NY Times claims Rep D'Esposito may have broken House ethics rules, congressman says it's a ‘partisan hit piece’ 

Next 'Ask Gov. Murphy' program to air Thursday, Sept. 26 at 4 p.m.

Ossining voters head to polls to decide on $210M bond proposal to upgrade, expand schools

Biden in farewell U.N. address says peace still possible in conflicts in Mideast and Ukraine

NY Times: Rep. D’Esposito hired mistress & fiancée’s daughter to taxpayer-funded jobs 

US Attorney: Menendez bribery sentencing delayed to Jan. 29

newyork

News 12 Staff

MTNJAGMBlock0125_2024-01-25-16-22-14

You are watching, ask Governor Murphy here is how you can submit a question. If you have one for the governor, just post your question on the news. 12 Jersey Facebook page tweet us or excess as the case may be using the hashtag ask gov Murphy or call us at 888 news 12 NJ. That's 8886397126. And governor, we wanna go to the phones. We have a call from John in brick. He has a question about flooding. Hey John. Hi, Governor Murphy. Thank, thank you for taking my call. Governor Murphy uh on my street is a waterfront lot owned by the State of New Jersey. And now with these high tides, the water comes through the lot and onto our streets flooding our streets and we're stranded here sometimes for two days we can't get out. So I was wondering if uh you could put me in contact with somebody that I could tell him what's going on or how the state could fix this problem. John 100%. I will get Natalie get Rob Field to give John a call either tonight or tomorrow. Night, we try to get back to folks if you're tuning in for the first time within 24 hours of the show. Uh, Rob works directly with me and John. This is gonna be, uh, I'm, I'm not familiar with the, I, I know brick. Well, I'm not familiar with the exact property you're talking about, but the notion of flooding as we've seen over the past month, this is getting worse and not better. These storms are more frequent, they're more intense. Um, and they're gonna be more challenging. So John, stay tuned, Rob will, uh, follow up with you and he'll post me and, and, and probably the Department of Environmental Protection as well and we'll see, uh, what we could do about it, take care and hang in there, John, thanks for the call. Uh, while we're on the topic of flooding. One story that happened just this week, Manville residents at risk of flooding, we're told they will no longer be able to get state assistance to elevate their homes. They will now have to foot the bill themselves or potentially sell and move out. Some homeowners feel like the policy change kind of pulls the rug out from under them. Eric Vaughn is a homeowner in Manville. Here's what he has to say. Governor, 2.5 years later, Governor Murphy, where are you? You haven't helped me or my neighbors. You know, we're still struggling. Where's the help? Eric? Thanks for the question governor. First of all, we'll get, um, uh, Dan Kelly Natalie, if you can, who's a, basically our disaster guy to follow up, uh, with Eric? And my heart goes out to him. We toured, uh, in fact, I toured Manville with President Biden and the mayor. Uh, and here's the, here's the challenge, uh, both Walt and Eric. If you're watching, um, we can't keep seeing the same movie again. Uh, within 20 years. It's not all of Manville, by the way, it, it, it's, it's in very infrequently all of a community. It's usually a neighborhood in the community or, or two. and so they've had basically 3, 500 year floods in 20 years at a certain point, they're not 500 year floods. Exactly. At a certain point, as, as I mentioned to John for brick, these things are getting more frequent, more intense. And at the end of the day, there's a public safety element to this as well. This isn't just about the Department of Community Affairs, et cetera. And, and, and by the way, I could tell you, Eric, I, I know this because I've spoken to many homeowners. This is emotional, but in this particular case, we don't feel for a lot of reasons, including the safety and security of our residents, including yourself that this is prudent to just elevate. We, we see this is gonna happen again. So what we, what can we do? Uh, and again, I know, it's an emotional, this is your home. But what we can do, we have significant resources to basically at a fair market deal. Buy out homeowners commonly referred to as Blue Acres programs and, and, and personally, in this particular case, that not just personally but the experts will say that's what should be done here. I know mayors out there may be concerned that, hey, wait a minute, I lose rateable. So let's say we buy Eric's house, he leaves town that becomes an open space. Uh Well, the good news is we've got a program uh for that in our Department of Community and Affairs where we can sort of compensate for those rates. And what the hope is is that you can build affordable housing in non flood areas in communities like Manville, which is a great community that's away from the, the, the risk of mother nature and that you ultimately have a much more stable reality. And that's the rationale. That's the hope again. If Eric's watching, I will make sure our team, Dan Kelly in particular, in this case, uh reaches out to him. I want to uh go back to transportation briefly and take a look at the issue of congestion pricing because uh if you don't wanna take mass transit, you wanna drive to New York City this spring, that's scheduled to get more expensive too. The city's congestion pricing plan is scheduled to take effect in the second quarter of the year. We have a question for the governor about that from Martin, from Orange. What else can you do about congestion pricing? Um Help us out Super Tech. I would like to know and uh he mentioned that his company name there at the end. Uh Martin would say that because they have to make frequent trips in and out of the city by the nature of their business they're concerned about, especially what congestion pricing might do to them. And, and I don't blame Martin. I have the same concern that he does listen. It's not as though we don't have a track record on the environment. Let me say this up front. Uh I, I'd put our track record over our past six years now. We're into year 7-Up against any other state as it relates to pollution, climate change, the environment generally. And I think we're at the top of the class. So I say that just so folks know that um it's not like I'm for pollution. Uh That's couldn't be further from the truth, but I'll tell you what I'm also for, I'm for our commuters and having a fair deal. If they're going back and forth to New York, I'm fair. Uh I'm for a, a guy like Martin and his company that has to make multiple trips in and out of the city. And I don't wanna just displace the pollution from Manhattan to northern Jersey. It's not getting rid of the pollution. It's go, you're gonna have chaos. It with the current plan at the George Washington Bridge. So we broadened our legal action. So Martin should know that we're taking very aggressive comprehensive legal action. Um, you've actually argued that the congestion pricing plan is unconstitutional. We sure have because it discriminates against New Jersey residents. Is that a winning hand? We'll find out. But I, we, we don't waste our time. I will say this in low probability legal action or low probability anything. Uh We wouldn't be doing it unless we felt like there was a reasonable shot here. Uh And a and again, is there an opportunity for us all to sit down at the table? By the way, the Biden administration chose not to do one of these environmental impact studies that would have had us at the table. And I said, I, I, I've said I'd live with the results. So, you know, there's a cooler heads prevailing, fair deal, don't displace the pollution solution here. Uh But that's not what's on the table for us. And as long as it's not fair to Jersey, as long as it pollutes us more and not less. I'm not going away. Yeah, we need to take a break. We will have more with ask Governor Murphy in a moment.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/47d991dd-3950-4dbe-a5ee-d0e4174df2ec/47d991dd-3950-4dbe-a5ee-d0e4174df2ec.transcribe

MTNJAGMCBlock0125_2024-01-25-16-29-00

Welcome back to ask Governor Murphy. This is a special edition of New Jersey Power and Politics. I'm Walt Kane. This is your chance to talk to the governor one on one. Here's how you can do it. Post a question on the news. 12 New Jersey Facebook page tweet us by using the hashtag ask Governor Murphy or call us at 888 news 12 NJ. That is 8886397126. We have a call right now from Jane in Tom's River. Jane has a question about anchor checks. Jane. Yes. Governor, I would like to ask two questions about the anchor check. One is when, when will we receive an anchor check for 2024? And will we receive two like we did in 2023? And also a lot of people are waiting for the second check that it was supposed to be gotten on 1030 of 2023. And that has not been gotten by many people don't know if you'd be able to answer those questions, but I'd appreciate it, Jane. Are you one of them by the way that hasn't gotten a check. Um One of my friends in Holiday City, uh did not receive and I'm on that app and many people are saying, where is it? Because I, I think we released today that we, we put up a million eight uh household checks on the street. Uh If my, my, my memory is correct. So I'm not sure if there's a reason why there may be many in your little area there, but we have uh hit the overwhelming majority of folks. Uh And, and, and so that's number one. But I'm gonna ask my colleagues uh to follow up with you just to figure out maybe Dennis Zello, our head of policy Natalie can follow up with Jane uh two or one checks will depend our fiscal year ends, June 30. So I think the answer is that's yet to be determined, but I think 2024 will likely be one check uh or disbursement. A lot of this is electronic these days in the fall of 24 as we have already put fiscal year uh money that we're in right now on the street and most of it in, in the fall. But Jane, I'm gonna have one of my colleagues follow up, Dennis will likely be that person just to figure out uh e especially your friends uh check and try, try to track that down and also the question of one versus two. But I think you should assume it's one. And again, we, I think the overwhelming majority. Remember this is both for households owners and renters, which is one of the big um revolutionary features of this. We also put more juice in this for seniors this year. Uh So most of that money is on the street, but we'll have, we'll follow up and figure out where your friend's check is. All right, Jane, thank you so much for your call. Uh Our next caller is Amanda. Amanda has a question about the low income housing water assistance program. Amanda, you wanna ask Governor Murphy? Hey, Amanda. Hi, Mr Governor Murphy. Thank you for taking my call today. Um I just have a question regarding the program. Um I have a friend who was approved back in August and he still hasn't received his funds yet. So I was just typically wondering how long is the turnover to see that um on his water bill? My gut tells me Amanda, he should have received that by now. But like a lot of times I've said on ask the governor as opposed to some broad policy statement. Uh your, your friend needs an answer very specific to his situation and there may be a uniqueness uh to it that I'm I may not be aware of. So now let's get Rob Rob Field back out of the bullpen and get to Amanda and get to her friend and figure out where that, where that check is Amanda, if that sounds. All right, we'll, we'll get on that immediately. All right, Amanda, thank you for your call. We are about halfway through approaching the midpoint on ask Governor Murphy. We will have much more your opportunity to talk to the governor.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/12a69932-6e03-4f5c-bcb2-8de31217e1c0/12a69932-6e03-4f5c-bcb2-8de31217e1c0.transcribe

MTNJAGMDBlock0125_2024-01-25-16-40-48

Welcome back to ask Governor Murphy. I'm Walt Kane in this week for Eric Lands, Kroner. Uh, before we move on to our next questions, uh I understand governor. You have uh a statement you made earlier. Yes, you want to qualify. It sounds like a Fidel Castro bang the shoe on the table moment. Uh The, the program I this is back to Manville. The program that I mentioned that compensates for rateable decreases when homes are bought out and not replaced is called the Smart Move program. Uh That's, that's a particular shout out to mayors who are challenged with flooding realities. And secondly, Eric was on there and my heart goes out to the guy. It's possible that was taped. There may be a sequencing issue here. My guys are telling me that they've been engaged with him for at least a year and I hope that that gets into a uh a happy place most importantly for him and his family that was uh recorded, I think two days ago or something like that for a story that we did. All right. So, so I'm not sure what the, what, what's going on there, but our guys have been, have been on back and forth with them for quite some time. Ok. Uh Well, two years ago, New Jersey began implementing a ban on single use plastic bags at grocery stores, obviously intended to reduce the carbon footprint. Be a good environmental measure. A study just out from the Fredonia Group made some headlines this week. It found that since the ban took effect, the amount of plastic used to make shopping bags in New Jersey actually tripled. One of the reasons that the study says that happened. If we take a look at some video, the old bags of course, are a very thin plastic disposable bags. The new bags are much thicker. They're reusable, but while they're reusable, they're not necessarily recyclable and more importantly, they're just thicker. So they make more plastic. Any uh any reaction to this is this is something where we do to rethink the program or come up with something different. No, the, the Fredonia Group sounds like something out of a Marx Brothers movie. Who are these people? Uh That's ridiculous. Uh This is ridiculous. Um I, I don't know the study but that's just, that's just not what's going on here. Uh This has not been a straight line to implement this particularly early on. I mean, this happened to me, my family, you walk in there and you say, oops, you don't have, you know, no plastic bag. You don't, you didn't bring your own bag uh But we think this is again, not a straight line, but it was the right thing to do environmentally and uh and it, it is working and it will continue to work in fairness. There is obviously a certain amount of start up cost. If you will, uh you're gonna use more plastic in the initial first year or so to make the disposable bags, there could be some of that happening here as well. Um I just, I don't know who these folks are, but uh I would just say definitively, this was the right thing to do. The only question I would have uh based on this is sort of integrated policy. Uh sometimes say the Amazon plastic bags that where you buy groceries from, those are reusable, but they're not recyclable, you can't return them if there is some way to tweak this to make it a little bit better. I, I if you're asking me, am I open minded to smart ways to tweak this and make it even stronger and, and more pragmatic, which I think is also kind of what you're saying. Walt uh Yes, color me very much open minded on that. All right. Um We have a call. Uh actually uh somebody who gave us a question out in the field, Evan, who has a question about gas prices. Evan from Cranford, is there any way we can lower the gas prices? Well, Evan, if you're watching gas prices have broadly speaking, come down. Uh, no, I don't mean just in New Jersey but as a general matter, uh, in, in, uh, in, in the country and, and the good news is they've come down in Jersey but we've got two full on wars in the world right now and they are either involving or in the neighbor or are in, in the neighborhood of some of the biggest, uh, gas, fossil fossil fuel production countries in the world that includes Russia for sure. And it includes obviously the Gulf and the Middle East. So they have come down, we'll do everything we can to be smart about uh how we think about gas prices. Uh And, and again, the trend, the transition of late has been good or the uh the, the trend rather of late has been good. Um but we gotta make sure it continues to stay that way. Inflation is getting better. But try telling that to somebody again, like this gentleman Evan in the gas station or in the grocery store or take out a mortgage, it's starting to get better and I'm confident all of that will get better, but we gotta make sure it gets better and it's felt by our residents. Of course, part of the reason gas prices are higher in New Jersey than they might used to be relative to the rest of the country is the gas tax. But, you know, there's sort of a, a limited amount of ways you can raise money. Right. If you lower the gas tax, you have to raise taxes someplace else. Yeah. And the, and the, the gas tax as it were is, I think one of the best has one of the best use of proceeds of any of the other things we charge folks for because it goes directly into something like the transportation trust fund that builds the infrastructure in our state. You know, we're, we're, we're now several years in a row at a record high investment in infrastructure and that doesn't get done with without the proceeds from that and the increases of late. I'm proud to say have been very, very modest and my hope is that they will continue to remain that way. But where the money goes, it goes to a really good cause which is investing in our infrastructure. This week, two new wind projects were green lit replacing the two offshore wind projects that were canceled last year. So obviously, that's good news and it gets New Jersey somewhat back on track. How big of a setback or was this the cancellation of the old projects? Do we lose a certain amount of development time? Yeah, time. I think it's time walt I I it, it's I I referred to it and I was very disappointed with Orsted, which was the operator that pulled out. I still am. Um uh But I I referred to it as a bump in the road. Uh in terms of our journey toward offshore wind and having a significant amount of our state powered by offshore wind. This solicitation that was announced is an emphatic statement, a big time statement that uh that was a bump on the road, but the road is still sturdy and that there was an enormous amount of interest uh which I'm incredibly uh happy to see. I'm not surprised because we sense that in our bones. I wanna give Christine Sadove and her team at the board of public utilities a big shout out the late Joe Fiordaliso who started his uh on this journey. And I might also add that this solicitation because one of the concerns that residents I think rightfully have had is line of sight issues. These solicitations envision uh these windmills when they're finally installed to be a significantly further or farther out into the ocean, which I also think is a win. So this is a, a big step in the right direction. Yeah, that really seems like it was the stumbling block to a lot of the community opposition was how close the old windmills would have been toward the shore. This is obviously an important uh factor for you because uh one of the things you've pushed for is all electric vehicles in 20 years. By 2035 you obviously need green energy to make that work, don't you? Yeah. Well, you need, you remember when you plug the car in, you gotta, you gotta ask yourself what's powering that plug as opposed to what we have today, which is our mix of, of sources of energy that power the plug. But fossil fuel cars still make up the big majority. So it's 2035 it's new and that's a point walt. I wanna make sure that I, I say it's all new car sales, not, not extant, uh old of used cars that are out there and we're, we're among a whole bunch of states that are, are, are doing this. So a lot of blue, a lot of red, a lot of purple, it's the right thing to do. We are the most densely populated state in America. We have among, if not the biggest exposure to sea level rise and climate change of any state. Uh We have to lead by example. All right, governor, thank you so much. We're gonna take a quick break. If you have a question for, ask for Governor Murphy, feel free to ask it to us as Governor Murphy continues after this.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/1eda829b-c52f-498b-8080-46378138cb76/1eda829b-c52f-498b-8080-46378138cb76.transcribe

MTNJAGMEBlock0125_2024-01-25-16-50-51

You're watching. Ask Governor Murphy, I'm Walt Kane in for Eric Lands, Kroner. We have a call from David and Somerset who has a question about college loans. David. Hey, David, the, uh, governor. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for your time. Uh, lifelong resident. I'm calling on behalf of my daughter who is working. Jill, graduated from Seton Hall. Um, we offered to pay the loan back after graduation. The interest rate had skyrocketed. She was told she'd have to pay an extra 50 $60,000 to an Avian right now. She's, she's gayly employed making the payments. But why is she paying 6 to 9% interest rates? And the government pays back money at 1 to 2%. She wants to be a, a resident of the state and retire here if possible. But you know, how can, how it's, it's a good question. That's not the question. Uh, it's not, that's not, uh, jersey unless there's an, an angle there that I'm, I'm not getting. Uh, but David, we will reach out to you. I mean, that's outrageous. Now, I paid my college. I had no money growing up. I paid my college loans off into my, I think till I was something like 36 years old monthly pay, pulling the check out of the, the book in the old fashioned way. Uh But they were reasonable rates. It was a lot of, it was a lot of debt. It was at least 10 years of payment. Uh but it was a reasonable deal. Um The numbers you're describing dad are not reasonable and, and uh so I'm gonna ask uh again, probably Dennis Natalie Zello to reach out to David or to Jill directly. We want Jill to stay in Jersey. Uh So, uh and, and we're thrilled that you are uh you, you've spent your whole life in the state. We want your family to do the same. So please bear with us making college more affordable and more accessible has been a huge deal for us from day one, whether it's the community college opportunity grants, expanding, tag uh the Garden state guarantee. Um There are other steps we've taken particular uh incentives to study in the stem field. Um So we wanna continue to make college affordable and accessible. Uh It's why I just signed a bill where we're gonna ask every high school senior to fill out a financial aid form because re for college because research shows if everybody fills it out, the chances of actually going to college go up meaningfully. And so that's a bill. I'm thrilled that I signed a couple of weeks ago. That's another step that we're taking on this journey. All right. Uh, we have, uh, the mayor of Manville uh, on the line. Uh, the mayor, I guess watching and heard what we said. Mayor, mayor. And how are you, sir? Hi, I'm here. Good afternoon, Governor Murphy. Hey, Mayor, how you doing? I'm good. Um, I'm still recovering from two really recent flood events that are very concerning to me. Governor with all due respect. II, I agree to an extent that climate change plays a part. However, I've been living here my whole life in Somerset County and the amount of overdevelopment that has taken place has adversely impacted my town recently. 206 going north in Somerville went under 2 ft of water and that never happened before. I need an, I need an expert in your administration on stormwater management who can come up here and look at what's going on and how do we go back in retrofit so that 206 can remain open? Yeah. Iii I don't argue for one second with that. Uh, uh Rich, you know, I think our commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, Sean La Totta, I'll have Sean himself with Dan Kelly. Uh, reach out to you and, and come see you 206 has been, has been a, a pain to say it's a pain in the neck for me as, as well. I can, I guarantee you not only for flooding, uh construction that's been suspended is another big challenge is overdevelopment. Part of the issue here. Yeah. And, and, and rich, I think part of the, the point you're making is it might be over, develop overdevelopment in somebody else's community which has an adverse impact on yours. Uh I've seen that in communities in Middlesex County. Uh, so, and I know you're engaged with Dan and others on the Smart Move program, which is not a that doesn't solve all your issues. But I know that's something we've been talking to you about. Uh hang in there and, and, and hopefully the combination of events or combination of steps we could take it is partly climate change. It's gotta be that for sure. But development uh how you deal, how we can help you deal with your rates, affordable housing in non flood parts of your community. Um Residents taking advantage of the Blue Acres opportunities like as we heard from Eric earlier, you know, the combination of those steps and maybe more ultimately gets us to the place we need to be. It's a complicated issue because not only is overdevelopment uh and, and climate change, a big part of it, even flood control projects can have unintended consequences. That's the Bound Brook uh flood control project and wound up pushing flooding upstream and downstream. I mean, this, this is a fact that we've got and I mentioned this in my state of the state, address the good news is. New Jersey is popular. People wanna live here, they wanna raise their family. That's our bumper stickers, the number one state in America to raise a family. And we're proud of that. The challenge is we gotta make sure we have housing seats in our schools, infrastructure generally uh to rich's uh rightful concern that you don't meet that demand with development that only makes the problems. You've got even worse, which is why we talked also in that state of the state about making a concerted effort to address and, and cut through the literally two or 300,000 units of affordable housing that were short right now in the state, there's a big bill that's been debated in the legislature that's still out there for discussion, whatever the steps we could take, we, we need more housing stock, but that's smartly built, including not over development and not in floodplains and uh to, to the mayor's point as to why overdevelopment can be a problem. I've uh done some reporting on this and what winds up happening is the more concrete you have. Then the water just kind of flows into the waterways which then crest higher. You need a certain amount of grass and dirt for the water to be able to sink in and, and not just get pushed into the water. Iww. And part of the, the beauty of the is as emotional as the homeowner angle is. And I don't underestimate that part of the beauty of the Blue Acres program is you create overnight, uh, uh, that, that grass and dirt and natural soil. That, for the very reason you need to make sure, you know, when, when the house is gone, you've got a, you've got a, an, an asset there, a, a partner if you will, that, that's much more able to take the flow and the, the seepage of that water. One story this week, tragic, uh, the apparent suicide of the county sheriff Richard Burdick. Um, mental health for law enforcement. It's an issue that we don't talk about. Hugh. I'm glad you raised it. First of all, he's a great guy and God love him and his wife, Monica and their kids and grandkids. He and he was very close to my wife and me and it's a, it's a tragedy. I know people are just stunned, literally stunned and to your point, Walt about mental health and the stresses for our members of law enforcement. There's a number, I wanna make sure if you're in law enforcement that you, that you write down. 1866267226718662672267. If you haven't any stress related to this, reach out and give that number a call. There are professionals who can help you. Yeah, we need to take a quick break. Thank you, Governor. We will be back on ask Governor Murphy answering more of your questions in a moment.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/a8851a19-d011-4a12-b31e-a9dec4f694a5/a8851a19-d011-4a12-b31e-a9dec4f694a5.transcribe

MTNJAGMFBlock0125_2024-01-25-16-58-54

Welcome back to ask Governor Murphy. Uh One thing that may change here in New Jersey soon magic mushrooms could soon be legal to defeat things like depression and anxiety according to a bill that's in the legislature, Joe from Howell has a question about that. Joe, yes. Is the governor prepared to sign the bill to legalize mushrooms, Joe. Good question. And I, I'm not gonna give you a definitive answer. I need to know more. Um I know it's been out there, it's out there legal in a couple of states. I know our folks are looking at it uh for legalizing adult use cannabis. For me. It was social justice equity that got me to the, to the table. Um I'm not sure I see that angle on this one that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But uh I'm, I'm, I'm still trying to come to grips with that. I do know PTSD, depression, mental health stress is real and based on what I'm reading, at least this is um these, these psychedelic mushrooms have a salutary effect on those stresses, but I'm not there yet, Joe. Um I will ask somebody in our policy probably Dennis again to follow up with, with Joe and Howell, which uh is a community I know well, and like a whole lot. Um So I'm being cautious on this one for the time being, stay tuned. Marijuana lounges are soon to become a thing. They were approved. Uh The cannabis industry not completely pleased with that. They say that unless you can also serve food or alcohol, which you can't. Right now, there's not much of a viability for it. Is this uh do you see at some point down the line, marijuana for sale or cannabis products for sale along with food and alcohol at bars? I I would think, yes. Uh It's hard for me to see otherwise, I've always thought that was the direction it was going. It's mostly right now for me in the cannabis space, not medical and this is now recreational. It's the pace that I focus on. Um I, I love the steps we've taken and the commission deserves credit for that. But I love to see that amped up and be more robust, particularly in the equity communities that were so ravaged by the war on drugs. Uh So yes, I think that's a direction that will be headed. I'm thrilled that we have unleashed the breweries, the wineries and the distilleries at long last, as I promised, we would, I might add, Phil signed the bill by the way, for those of you out there. Uh Wondering if I'd sign that bill. Uh And uh I could not be happier that we did on a national issue that's impacting New Jersey, the migrants. Uh You've asked for $1.4 billion in federal aid to deal with the influx of migrants from states like Texas in the past earlier this month. When migrants started arriving. You said the situation was manageable. Is it still manageable? It is. As we sit here, that was a letter that Governor Hole of New York asked a bunch of her colleagues to sign on and I think her request was very, very fair and I was honored to stand with her. The answer is it is still manageable. We sent a strong letter to the bus companies that Texas say that Texas was using uh who were coming in and stopping here and then they, the the uh riders uh the immigrants were getting off with NJ transit tickets by the way and going into New York City. That is still happening, but it's happening at a fairly low level uh for the time being. But we're watching it very, very carefully, please. God, can we have National Comprehensive Immigration reform that includes securing our borders in a humane way, a pathway for the millions here to some status, a smart 21st century legal immigration system that's pro jobs, pro economy and in the meantime, temporary work for the folks who have come here who wanna work. Let's allow them to work. Uh that's, those are the elements of the deal. It sits there. We need Congress to act, please. God, you have been steadfast about New Jersey being a sanctuary state without the 1.4 billion. Can that continue? Well, at the moment, uh overwhelmingly, these folks are getting off these buses. First of all, the number of buses has shrunk dramatically and they're getting off the bus and 90 odd percent of them are taking NJ transit into, into New York City. Uh So, and the other few percentage of these folks are being picked up by friends and family. Um So for the time being, this is not, this is not an issue for us. It's an issue for the United States of America. And in the meantime, not only do we need that reform, but you get governors like Abbott in Texas de Santa in Florida are, are doing stunts and playing with these poor people's lives. Uh And, and, and, and that's gotta stop. We need adults at the table in the room, both parties. I'm part of a bipartisan national governors group that are looking at this and let's get reasonable people around the table and get the the thing solved under a minute left. But we have a question from Adam that I wanted to get to, do you think the devils are gonna win uh the Stanley Cup this year? We hope so, Adam. Uh But they're not playing like it right now. Uh I think they're playing tonight. They gotta play better. Uh, they've had injuries. I love going to their games. By the way, the, the rock is a great place to watch a concert or a sporting event. You name it. They've got a lot of talent. They've had injuries. I'm a big bull on the devils. I love the question. All right, Governor Murphy, thank you so much and thank you for watching. Ask Governor Murphy if you joined us late and you want to re-watch any part of this? It will be available for you online at these twelve.com. Thank you for joining us for this special edition of Power Politics. Ask Governor Murphy, I'm W Kane. See you next time.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/238d18d7-9f02-4818-9c2e-b4d96809e10a/238d18d7-9f02-4818-9c2e-b4d96809e10a.transcribe

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

Choose Your Region

Be the first to know

Change

Be the first to know

Gov. Murphy answers viewers questions on ‘Ask Gov. Murphy’ program

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

More Stories

NY Times claims Rep D'Esposito may have broken House ethics rules, congressman says it's a ‘partisan hit piece’

Next 'Ask Gov. Murphy' program to air Thursday, Sept. 26 at 4 p.m.

Ossining voters head to polls to decide on $210M bond proposal to upgrade, expand schools

Biden in farewell U.N. address says peace still possible in conflicts in Mideast and Ukraine

NY Times: Rep. D’Esposito hired mistress & fiancée’s daughter to taxpayer-funded jobs

US Attorney: Menendez bribery sentencing delayed to Jan. 29

NY Times claims Rep D'Esposito may have broken House ethics rules, congressman says it's a ‘partisan hit piece’

Next 'Ask Gov. Murphy' program to air Thursday, Sept. 26 at 4 p.m.

Ossining voters head to polls to decide on $210M bond proposal to upgrade, expand schools

Biden in farewell U.N. address says peace still possible in conflicts in Mideast and Ukraine

NY Times: Rep. D’Esposito hired mistress & fiancée’s daughter to taxpayer-funded jobs

US Attorney: Menendez bribery sentencing delayed to Jan. 29

More from News 12

Jersey Proud: Burlington Township holds annual youth fishing derby

Jersey Proud: Toms River teen helps restore parts of Battleship New Jersey

Jersey Proud: Rutgers football players meet kids at St. Peter’s University Hospital

Take a reprieve from the hustle and bustle of city life by visiting Liberty State Park

What happens behind-the-scenes before community is notified of a potential school threat

New Museum of Bronx History exhibit transports visitors through borough's rich history