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Ask Governor Murphy: Potential Disruption from Federal Budget Cuts

NANCY: This is Ask Governor Murphy, a co production of WBGO, WNYC, and WHYY. I'm Nancy Solomon. Tonight we'll talk about the new election ballot design for New Jersey. It's supposed to make the ballots more fair. We'll ask the governor whether that's true. Listeners, what questions do you have for the Governor?

We'll be taking your calls at 844 745 8255. We'll also be reading your questions via social media using the hashtag AskGovMurphy. The number again, 844 745 8255. We're joined now by Governor Phil Murphy. Good evening.

GOV. MURPHY: Good evening, Nancy. How are you?

NANCY: I'm very well, thank you.

GOV. MURPHY: Thanks for having me.

NANCY: Beautiful day.

GOV. MURPHY: Beautiful day.

NANCY: Beautiful spring day. It's still light out. We're happy about that.

GOV. MURPHY: Thank you for the weather.

NANCY: But let me pivot just briefly to some more sad news. Newark police detective was shot and killed in the line of duty last week. Joseph Azcona was working with the intelligence unit on a report of illegal firearms and was shot before he could get out of his car.

He later died at the hospital. I understand you're attending the funeral on Friday morning in Newark. Just thought you might want to comment on that.

GOV. MURPHY: Yeah, just an awful, awful, unspeakable tragedy. Actually, Tammy and I were in Newark at a separate event and we cut that short and went over to the hospital.

Two officers were shot. Thank God one has pulled, is pulling through. We met with His family, but this was the Azcona family Yeah, you can it's beyond brutal Just just awful by all accounts a great guy, a great brother, his mom dad and a bunch of his brothers were there Just the worst, God bless that guy Loved being a cop loved being a detective as you said didn't apparently didn't even get out of the car. Just an awful, awful thing.

We are indeed going to go to the funeral on Saturday. And in fact, I'm planning at least at the moment to go to his unit's first roll call since he was killed, this coming Monday just to be with his brothers and sisters in his unit. But just awful, awful, awful. Raz Baraka, Mayor Baraka was there and was brilliant.

A lot of faith members, obviously leadership of the Newark police were there. The University Hospital did, I think, everything they could do, but just awful. No other way to put it.

NANCY: Yeah, very sad indeed. And we could stick with some bad news because I thought maybe we'd talk about President Trump and all the cuts that are happening.

New Jersey has sued to stop cuts to the federal funding for teacher training.

GOV. MURPHY: Yep. Which I believe a judge has stayed, at least for the time being. Thank God.

NANCY: But we'll see how that plays out. I mean, the, the president wants to cut the entire Department of Education, but they've gone right out of the box for teacher training is one of the programs that's been cut.

And, as well as the Department, or Division of Civil Rights, which is, does enormous work all over the country. Trying to, you know, help parents. Challenge things that are unfair going on in their schools where their kids aren't getting services But anyway, I wanted to just ask you about the teacher training because I know that was a big part of your first term or you know in the second term to I'm mistaken in terms of we've had a teacher shortage and you've been trying to get more teachers into the pipeline So what is the federal funding? What's the component? And what does that do to New Jersey's supply of teachers?

GOV. MURPHY: Yeah, none of this is good. May I just say that? And, and you're asking rightfully about Department of Education and teacher training. We could probably fill the blank in with my answer across all of government.

Ironically, timing wise, I was at a symposium on education yesterday in New York City and Secretary McMahon In fact, joined us virtually just before the President signed his order, I believe, to lay off half of the department. So the teacher training, we've got a shortage. New Jersey's no exception.

We've tried to streamline credentials without losing quality. We put a lot more into student teachers and training and supporting that financially. No one state can replace what the federal government, the role they play, whether it's in teacher training. You know, one of the big discussions we had yesterday.

Is there bureaucracy... and this is the National Governor Association, so it's nonpartisan. Is there is there bureaucracy in the U. S. Department of Education? Well, let's stipulate there's probably bureaucracy in every government department, including ours. In fact, on this whole DOGE thing, I stupidly thought that we'd learn some really valuable lessons, particularly using technology to make government more efficient and delivering of services more efficient.

That apparently has not happened yet. But okay, let's stipulate there's some amount of bureaucracy. That department plays an invaluable role. You mentioned the Department of Civil Rights. The NAEP scores, the national data. Comparing where we're doing well, where we're not doing well up against our global competitors.

They are unique, literally, in their ability to do certain things. So, you know, can't we figure out a way to be more efficient, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. And we're seeing that across all of government right now. It's very discouraging.

NANCY: And do you think we will see even worse teacher shortages if the federal part of the teacher training, you know, piece of the funding goes away?

Or will the state be able to continue to meet the need?

GOV. MURPHY: I hope we will, but I fear we won't. We'll do everything we can, but between demonizing teachers, you know, the whole so called "woke" agenda, then taking Financial support away. You know, real issues on the so called DEI stuff. Does that include... You know, we're probably at the head of the American class in teaching the entirety of slavery, the United States story - good, bad and ugly - in the spirit of, " Let's be honest with each other, but also let's learn from this and be even better." Barack Obama used to say, " We wake up every day trying to perfect our union even more than it was the day before.

When you add all of that together, it's going to be hard. It certainly isn't positive toward our ability. We have two big pipeline challenges right now. Educators and health care professionals, particularly nurses. And, none of what's going on, Medicaid cuts that potentially could happen and impact hospitals, that won't be positive for the health care side of the ledger.

So, I just hope the ship gets righted, the volatility goes down we get on a more stable course here. And I think that would be good for not just those pipelines, but good for America.

NANCY: I want to return to the sort of the politics of the moment. But first, since we're talking about education, we have a couple other education questions.

We can go to the phones. We have Brian from Bayville on the line, and I believe he has a question on education. Brian, you're on the air.

CALLER: Hi, Governor Murphy. It's an honor to talk to you.

GOV. MURPHY: Thank you, sir. My pleasure.

CALLER: So I wanted to ask about budget cuts that are hitting a couple of the school systems that I've either been a part of as my alma mater, or that I'm actually teaching and I'm a music teacher myself.

And my alma mater, specifically East Brunswick, is getting hit from two sides as a charter school that quite frankly shouldn't be in the town that's siphoning a ton of money from their budget. And they got hit again this year with state aid cuts. And there are. Teachers that I know personally who are going to lose their jobs over these cuts and students who are going to lose programs over these cuts, there's giant cuts going on to their music program going on right now.

So what can the state do about school districts that are just being absolutely hit from multiple sides?

GOV. MURPHY: Thank you, Brian. I'm a recovering thespian. The music department was very important to me over the years. So a particular shout out to you and your colleagues in music and the arts. So I don't have the specifics of East Brunswick in front of me.

Tyler Jones, my colleague is with me. She's going to get Dennis Zeveloff , our head of policy, to follow up within the next 24 hours with Brian. This is an annual conversation. Nancy and Dave will know that it's particularly between February and June. We talk a lot about school funding. Let me just say a couple of things.

If I could, this may take a minute, Nance. All- time record funding this year for New Jersey's public schools. This was my ninth budget, believe it or not, because we had two in COVID. That's nine budgets in a row where we've broken the record each time. I think we tied it in COVID.

So this is the all- time high investment, and we have the number one public education system in America. If a community's state number goes down, it's typically due to one of two reasons. One is there's too much capacity. I don't think that's the case in East Brunswick. I'd be surprised if that were the case.

And Brad Cohen is its terrific mayor. I believe that that is one of those hot communities in our state right now. We've got many of them, thank goodness. Or It's because it's a formula, by the way, Brian. So I don't set this it's a formula and I bet you this is the case based on the ability to pay locally in East Brunswick, i. e. if you will, the local wealth. Then the state sort of takes a step back under the theory that the local side can afford to pay more. We added one feature this year, which I think is an important one. We said that no community or school district would have a reduction in their state aid more than 3%.

So at worst, any community was going to be held at 97%. of what the state did last year. We also capped the upside, no district can get more than a hundred and six percent of what they got last year. We think that has largely, and we've done another couple of tweaks that are less relevant.

We think that is cushioning the blows that we've seen over the years again based on a formula, but I want Dennis to give you a call and let's go. Let's understand more from your perspective. You know, on the charter school side, I don't know the charter in East Brunswick. We have largely as a state avoided the big charter district wars that had broken out around the country over the years.

We have not had those wars and we look very carefully at the charters when they're up for renewal, when they ask for expansion, when they want an initial charter. And we take that process very, very seriously. I would say we're as rigorous as any state in America through our Department of Education, but I will ask with your blessing, Brian, Dennis, to follow up with you and Tyler will make that happen.

NANCY: Thanks for your call, Brian. And we have a question from social media. David Matthau of WHYY and WBGO is here with us. What do you have?

DAVID: Thank you. Thank you very much, Nancy, and thank you, Governor. Tom from Princeton, would like to know, he says "I respect your increased funding for K- 12 schools in New Jersey.

However, higher education has been suffering, as state funding has not increased or kept up with inflation over the past decade. Governor, will you advocate for higher state investment in higher ed?

GOV. MURPHY: Tom, I'm going to ask you to get Tyler to get the aforementioned Dennis Zeveloff to give Tom a shout.

I may also ask Brian Bridges, our secretary of higher ed, to join Dennis for that call. I should back up and say one thing. This was, is not an easy budget. Is this our first gathering since we did the budget? Yeah. So we should at some point, maybe 30 seconds right now we continue to fund a lot of stuff that we're really excited about.

As I mentioned a minute ago, all- time record investment in public education. We made the full pension payment five years in a row. Enormous property tax relief, in fact, historic. And a big surplus, which you need. given all the craziness that's going on in Washington. I could go on, but that's sort of, those are four big pillars of the budget.

And we've done a ton for higher ed over the past seven plus years, making it more affordable, making it more accessible, making investments across the board. But this is going to be on the margin a tough year to do a whole lot more than we did, for instance, last year. And that's true for higher ed, but probably true for a lot of other areas.

We deliberately overspent our means as we recovered from the pandemic, meaning we put more investment and spending on the street in New Jersey across the whole spectrum of areas more than we were actually taking in. That was a concerted cold blooded strategy. And it turns out it's working.

We're growing. Our economy is the best in the region. We're a top 10 state in terms of growing population, more people employed, more businesses in operation in both cases than ever before. Unlike Washington that hasn't had a balanced budget since the mid 90s, you can't keep doing that in New Jersey.

We've got to start to bring that, that so- called structural deficit, which is how we refer to that, begin to get it back in the line. You don't have to bring it to zero, but the budget we presented makes a meaningful step in that direction. And that means on the margin. You're not investing as much as you'd like to in certain areas.

You know, there are a bunch of investments we'd love to be growing that we've had to sort of be careful about either holding or in some cases pulling back a little bit. But listen, higher ed is a huge gem for us. It's a huge reason why people come here and stay here. The research that's done at places like Rutgers and Princeton attract talent.

They attract families. They attract businesses, research, startups, all of which we love. And if we can find the money, we'll find it. I've got a little Fidel Castro banging my shoe on the table on that one. I apologize.

NANCY: I was going to ask you about the budget, so no worries there and we'll come back to that.

I do want to go back to the phones. We have Cynthia from Montclair on the line. Cynthia.

CALLER: Governor Murphy. Hello. Hi, Governor. Thank you for taking my call.

GOV. MURPHY: My honor.

CALLER: So I have a sister who lives in a group home. She's she's developmentally and physically disabled and she lives in a group home in Tom's River and it's run by this really wonderful non profit that works very closely with Medicaid to provide for her survival and I'm very concerned about it.

All of these threats to Medicaid. I keep hearing people say, Oh, they're not going to target the disabled. They're not going to target X, Y, Z, but I don't feel confident in that. So I was just curious to get your thoughts on potential threats to Medicaid and, you know, how to care for New Jerseyans who really rely on it for their survival like my sister.

GOV. MURPHY: God bless your sister. First of all, we'll keep her in our prayers. Number one. Number two, Cynthia, I'm going to ask our commissioner of the Department of Human Services, Sarah Adelman, to give you a shout in the next 24 hours. If you're concerned about Medicaid and cuts, you have every right to be.

And I think this is an all hands on deck moment. I had a lengthy call with one of our senior Members of Congress today, sort of strategizing how we could get at this. And I don't want to be political about this, although there is certainly politics for sure. But if the three, and Tom's River is in Chris Smith's district, if the three Republican members of our House delegation were to vote against the continuing resolution yesterday, The budget reconciliation against Medicaid cuts that the margin in the House of Representatives is so narrow, if all we got were those three representatives to vote the other way, none of this would happen.

So in many respects, that's my best piece of advice is to plead, because I know the Democrats are all going to vote against any egregious and I would bet any cuts to Medicaid. But the Republican party right now is largely voting as a bloc . And that includes the three new Jersey representatives, and I think my best piece of advice.

I'll have Sarah call you and strategize Tom's River is in Chris Smith's district, to make sure he understands what this would do to your sister in the home in which she resides. God bless you both.

NANCY: Thanks for your call, Cynthia. I mean, just to add to that point I think, you know, it's important to kind of educate the state.

The three Republicans in Congress who represent the state of New Jersey are Jeff Van Drew in the 1st Congressional District down South, Chris Smith aforementioned, and Tom Kean Jr. in the 7th Congressional District, which basically goes from Union and Rahway West all the way to the Pennsylvania border through Summit, Westfield . So, folks who live in those Republican districts do have a bigger say in this debate than all the folks who live in all the Democratic districts.

GOV. MURPHY: Yeah, and this is at the, it's bordering on sounding like you've called into a political talk show, but that is a fact. What Nancy has just said and what I said to Cynthia is a fact.

The nine Democrats and our two senators are all going to vote to protect Medicaid. That's just that's not in question. The question is, can we get the three Republicans to come? That way, and believe it or not, if they do, it is, that's the entirety of the game right there. It's kind of hard to believe it's that narrow.

The CR passed 218 to 214. Take three from the 218, and that gets blocked.

NANCY: Okay, we're going to take a quick break. You're listening to Ask Governor Murphy. I'm Nancy Solomon, and we'll be right back.

ANNOUNCER: You're listening to Ask Governor Murphy, a co production of WBGO, WNYC, and WHYY. Got a question for New Jersey's governor? Call us now at 844 745 8255. That's 844 745 TALK. Propose your question on Twitter or Facebook with the hashtag AskGovMurphy .

NANCY: I'm Nancy Solomon and we are live with the Governor and taking your calls.

GOV. MURPHY: May I just make sure that folks know that I'm not a math idiot here. I mentioned when you take 3 from 218, you win. Remember, the 3 comes, that comes down to 215, but the 214 Gets to 17. So you literally, that's how close when you've only got four votes in the gap, you've got two or three votes changed the whole game.

Which is to underscore why getting those folks to be on the right side of history here is so important.

NANCY: Okay, well you're already beyond my math skills, but I'll take your word for that. Okay, so let's talk about what's referred to in New Jersey as the county line. You signed a bill.

GOV. MURPHY: I'm shocked you're bringing this up.

NANCY: Well, you signed the bill, and you signed a bill into law that changes how election ballots in New Jersey are laid out. The state ballot design, which is, as I said, referred to as the county line, became a central issue last year in the Senate primary election when Andy Kim defeated First Lady Tammy Murphy.

Kim obtained a temporary injunction against the use of the line. And I know you understand it, but let me just explain to our listeners. This is a unique way that New Jersey organizes primary ballots that groups all the party endorsed candidates together, which has been shown to give a very large advantage to those who run in that group. Remember, these are primary elections. So, you know, it's a competition from within the party. So when you have the party's endorsement for candidates, then that gives them an advantage. You opposed Andy Kim's lawsuit, and you didn't think the line was a problem. But now you've signed this bill.

So have you had a change of heart?

GOV. MURPHY: I'm glad you asked. First of all, tiny correction on your premise, Andy didn't defeat Tammy. Tammy pulled out to preserve the party and to keep unity in the party. So listen, this was never an issue for me. So you and I started a very different place.

This is a big issue for you, and I respect that. I've always seen that the line had some significant benefits. And for all the progressives out there who are wondering what, what one of, or some of those benefits might be: We're in year eight of the most progressive administration in the history of the state, and the list of what we've done together with the legislature, with the support of a lot of people in the state, is up and down our arms. We're not perfect. We're not done. But, I got elected, on the line, and have delivered, as best I could, what we promised, proud, progressive, cold blooded capitalist, we delivered on that.

NANCY: And why did you sign the bill? Like what?

I'm going to get to that. I'm going to get to that. Because the process that it went through, so it was never, this was never ... I didn't run for governor to deal with ballot design. It was never, and,

I think I can vouch for that.

GOV. MURPHY: Yeah, you have enough history with me.

And secondly, I saw the benefits. So why did I sign it? This went through a real process. Elected officials, both sides of the aisle, seven public hearings. And I, I, I have to respect that. Overwhelming support, as I mentioned, on both sides of the aisle, you rightfully point out this may be an obvious point, these are for primaries. The general election reality is a different reality for obvious reasons. And that's why we got to signing it. Is it perfect? I'm not sure it is. Will it work? I assume it will, but like a lot of other things we do. We'll assess it, we'll, based on the facts, and if we think we need to tweak it down the road, we'll tweak it.

NANCY: Well, I'm glad you brought up whether or not it's perfect because Antoinette Miles of New Jersey Working Families, which is a group that's been working on this issue for a long time, and they are party to the , they are one of the groups that has sued the state over this issue. So, you know, she has a dog in this fight, but also someone who really understands the issue.

She wrote a letter to you that said or, or this was her statement. I'm sorry. The other thing was a letter. We're very disappointed that Governor Murphy has missed a historic chance to guarantee a fair ballot by signing a flawed ballot design bill into law ignoring overwhelming opposition from advocates and the public And there were nearly 80 groups that signed a letter to you from the Institute for Social Justice, also asking you to conditionally veto the bill.

GOV. MURPHY: What, what, what would you like me to say? I don't agree with them. I think the, I'm not saying, again, I didn't, This did, I did not start out with this as my raison d'etre to be governor. So this is, was not one, I thought the system worked. I'll give you an example. Last night, Bergen County had their convention and they went through a lot of things for a lot of races.

Governor being one of them. By the way, we should talk about that. There's a governor's race this year. That's a democracy. Hundreds of people showing up, passionate, representing themselves, their neighbors. That, to me, works. The process that this went through, by elected officials, with huge support on both sides of the aisle, seven public hearings.

With all due respect, I don't agree with him. I don't know what else to say. We'll see. Again, maybe there's, there are elements of here. I know there's the 1A, 1B thing is one question, or whether or not you could put Team Solomon on the label for... we'll see. I think this landed in a good place based on the reasons I've said, and let's see what it looks like.

NANCY: And I'm not going to belabor this too much longer, but what, what

GOV. MURPHY: It's year eight of discussing this.

NANCY: Is it not important how we elect people and whether we have fair ballots? I mean, come on, it's important. We can disagree, but you've got to at least admit that it's an important issue.

GOV. MURPHY: Okay, so, it's an important issue, but I started it in a place where I think it was working.

I then say, okay, you know what, if there's, if, if folks want to go down this road, by the way, a federal judge came in and said, New Jersey has, so we do what judges tell us to do.

NANCY: I think there's a perception that the bill kind of makes an end run around the judge's order and that it kind of looks like reform, but it doesn't go far enough because it's still allowing candidates to group together instead of. everybody who's running for one office being grouped together, which is the way the rest of the country does it.

GOV. MURPHY: Yeah, I just, I just don't, and by the way, I'd say to Antoinette, and I have a lot of time for the work that she and the Working Family Parties do, I'd say look at the results of the ballot design that got us elected in 2017 and 21.

Here we are in 2025. I would just ask you to look at the track record of what we've done in this state. Particularly through the lens of an organization that cares so deeply about working families as they do, and they do great work. Look, you know, look at the results. I, that's not my primary answer, but that's my ancillary, my Part B answer.

NANCY: Okay. Enough said.

GOV. MURPHY: Do you want to come back?

NANCY: No, I'm going to let you have the last word on that, and we're going to go to the phones.

GOV. MURPHY: You're very kind.

NANCY: We have Chrissy from Voorhees on the line. Hi, Chrissy.

CALLER: Hi, Governor Murphy. Hi, Governor Murphy. Thank you for taking my call.

GOV. MURPHY: My honor.

CALLER: I have a, I have a question for you about how the state is preparing to help our residents who've lost their jobs recently due to the massive amount of federal layoffs and terminations.

There's so many New Jerseyans who are now unemployed and who to be. Quite frankly, if they even if they are employed are scared for their jobs, and I just would love to see the state have some initiative to help those people either through fast tracking them to employment with the state or other opportunities.

So we can make sure that our economy stay strong.

GOV. MURPHY: Chrissy. Great question. And I'm going to ask Rob Asaro-Angelo our great Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development to follow up with Chrissy. And I love Voorhees by the way, so good to hear from South Jersey. Theoretically, conceptually, we'll do everything, everything we can.

But no state in America can push back on the tidal wave of what I fear is either literally coming at us right now or will come at us. And it's not just the state and I know you didn't ask about Medicaid, but I'll just give you one example there. And we heard earlier from Cynthia about her sister in Tom's River That's a good example of an indirect impact or hospital systems that will be devastated.

So it's not just does this do to the state budget and the share between the feds of the state, but what are the indirect costs of this? And I would argue that laying off massive amounts of federal workers has several levels of wrongness, if you will, to it. Number one, they're overwhelmingly hardworking folks who go to work every day for the right reasons and are not running away to the bank with what they're earning.

Secondly, we have arguably been a global leader in government services as a country. I think New Jersey is a great example as well, but I mean, as a country, something that we should be incredibly proud of. We spoke about the Department of Education earlier, to just whack half of those people. Yeah, I hope there's a plan.

I fear there isn't. And, then thirdly, to the notion that you'd then rely on states to figure this out, which is going to be the answer, I think, for a lot of these moves that are being made right now. Whether it's making up for Medicaid, hiring the folks, to your question, Chrissy, in terms of the federal layoffs, bailing out hospitals that are going to be up against it because of cuts.

We can't do all that. It's just not going to happen. And so the sad, so the first, go back to the first order of business is kind of a similar playbook I mentioned to Cynthia: Get some, compassionate Republican votes in the house in New Jersey to start getting on the right side of history.

That's the preemptive action is job number one. If all of this comes to pass, these huge layoffs, cuts in Medicaid, cuts in other government programs. You started out, Nancy, talking about teacher training. We got a big surplus on our budget because we're going to probably need a lot of it.

But we're talking numbers drown that. And so we're going to have to pick our spots. Let there be no doubt where the blame lies, and it's with, in Washington, both in the White House and in Congress. And people are going to go without. I see no other path, unless we can prevent this from happening.

And that, without what? Without a job, to your question, Chrissy? Without, you know, people not getting Medicaid. You know, when a lot of states expanded Medicaid, the deal was the feds would pay 90 percent of the expansion. A lot of states, we're not one of them, have triggers in place where the minute that 90 changes they cut everybody who was part of the expansion, who was on Medicaid literally overnight. And I know some of the, in fact, I know all the Republican governors. There are a lot of good guys and gals out there who won't want to do that. So I'm also hoping other state houses will stand up and say, on the other side of the aisle, will say, " You know what? We didn't sign up for this."

I'm all for government efficiency. But our country, if we continue to go this way, not only will people do without, we'll be, and I mean this in the broadest sense, a less safe country. And that means healthcare, crime, national defense, everything that you associate with safety.

So Chrissy, I'm gonna have Rob follow up with you. We're always a sponge for good talent, and that's what I've said to folks. But we're also trying to tighten our belt, as I mentioned earlier. We've got essentially a hiring freeze on at the state level. And so it's a hard puzzle to solve right now.

NANCY: And presumably every federal worker who loses their job who's a resident of New Jersey is eligible for unemployment insurance.

GOV. MURPHY: That is correct. And that'll also impact our numbers and our...

NANCY: How much of that is funded by the state and how much by the federal government?

GOV. MURPHY: Well, the feds do a lot there, so I hope it continues to be the case.

And we've, by virtue, two areas of government that were, and you'll recall, because we were doing shows during the throes of the pandemic, motor vehicles and the unemployment benefit process were overwhelmed. We have, by necessity, radically revamped both of those processes. We're now a dramatically different offering than we were five years ago.

I, I think and hope that will be a good step to have taken.

NANCY: You mentioned that you were just at the National Governors Association conference or meetings or whatever. And I'm wondering what the conversations were like with respect to Donald Trump. And I'm thinking specifically about the fact that, you know, we've seen over the last few weeks, the sort of, all the analysis about what happened with the Ukrainian President Zelensky and in the White House in the Oval Office meeting and how it went different for other European leaders who sort of came in and kissed the ring and flattered the president and i'm wondering how are governors talking about this?

Like, are you struggling with whether you need to flatter him and kiss the ring and say yes, yes, yes, so you can get your, you can take care of the people of New Jersey? Or are you going to be raked over the coals for doing that and better off politically to stand up to him?

GOV. MURPHY: Yeah, you saw it with not only Ukraine, you saw it with my colleague, the governor of Maine.

The day before or the week before that, and I was in the room when that, when that happened. The Meeting yesterday only had one Republican governor participating. So I don't think yesterday, although we had Linda McMahon, as I mentioned, and several of the panelists that came in weren't elected, but they were, I'm sure, Republicans.

The meeting, the annual meeting we had in Washington that the governor of Maine was was a part of there were probably 45 governors and the National Governor's Association continues to be a surprisingly and happily very good forum in which to find common ground. Now, if you're going to bring up abortion.

Or open carry you have to sort of self check what you're going to choose to try to find the common ground on. I wouldn't phrase it the way you phrased it in terms of flattering him but you're absolutely right. There's a tension or a balance that's really hard right now.

On the one hand, I'm willing to find common ground. You know, he and I did this Portal North Bridge . He's a big infrastructure guy. I want as much of that money coming to Jersey as possible. But on the other hand, I can't roll over. If our values are attacked, if our communities are attacked if individuals who are here for the right reasons are attacked I can't roll over. I got to stand up for them. We have a hyper aggressive legal strategy, and you and I have talked about this before. That's the playbook. I'm the longest serving Democratic governor alongside President Trump in office. I only say that because we've developed a playbook over the years, and there's a big piece of that that's legal.

So the attorney general, I think, is on this stuff is doing a really good job. Jersey is leading some of the the coalitions we're a part, I think, of every coalition and we're leading some, for instance, birthright citizenship. New Jersey is taking the lead. And that historically has been a central element of our.

So, in other words, if you think of a church and state, you've got a very aggressive legal strategy. And then you're trying to pick your spots as to where you shine the light over here. But again, getting that balance right with these guys is really. Really, really hard.

NANCY: Okay, I'm trying to squeeze in more calls.

We have Robert from Bloomfield on the line. Hey, Robert.

CALLER: Oh. Hi, how are you doing, Governor?

GOV. MURPHY: I'm great, man. How are you?

NANCY: Robert, hang on a second. We're going to go to a break, stay on the line, and we will start out the next segment with your question, I promise. Okay, you're gonna hang on there? I guess so. Okay, so you're listening to Ask Governor Murphy.

I'm Nancy Solomon, and we will be back after the break.

CALLER: You're listening to Ask Governor Murphy, a co production of WHYY. Got a question for New Jersey's Governor? Call us now at 844 745 8255. That's 844 745 TALK. Or pose your question on Twitter or Facebook with the hashtag AskGovMurphy.

NANCY: I'm Nancy Solomon and we're live with Governor Murphy and taking your calls.

And we have Robert from Bloomfield on the line, waiting patiently. Robert, go ahead.

CALLER: Good evening, Governor. I'm trying to get some information out of New Jersey Transit. I want to know how, much money they intend to, or are willing to spend planning a project which may not happen, and that project would be the Essex- Hudson, Greenway, New Jersey Transit is planning for possibly putting on bus lanes or Light rail, even light rail in addition to the existing plans to have a walkway and, and bicycles.

But I was directed by someone in DEP to a memorandum of agreement where New Jersey NJDEP does not actually promise To allow this project, the NJDEP owns the project through the Open Space Institute, and it's under Green Acres restrictions, so how much money is NJ Transit willing to put into this when maybe they can't do it

GOV. MURPHY: So Robert, I will get Kris Kolluri and Sean LaTourette to follow up. So, you're going to get two calls. Kris is the CEO of NJ Transit and Sean is the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection. Why is Sean going to call you? Because he's going to reiterate, we're doing this. It's happening.

There is a segment of it that we intend to open before I hang up my cleats next January.

NANCY: Explain what it is, because people will be excited about this.

GOV. MURPHY: It's totally cool. So, in New York City, you may know the High Line. I'm not speaking to Robert, I know he knows, but to the folks listening. The High Line is a former abandoned elevated train track.

It's one point something miles walkway. It's been a huge boon in Manhattan. Restaurants. exercise , greenery just an incredible you, you go there on a spring or a fall day and it's magic. This would be either eight miles connecting nine communities or nine miles connecting eight communities.

I always forget that. But it will go from Jersey City to Montclair and it will go, it's former railroad tracks. We purchased it. It will take a while because a lot of it's in disrepair and it will go through communities that need public space, open access and allow young kids to be able to safely move around, go from one town to the next.

And we're trying to get a big slug of this or a segment of this open this year.

NANCY: And so your answer to Robert is the funding is there, it's going to be spent, this project is going to happen.

GOV. MURPHY: Yes, but what I am not 100 percent certain of is how much money, his specific question on how much money NJ Transit would cost to do the bus service and light rail, etc.

So I'll get Kris to follow up. But the premise of the question, I just want to say emphatically, this will happen and it's a game changer for those communities.

NANCY: Okay. Thanks for the call, Robert. And let's take a question from social media. David Matthau .

DAVID: Yes. We have a question from Matthew in Morris County, does not specify the town.

Governor, how are new families supposed to buy a home if the average four bedroom listing in many towns throughout Jersey is selling for one million dollars and now being taxed even more as a luxury home?

GOV. MURPHY: Yeah. So I will Matthew, we'll, we'll get the team to follow up with you. I think we're going to go to Dennis with this one Dennis Zeveloff , again, our head of policy.

There's no doubt there's some good news in here, and I'm not suggesting lack of affordability is good news because we spend most of our days working on making New Jersey more affordable. But we have a supply/demand imbalance at all levels of housing, at all price points that's being exacerbated by a good thing.

We're growing. I mentioned this earlier. We're top 10 state 2024 over 2023 in terms of population growth percentage wise, in terms of actual bodies, top six in the country. So you don't take that for granted. What we're doing we think is working. Every state's got a bumper sticker. I've said this many times before.

Ours is the number one state in America to raise a family. But to Matthew's question, I get the N. J. Realtors monthly report every month since the pandemic. So this is now five years, no matter what interest rates were, no matter where people working from home commuting no matter who was president. The settled sale price has been above 100%, 101 percent of the ask price every month for five years in a row, 60 straight months, and maybe even more than that. And the median home price is not a million dollars as it might be a Morris County, but it's up now, probably bordering on 600, 000. So these are not cheap, no matter how you slice it. We need more supply, and we're doing a ton of stuff in everything from affordable to workforce to just general housing.

And supply both in what you can buy and what you can rent. I mean, Jersey City has become a huge rental community. And you see all sorts of, you know, you look at Journal Square and the developments around there. And these are 30, 50, 70 story. skyscrapers, but we need more supply, Matthew. And we're going to continue to do everything we can on affordability.

I mentioned this earlier, record property tax relief. We'll continue to do as much as we can to make this state a good value for money state. And again, the number one state in America to raise a family. Again, we'll get Dennis to follow up with you, Matthew.

NANCY: Okay. And let's take a call from Anthony, where is Anthony from?

I've lost. Oh, Anthony's from Edgewater Park. Anthony, are you there?

CALLER: I'm here. Hi, governor. We talked a couple of months ago, but I'm calling about the Alzheimer's long term advisory commission. (crosstalk) the first meeting was held on March 3rd. And as you know, we got a significant impact of Alzheimer's and dementia in the state and it's continued to grow. As I understand now, there's six members have been appointed to that commission, but the law calls for nine.

And my concern is that critical time is being lost will further the delays and assigning full membership to that commission. And as you may recall, that bill was signed in May of 2023. So we're almost two years away from the bill being signed to have a commission fully functioning. Wondering what can you do to expedite the appointments to commission?

GOV. MURPHY: Yep, that's a great question. It's something we take very seriously. I'm proud to have signed it. We do have an increasing Alzheimer's and dementia challenge. I don't think we're alone. But we certainly aren't immune. I think the best thing, Anthony, to get you connected to Sam Parker.

Sam is our head of appointments. She does a terrific job. You can't believe how big that job is, by the way. We have more darn commissions and boards. And it's one thing to have a lot of them. Haven't seen one that doesn't make sense. And this, you know, Alzheimer's and dementia would be at or near the top of the list.

And so, with your blessing, Anthony, I'm going to ask Sam to reach out. And Tyler, you'll make sure that happens and see if we can get this filled up before we leave office.

NANCY: Okay, Anthony. Thanks for your call. So let's just briefly, cause we're running out of time quick here, but I'd love to talk about the sinkhole on I- 80 in Wharton.

GOV. MURPHY: It's, they've been trying to fix it for what? It's been over a month. It's on the eastbound lanes. And apparently you've been there recently.

I was there Saturday. So I'll give you the quick answer. A sinkhole developed in December. We, our folks Fran O'Connor at the Department of Transportation is outstanding, and his team did some testing, they got it stabilized, reopened, another sinkhole appeared in February, about 75 feet from the first one, and they did even more sophisticated.

NANCY: How wide are these things?

GOV. MURPHY: They're not wide, but the cavity underneath is deep. Fran will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think at least in one place there's a 60 foot void. So think about that if you could. And so we said, okay, enough. We cannot reopen this until we do then a whole series of sophisticated testing.

Most of it, as you can imagine, underground. And then the grouting process where you fill in. I'm not happy to say this, but it's the responsible., this is probably another couple of months. I declared a state of emergency on Saturday morning. I reached out to U. S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who, by the way, is a New Jersey resident. And he and I actually communicated on Saturday. Also, the state police under Colonel Pat Callahan are doing a great job. He has 27 people there at all times, six on the site and one at 21 different traffic points. Because everybody's gotta get off the highway at Wharton and then find their way and I've been on with the mayor's up there. There are , I'm told 400 abandoned mines or mine shafts up in that part of the state. Thankfully, not all those are under the I-80 right?

Sam Morris, the mayor of Mine Hill was there. I said, Sam. People can now finally understand why your town is called Mine Hill. But this is a, a real challenge. We need the feds to help us. And we'll get it done as safely and as quickly as possible.

NANCY: Oh, and I read that there are 90 Voids that the Department of Transportation has found under there.

You mentioned all the mines, but there were actual, like the makings of a sinkhole.

GOV. MURPHY: Correct. And the voids are related to the mines and the mine shafts. And there are a subset of that 400. I asked for a map of them. You wouldn't believe you should, apparently you can Google this, the mine, abandoned mines and mine shafts up in that part of New Jersey, it'll take your breath away.

NANCY: I want to go see too. That sounds fascinating.

GOV. MURPHY: In any event, to the commuters out there, we know it, to use a diplomatic word. It sucks for the mayors and the local electeds. By the way, we had a great bipartisan Congressman Tom Kean was there and he's helping us out and I want to thank him for that.

Tony Bucco , the minority leader, a bunch of mayors, other legislators. It was a real good, this is one of these things where it's a bipartisan, we're all this together. We all want to get this fixed as, as fast as possible.

NANCY: Okay. I wanna go to David Matthau one last time. Quick question for from you. .

DAVID: Yes, we have, this is a mining of a different type governor. Dave from Ventnor City wants to know, Governor, as a former Wall Street guy, I'm interested in your insights regarding cryptocurrency and the Trump administration's seeming embrace of this.

GOV. MURPHY: Yeah, I wanted to say something a minute ago.

I'll be really brief. Robert asked about the Greenway, which is our Highline . I mentioned we're gonna open a slug of this this year. I don't want folks to think that this is all gonna open this year. We've got a long list of legacy projects. The balance of this will open after I've hung my cleats up.

I'm not a crypto guy. People for whatever reason ask me about crypto and then they ask me about artificial intelligence, which are two completely unrelated different things. I am a big believer that we need to be a leader in generative artificial intelligence which is why we're doing all the things that we're doing. Crypto , use an AI Phrase that's become a big popular phrase.

I don't get the use case I don't get the use case. The reason for it to exist, I don't get Dave, I may be wrong about that. Maybe President Trump and his team, and there are proponents in there, I've got a lot of friends of mine who I used to work with or traffic with on Wall Street who are believers.

I don't see it. We're not going to go head over heels in New Jersey on crypto like some places have done. I wouldn't be hell no if there's something that makes sense. We're an innovation state. Crypto's in the innovation fintech space. We're really good at that. We're probably as good at that as anybody.

But it's not jazzing me, at least at the moment, to both Dave here and Dave in Ventnor City.

NANCY: Well, and the Trump cryptocurrency seems to just be designed to be a way for people to give him money.

GOV. MURPHY: Yeah. So that's, I should have said that he's got his own interests that are personal. I meant his more, more broad endorsement of the sector by his administration. .

NANCY: Let's try to squeeze in one more call. We've got Tom from Emerson on the line.

CALLER: Hello. I'm going to circle back pretty fast to the conversation about Medicare, Medicaid and the cuts. It's very safe to assume that the budget is going forward from the feds will pretty much eviscerate the system of Medicaid.

Then, and as a consumer of services provided in New Jersey, partially based on Medicaid funding, I need to ensure that the state of New Jersey honors its commitments that it's made in its budget and it continues to fund Medicaid related services in the state and steps up because I have heard conversations And I'm on the board of directors of a disability services group.

And we have heard that there are line item funding in the New Jersey budget that have been taken out.

NANCY: Thank you for your question. Let me get an answer for you because we're going to run out of time.

GOV. MURPHY: Tom, most importantly, I'm going to ask Tyler to get Sarah Adelman , our commissioner of the Department of Human Services , where most of the Medicaid reality resides to follow up with you ASAP.

We'll honor our commitments, but I cannot promise to honor what are massive federal commitments. The best answer. I want to repeat this. We'll have said it three times and I apologize for that, Tom. The best thing we could do is to get Tom Kane, Chris Smith, Jeff Van Drew to vote to preserve Medicaid. If we can do that, we will not have to face the harsh reality that we're discussing.

If that doesn't come to pass, and we don't get support in other states, I promise you New Jersey, within the four walls of what we can do, will honor our commitments, but I can't give you an open ended blanket commitment that will honor the federal government's commitments because there's no amount of money that could do that Thanks for having me Nance and David

we have just a few seconds while they play our out music and try to get us off the stage I hear the North to Shore festival has been announced just throw out some names.

I love it Bleachers , which is one of my favorite groups. Jack Antonoff, who's a Bergen County guy and Taylor Swift's producer, John Mulaney and Jon Stewart, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Pete Davidson. It's Newark, Asbury Park, Atlantic City. This is year three. We love it.

NANCY: Thank you, Governor. You've been listening to Ask Governor Murphy, a co production of WBGO, WHYY, and WNYC.

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