution in your funding? It's really one or both of two reasons. Number one, you have too much capacity. You have more chairs relative to the student population, which means you probably have more facilities, more staff, etc. that you're supporting relative to the actual population of kids. The other one, that, that is the case in some municipal, you know, I'll give you an example. Some municipalities, they have like 2 high schools and should have 1 or 3 and should have 2. The other piece of this, which I think is more often than the case, is the local wealth, the local ability to pay has gone up. So there's a formula, just like the gas tax, by the way, different formula, uh, that takes into account all of what I just said and, and tries to weigh who should be responsible for what. Now, if you've got too much capacity and you have, you're faced with having to close a school, I understand those are really emotional, tough decisions. I, my, my high school team of 1984 won the state champion. I get it, but that's not me. I understand the issue, but that's not, I, I didn't build that high school. And likewise, if local wealth goes up, As a business matter, I want to deploy the money to the communities where the which are in a more hardscrabble situation. That's only logical. Now, what we have done historically, and lastly, I promise you this wasn't going to be short, uh, is we have usually had some adjustment once the numbers are distributed, and I can't, I can't speak for Governor-elect Cheryl, but at least in our time, that's, we've had an adjustment period. We've allowed municipalities on a one-off basis to exceed any property tax cap. So if you want to fund the football team or extracurricular activities, you've got that latitude to do it. Some would like to make that option a more permanent reality so that the local municipality, not the state telling you what to do, but the local municipality has that ability. So that will give you, Kim, that's probably more than you wanted. Again, the output, let's remember what the output is. Number one public education system in America. But again, Kim, I'll ask Kevin Dahmer, our great commissioner, to follow up with you. And by the way, if you've got good ideas, our ears are always open in this case, even with only 33 days to go. Governor, you just mentioned twice number one school system education system in America. Latest standardized test scores though, giving some folks in the state reason for pause, a lot of room for improvement still. Just over 53% of students showed proficiency. In English language RTLA, only 41% in math and only 27% in science. So still a long way to go to even get to those pre-COVID proficiency levels. What's the answer? Well, if, if, if you take what I said and what you just said and you put it together, together, America's got a challenge right now. This is not just, just New Jersey because we did come out on top. Think about that for a moment. We're still digging out from COVID. We had a mental health challenge before COVID. We've got it, uh, even far more so. It's the price we paid for sure for being on screens. Uh, it's not direct to COVID, but it's why I am passionate. And I think the legislature, I don't want to speak for them, I think they're with me on this. I'm passionate about a bell to bell ban on cell phones, which I think would have a huge positive impact on those scores and on the mental health of our kids. Interesting that you say that too, because we, we, we have a call to get to. I apologize, we're on a roll though. Michael, hang with us. He's in Fairlawn waiting. To ask a question, you just mentioned the phone to phone ban, uh, bell to bell ban, sorry, phone, uh, you just actually tweeted about this today that there's a phone-free school grant. 86 districts will receive funding. Yeah, so this is hot off the press. This is money that we're basically, if you will, it's like the Economic Development Authority putting chum in the water to to get private capital to come in. This is to put chum in the water to allow school districts. To do what are fairly modest investments but still necessary so that you can have that pouch or the pouches in all of your schools to put the phone in or or the shelf or the lockbox or whatever it might be. Is every district getting the same amount of money here or no? I don't believe so, but I'll come back to you if that's not accurate. Obviously size of enrollment is a big matter here and how many, how many schools you've got, um, so almost certainly not, uh, but it's basically putting chum in the water to encourage this. The evidence, Eric and you and I have talked about it is overwhelming, and I, and I'm saying that more as a dad even than a, as a governor. Our kids are in their twenties, and I wish this were in place when they were back, you know, even preteen, and God willing we'll get there daily struggle, Governor. It is a daily struggle. All right, uh, we do have a call on the other side of the break with Michael and Farrallon, Governor, we're gonna take this quick commercial break. We'll be right back with more of Ask Govern.

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MTNJAGMCBlock1218_2025-12-18-16-28-18

Welcome back to Ask Governor Murphy here on Newstalk, New Jersey. Governor, let's get some phones right now. We have Michael from Farallon. Michael, I'm sorry to keep you waiting. What's your question? Hey, Michael. Hey, how's it going? Pleasure to talk to you. Likewise. So my, my question was, so, um, so I'm a nineteen-year-old volunteer firefighter in Bergen County, um, and Thank you. As you know, there's there's a shortage in the volunteer fire service. I follow my father in the volunteer fire service, you know, his footsteps. His stories differ from mine immensely when it comes to the people, you know, the amount of people that were on, you know, the rig with him on calls, you know, and I'm, I'm seeing that shortage, you know, firsthand, you know, it's different for him, you know, when I tell my stories, what's kind of your, you know, advice or kind of, you know, What can I do, you know, within this shortage and, you know, the people, you know, following me, you know, in, in the years to come. Great question. It's a topic I don't think we've ever talked about on the show, um, and I'm glad you called Michael. Uh, first of all, I'm gonna have my, my colleague Rob Field give you a shout just to get a little bit of a, a better sense of, of, um, of your situation and How, how big the shortage is, etc. One of our dear, dearest friends, uh, is a, uh, volunteer firefighter in Ocean County, and he's been telling me for years, you're gonna see increasingly the volunteer houses closing, uh, and you'll, unfortunately, what that leads to is you've got putting people by definition more at risk. I'm not sure, Michael, there's a magic wand. First of all, stay safe. That's most importantly. Uh, and I love the fact you're doing it. God bless you for that. Um, we've tried to support it every step of the way. I can't recall anything we've done on actual campaigning to get more, uh, folks to sign up to be a volunteer firefighter. I don't think we've done anything in that area. Maybe we should have. That's probably an area we should, we should reflect on and, and maybe suggest, uh, to the next team. Uh, but it's, there's no question what Michael is saying is a trend. As I say, one of our best friends lives this, uh, in Ocean County. Uh, Michael's obviously in Bergen County, but I'm gonna get Rob Field to follow up with you, Michael, and let's brainstorm. Um, there's gotta be some incentive we can put out there, I would think, that would attract more folks, men and women, into the, into the volunteer ranks. Governor, we have another call right now. We have Terry from Manchester on the line. Terry, thanks for calling in. What's your question? Hey, Terry. Hi, Governor Murphy, and thank you for taking my call. I appreciate it. Pleasure. I was wondering if the Humane pet store bill passes both floor votes next week, will you sign that into law to help address the animal welfare crisis that our state is facing? Yeah, so Terry, I, I don't comment on bills that are not yet on our desk and upon which we have not made a decision, but, and I will, two things. I'll ask, uh, Dennis Zebeloff on our team. Uh, to reach out to you and just go through to get us, give you a sense of where we are and get a sense of what you're seeing. But as a conceptual matter, we like the direction of that, that, that bill. Um, a little bit, uh, it's almost apple pie. Who could be against a bill that's got that name associated with it, right? But as a conceptual matter, we like it. I don't want to commit just because the devil's in the details, as they say, but I'll get Dennis to reach out to you. But assume again as a general matter, and thematically it's something that we like, we like the sound of. And correct me if I'm wrong, this is a bill that in essence says shops can't sell dogs, cats, rabbits that are bred commercially. Correct? It's a, it's a, it's tightening. Essentially the regs and it's something we frankly as a general matter of something we should do. So now the, the bill's got a lot of details associated with it, so I'll leave the bill to aside for a moment, but, uh, it, it goes in a, in the absolute right direction. All right, we're gonna take another quick break, Governor. We'll be right back with ask Governor Murphy.

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MTNJAGMDBlock1218_2025-12-18-16-40-29

Welcome back to Ask Governor Murphy here on News 12 New Jersey. I'm Eric Lance Kroner along with the governor. You can continue to ask your questions for the rest of the show right now by calling us and contacting us in a number of different ways. Let's take a look at those right now. You can get to us on the News 12 New Jersey Facebook page. You can reach out to us on X. Just use the hashtag #askGov Murphy or give us a call 888-Ns12NJ. That is 888. 639-7126. Governor, let's talk about offshore wind because since the last show, actually just a few weeks ago, a federal judge struck down the president's executive order which froze the permits and leasing for offshore wind projects given all. That's transpired with New Jersey's wind initiative and how many companies have either pulled out, the project stalled, or just went away entirely. Where does that leave us now? Yeah, well, it was a positive result for sure and frankly quite gratifying given all the negative stuff that has happened since the Trump team came in. You know, this is, this is, to me, logic. This is play the hand you've been dealt. If you're the governor of Texas, you're sitting on oil and gas, uh, I get it. You, you're gonna want to maximize that hand. If you're the governor of New Jersey and you're sitting on 140 miles of shoreline with a very attractive underwater shelf that allows you to staple these things uh into the earth 40, 50 miles out, you play that hand and you exploit it. So this is a very good decision. Uh, it will take a while, however, for us to get, put the Humpty Dumpty will not come back together again overnight, but there's too much at stake here. This would have powered 1.5 million homes. It's clean energy. It's tens of thousands of building trades jobs. Uh, it's a huge economic driver for South Jersey. It will take time. Uh, I, I don't want to speak for Governor-elect Cheryl, but This is something that is this should rightfully be ours in terms of this very large program. I remain cautiously optimistic. It'll take longer. It'll probably need to take beyond President Trump's administration, but I believe we will once again recapture this opportunity, and it's, it's a big one. It's a game changer. Some of your harshest critics have argued, I have critics have argued that you put too many eggs in this basket. Well, those critics, frankly, aren't looking at the facts. So let's just quickly review this. We kept the nukes open, one of the very first things we did. Uh, secondly, most decisions before we got here, there was coming out of the Great Recession, most of it, uh, 2700 megawatts were gonna be retired. We said we're gonna go all in on solar, we're gonna go all in on wind. We're gonna keep the nukes opened. We're gonna lead the nation in storage. So 2700 retired. The offshore wind program, 11.5 gigawatts or 11,500. That's 4 or 5 times what was being retired. Solar, now under our time, up 2.9 gigawatts or 2900 megawatts. And we never said hell no to anything but coal. We never, coal is the one exception. We're not going back on that one. So with all due respect to our critics, they need to study what the facts are, and then they can, they're welcome to criticize. We had another setback though just last month. I think it's Invenery said that they were abandoning their leading light wind project. Given some of the setbacks, though, there's a viewer named Robert who has a rather pointed question for you here. He says, What happened to all those tax dollars you spent on windmills that were never built? They never got spent. The fact of the matter is those were paid for performance. And that didn't happen. Uh, they would have been well spent. There would have been money well spent. Uh, and there's a lot, that's a good example, and Eric, I'm not, uh, it's not you that I'm directing to, but the social media, political class, the easy hits, uh, lead you to believe we were killing whales. Uh, by the way, we didn't kill one whale. By the way, no work had ever started. So how the heck could we have killed any whales? Uh, we didn't, tax dollars didn't go out the window. In fact, we won a big settlement, uh, for taxpayers from one of the wind offshore wind companies that pulled out, uh, Orsted. Um, if this, if the federal government were benign, not even pro-wind, just benign, this thing would be taken off. And be one of the fastest-growing uh segments of industry in, in New Jersey. And the, the price curve has been going down by the day or had been going down by the day. So you would have been able to do this without sticker shock to the ratepayer, which is obviously uh concern number one. And so it's we're back to square one. It's not a happy place. If, if you've got a supply demand imbalance, the last thing you should be doing is pulling a big chunk of supply off the table. It makes literally makes no sense. There's there's another chance for New Jersey to benefit in terms of an industry, uh, one that's actually been suffering in South Jersey. 3 new casinos were recently approved across the river in New York. Rather than lose out on unrealized. Revenues. Senator Pinacchio says that New Jersey needs to put a Raino at the Meadowlands. Now this has been spoken about before. Is this something, and given, given how more and more casinos are popping up in our neighboring states and so many other options, this is something that you think that we should look at to keep that money here. Yeah, I mean, let me just say this. While those 3 casinos were approved, none of them were in Manhattan. And that is a huge difference. Um, if that one in Hudson Yards had been approved or in Times Square, that would have been a direct shot at the bow of Atlantic City. This won't be immaterial, but it's not nearly as direct as if they had been in Manhattan. Listen, I think we most importantly should bolster and maximize the hand that we're playing in Atlantic City. But should we be open-minded to other options? Whether with Joe's suggestion, uh, yeah, I think that's something we, we should be. I mean, uh, why hand the business to neighboring states when we've dominated it? We continue to be the dominant sports betting state in America, far and away number #1, and we have been for 6 years. So we've got a huge handle there. A lot of that's online, some of it's in person, uh, at the racetracks or in the casinos. But yeah, I think we should be open-minded, but first and foremost, let's maximize the hand that we're playing in Atlantic City. Let's touch on plastic utensils, Governor. Uh, I thought you'd never ask. I know. Uh, here's a question from Doug. Doug wants to know, will he sign the ban on plastic forks? He also asked something about the sales tax which you and I spoke about earlier, but wants to know in particular here if you would sign this ban on plastic forks, uh, and this as. With every issue in New Jersey has gotten some pushback. Specifically as it pertains to this is the $1000 fine for a second offense, a $2500 fine for subsequent offenses, which Senator O'Scanlon calls outrageous, saying that it would just crush small mom and pop places. I haven't spoken to Declan about this, or frankly I haven't spoken to the legislature at all about this. This hasn't been a priority of ours, I have to say. This one has come up of late. It's, I, I get the environmental concern. I get that. But the, the more plastic we have floating around in the world, the, the, the worse it is for the environment. And you've got gobs, many square miles of float, floating crap in oceans that are made up of stuff like this. So I get the, I get the, the challenge, but this is not one that we've had as a, as a priority. I don't know whether or not the, the, the bills or any bills are moving right now. Uh, this discussion about it, obviously. But this has not been high on our head. On the surface though, does, does a fine that's that much money seem onerous, overly seems pretty high. Is that, is that, I assume the fine is to the small business that sells the product, which, which Senator Scanlon said it really, it would punish some of these businesses in cases of maybe there was an oversight. Maybe they had a new employee who, who didn't really know, and then they could potentially get fired. Yeah, it seemed, I have to say Declan, it rings true on this one. That seems. Over the top, but I think we have a more basic threshold question of whether or not you do this or not. Uh, and again, it's not, it is not, I understand why people want to do it. It's not been a priority for us. Governor, we're gonna take another quick break here, uh, more of Ask Governor Murphy when we come back.

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MTNJAGMEBlock1218_2025-12-18-16-51-43

Welcome back to Ask Governor Murphy here on News 12. I'm Eric Lance with Governor. Uh, Governor, your administration created the Arrive Together program, uh, to reduce police use of force against people with mental illness. Uh, a cane in your corner investigation looked into the program, and it found mental health providers and police only arrive together about 20% of the time right now. The program also does vary greatly from town to town, municipality to municipality. Last August there was a case of Deborah Terrell who was shot and killed by police in New Brunswick. That town does have arrived but doesn't dispatch the unit in potentially dangerous situations. Do you think that the the program needs rejiggering, needs, needs to be looked at again in terms of ways it could potentially be improved, and if so, how? I would bet the reason it is not a higher incidence is more budget related than it is severity of the situation. I have not heard a lot of that, and I, I'm not commenting on the tragedy of Deborah T Terrell, so I, I, I'm not going to comment on a specific situation other than to say. God rest her soul, where it has been deployed. At least as of a couple of weeks ago, and I give the Attorney General a big shout out here, it has batted 1000. I'm defining batting 1000 being nobody's died, no serious injuries. Um, and, and it's a landmark program. If folks don't know what it is, it's very simply, if there's a mental health stressed call into a dispatcher, it used to be a uniformed policeman, uh, in a marked car that would, would respond. This is where it is deployed, and I think how deeply it's deployed, I'll bet is budget related, but I can't say that for every community in this case, Walt was pointing out that there is the level of danger. Yeah, that's that, as I say, I've not heard a lot of that. So that's something I don't want to say it isn't the case or that that, but that's kind of the purpose of it is if there is the risk of some injury or God forbid loss of life, that's why you're doing it. So that the model is to send an unmarked car. Uh, uh, uh, plain clothes law enforcement officer and a mental health professional, they then get to the scene and they make a determination together who should be going in first, which is why severity. Has not been an issue I've heard of because if there's a notion of severity, the law enforcement officer has taken the lead armed obviously and going in first. Where it has been deployed, it has been um extraordinarily successful. It's nation leading, it's a model, um, and, uh, I'd love your or Walt's report rather suggests that we need more penetration and I can, it's pretty new still. It only went statewide within the past couple of years. Um, and it's a program that deserves funding and support. Walt, Walt, Governor, my father and brother were both named Walt, Walt. I take that as a compliment. So we've spoken about this on the show before. This is specifically about the changes coming from Monmouth Medical Center. Nanette actually sent in a question, wants to know why is it necessary to destroy Monmouth Medical in Long Branch? Is it because the land is worth more than residents' lives? Well, I, who was asking this? This is from Nanette. Nanette, OK, on social media. Nanette, I'm gonna have, uh, I'm gonna have Dennis, uh, actually, I'm gonna have Rob Field, uh, in our office give you a shout. Uh, first of all, then that the implication is it's our land that we're trying to do something, uh, it's, it's not. Uh, so the, if, if you ask the, uh, the system that operates. Um, Monmouth Medical Center, by the way, which is the hospital our family goes to is our primary, um, if we need a hospital, that's where we're going. Uh, if you ask the folks RWJ Barnabas, who operate Monmouth Medical, they will, I think, tell you a couple of things. Number one, they need a much more modern state of the art facility, uh, a facility, even if they upgraded the Long Branch location, they really couldn't achieve. So that's why their plan is to build at, at the old Fort Monmouth in Tinton Falls, a state of the art medical center. Secondly, I think they'll also tell you they're going to stay open in Long Branch. So I think the notion is there'll be more services, uh, and more state of the art equipment, etc. in Tinton Falls, but they're not leaving, uh, Long Branch in its entirety. Uh, and I think there will be, there's been a little bit of a pitch battle. There was an advisory board vote today which voted, I'm, I'm told unanimously in favor of the RWJ Barnabas plan. But I've been speaking to all sides of this lately. I was on the phone with Congressman Palone. I saw Mayor Palone. The other night I've been on with the, not just the RWJ folks but other hospital systems. My gut tells me, Nanette, that there's gonna be a landing place here where you'll get, I, if I had to guess, the best of both worlds, you'll get a state of the art facility which is nearby in Tinton Falls, uh, and then you'll still have a, enough of a presence in Long Branch that folks in that community who may not be able to get to Tinton Falls will say, you know what, I think there's enough here for me. That isn't entirely all shaken out yet, but I'll bet you that's where it lands. I'll have Rob Field and I give you a call. Governor, as you approach the finish line here of your second term, your time in office, you're hitting some milestones, two of which you spoke about this week on affordable housing units, as well as on your latest round of clemency. Can you just get into both of those very quickly? The housing announcement was housing units, period, not just affordable, so we, we surpassed 200,000. In a state That is right now almost the ultimate supply demand imbalance. The amount of the good news is a lot of people, we have more people living here than ever before. A lot more people want to come. That's all good news, uh, but the amount of units that are existing and for sale is a fraction of what the demand is. So that number is a combination of affordable, affordable and regular, yep, market-based as well as affordable. We passed 200,000 units in our time, which is a big number, more than I thought we would do. Clemency, you know, we are America's 2nd, 2nd chance state, and uh we want to put teeth and evidence behind that. So we just announced another round of clemency, uh, this week, yesterday. Um, uh, I think 15 or so pardons, 99 commutations, we're over 300, uh, clemency acts if you combine pardons and commutations. We take each case incredibly seriously and we take into account all the stuff our citizens would hope we would, including victims and victims' families. What's, what's their prison record like? What's their record like after they've been out of prison if they're looking for a pardon? What were the other, what was the pretrial offer of a sentence? What were the other co-defendants, uh, sentenced at and how does this feel in terms of fairness? They're very complicated, very specific decisions in each case. I'm incredibly proud of what we've done, and we're not done, by the way. We're going to take another quick break. We'll have more questions when we come back.

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So major developments, Governor, when it comes to New Jersey being this East Coast Hollywood, uh, breaking ground on, on two big studios, the Lionsgate one in Newark and of course the 1888 Paramount one over in Bayonne. Huge. And then we've got Netflix coming through, uh, with a big event in January in Fort Monmouth. Uh, and by the way, I said this the other day in Bayonne. One through line, other than they're all film and television, Lionsgate in the South Ward. Uh, uh, 1888 and Paramount is their big tenant in Bayonne and Netflix and Fort Monmouth. They're each in locations that have had some really tough times getting on their feet in recent years. Talk about what this will do to the local economy. Huge. It's a huge deal. You, you're taking a, a, a, a, a contaminated Texaco refinery in Bayonne and putting a world-class studio, uh, movie studio in. You're taking what had been the Seth Boyden housing complex in southward of Newark, putting Lionsgate in. Local jobs a priority in each case. Netflix, think about all the mourning around the rightful mourning around the closing of Fort Monmouth, and now Netflix is filling that hole in the doughnut up and all of the ancillary benefits, the jobs, union jobs, investment in Netflix case of a billion dollars. We're, we're ready for our close up, Eric. Governor, let's, uh, let's talk about World Cup, uh, fast approaching. Ticket prices not making people very happy right now. Uh, huge public backlash, as you know FIFA. Announced that there would be $60 tickets available, and I forgive the sarcasm here, for each of the 104 games in the tournament, but that's only for a very, very small percentage of people, and these are for qualifying fans of the national teams. Otherwise you're spending several $1000 potentially on tickets. So FIFA sets the ticket prices for sure. I was very encouraged to see that $60 program. But for people who live in the state who want to enjoy these games, I hear you. It's a start. Let me, let me, let me say first of all, we have 8 matches that we just found out our 1st 5. They're all killer matches. We then have 2 eliminations in the World Cup Final, which will be watched by 3.5 to 4 billion people. But I've got an idea for folks. Those, those games will sell out. All 8 of those will be, uh, uh, crazy sellouts. We're gonna have a fan fest. There'll be a bunch of them, but the big one is gonna be at Liberty State Park. It'll be open for the whole cup, and I think that's gonna be $10. 22 big screens, the backdrop, you're ready for this? Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, the Manhattan skyline. Um, so, not only will we sell MetLife out, and I hope there'll be more $60 tickets. We've got a great relationship with FIFA. We'll continue to make that point. But you've also got that big fan fest and other think of the East Ward in Newark where Brazil is playing on Saturday night, June 13th. You won't be able to get near it. Governor. I, I want to shift gears here. Let's talk about the coming inauguration for Governor-elect Mikey Sherrill. Uh, I'll be there. She has chosen her, her team has chosen, uh, to have the inauguration in Newark rather than in the state capital in Trenton. I'm just it's tradition to have it in Trenton, kind of curious for your take on, on the decision to have it in. I, I love both cities. This is a little bit like asking which kid do you like more. I love Trenton and I love Newark, and this is Mikey's decision. Um, uh, we're, we're huge fans of hers, by the way. She's an Essex County gal, so there's some real logic to it. NJ PAC is one of the great, uh, institutions in our state. Uh, we wish her and Dale Caldwell, her great lieutenant governor, nothing but the very best. Tammy and I will be there with bells on, uh, to hand her the car keys. Governor, I just want to give you a chance to Give some holiday wishes to the folks at home before we wrap up. I mentioned at the outset, this is literally Brendan Burn's tie given to me by his wife Ruthie. I hope she's out there watching. I wanna wish everybody great holidays. We're right in the middle of, uh, Hanukkah. Uh, we've got Christmas next week and New Year's the week after. A lot of folks in our state celebrate Kwanzaa. Uh, it's a time, I think, to come together, family and friends, celebrate what we love, keep our hearts open for those who don't, aren't as lucky, and as always, it's great to be back with you. Great to have you, Governor, and thank you for watching. Ask Governor Murphy. We'll see you 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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