[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hey everyone, Steve Adubato, we kick off the program with State Assemblyman Al Barlas from the 40th Legislative District.

Good to see you, Assemblyman.

- Thank you Steve, happy to be here.

- There's a whole bunch of topics I wanna talk about, and I also wanna make it clear we're taping on the 16th of June.

Some of this stuff's gonna feel dated, but the issues are just as important.

Can we do childcare first?

- Sure.

- There's an initiative called Start Strong NJ, public awareness around the importance of quality, accessible, affordable childcare.

How high a priority is that for you as a member of the state legislature?

- Well, it's very important and I'll tell you why.

First of all, personally it's important for me 'cause my kids are seven and five, right?

So I've gone through the whole daycare childcare thing and I will tell you that a lot of times it felt like either myself or my wife were working to pay for childcare just to go to work.

And we're blessed to live in a great town and we're blessed to do fairly well, financially.

But there are a lot of people who are struggling now.

And if your choice is what do I do with my child during the day or earning a paycheck to help pay for my child?

I mean, those are some Hobson's choices you have to make.

- And which is why a big theme in our programming is the connection between childcare and the economy.

Assemblyman, let me follow up on a different issue.

You've talked a lot about school funding.

I'm not gonna get into the details of the school funding formula, which is complicated.

Check out our interviews with State Senator Vin Gopal, who heads up the Senate Education Committee.

From your perspective, what is wrong with the current way the state funds our public schools and what would you change about it?

- So I think first of all, the fact that we are out of this S2 Process and now we have this arbitrary cap that Governor Murphy put in place last year, which says that no district shall receive no more than a 6% increase and no less than a 3% decrease still leaves 176 school districts without funding this year.

They're getting cut to the total of about $55 million.

And when you've got a budget that is 60.7 billion is up 3% from last year, the fact that we don't have $55 million to at least bring everybody to zero, is a problem.

- Hold on, but help everyone understand when a school district gets cut in state funding, what the potential implications are for the students, teachers, and the school district itself.

- Well, you're talking about services, you're talking about programs, you're talking about perhaps teachers' aids, you're talking about teachers themselves.

I mean, the potential impact, depending upon the dollar amount, can run the gamut of a little bit to a lot.

And when you're a young child and you're a family who lives where they live and wants their kids to receive the best education possible, every little bit of a cut is a big deal.

- Speaking of finances, what the heck is "Budget Bites" "with Assemblyman Al Barlas?"

It's a Facebook series?.

- It's just.

- But what is it?

- A little video series we did.

It just takes and highlights some of the things that are going on in this budget that we think are a problem.

Again, you've got a $60.7 billion budget, but yet, Governor Sherrill has proposed cutting $250,000 for the Wynona Lipman House for Battered Women.

You're talking about a $1.3 million cut to the Boys and Girls Club for at, in risk.

You're talking about a $325,000 cut to the ALS Foundation.

You're talking about $455,000 cuts to Tourette Syndrome.

I mean, these are cuts that, yes, it's a tough budget year, but we are increasing spending by $1.9 billion.

The fact that you can't find a couple of million dollars for these types of causes, which have far greater impact on people's lives than anything else, to me is a problem.

- But Assemblyman, when we had the governor, check out our interview with the governor, she talked about these so-called Christmas tree items.

And Assemblyman knows that as a former state legislator on my end, I served on the appropriations committee in the legislature in the mid-'80s, and I remember trying to get items into the state budget that helped the seven towns in my district.

The governor says that we need to cut back dramatically, if not reduce and eliminate these so-called Christmas tree items, what you just described, if I'm not mistaken, Assemblyman, those are Christmas tree items.

- Well, I would dispute that because I think to me, a Christmas tree item is what you talked about, Steve, it's money for a little league program in your district, or it's money for a ball field in a town in your district.

- Okay.

- When you're talking about $250,000 to help a battered women's shelter or 1.3 million to help at risk youth, the impact of that money is far wider than just bringing home the bacon to your district so you can get reelected the following year.

- But at the same time, I'm not saying it's a Christmas tree item.

What I'm saying is if it's included in to the state budget, if a state legislator attempts to put an item into the budget and someone says, well, that's a Christmas tree item, that's a gift to your district or a gift to the non-profit that you support, you're saying each individual appropriation of state dollars needs to be considered separately, correct?

- Absolutely.

I mean, everything should be weighted on its merits.

And what is the impact of that?

Do you want money for a infrastructure project that could potentially prevent flooding that impacts two, three, four communities in your district and thus has a far wider beneficial impact to potentially hundreds or thousands of people versus a ball field, which is a very noble cause, nobody's denying that.

But you gotta sort of weigh what has a far greater societal benefit.

- Talk about economics, again, we're taping in the middle of June, World Cup started over at, what do we call it?

New York, New Jersey, New York Stadium this week.

- Yes.

- You are calling for hearings and you've proposed legislation that creates a five member commission of fiscal integrity of future attractions having to do with events like this.

Why is that important?

Isn't it a positive economic impact?

Isn't there a positive economic impact to New Jersey?

Or do we not know?

- I mean, we don't know that yet.

I mean, when you look at some of these reports of towns and states that host Super Bowls, World Cups, major events like that, a lot of times they end up, Olympics is another one.

You look at Atlanta, they spent all this money years ago.

An Olympic village I think has been either totally demolished and rebuilt on, or sat vacant and empty for 15, 20 years.

So you hear stories about ultimately at the end of the day having a net negative impact financially.

So I think it's yet to be determined if we will have a positive financial impact from the World Cup.

But my bigger problem was as this unfolded over the last couple of months, all this FIFA information coming out, the fact that they were gonna shut Penn Station for certain hours during the day when fare prices were gonna be potentially $155 a person, it seemed like a lot of us were not aware of what was going on and what the details were.

So the purpose of this bill is that it's a five member body.

It's the governor, it's the Senate president, the speaker, the minority leader in the Senate and the minority leader of the assembly.

Those five who are briefed by the governor in public about what is being proposed for any major event like a World Cup, like a Super Bowl, like a Grand Prix.

So we're not talking about Taylor Swift at MetLife.

We're talking about these types of major attractions to see is there a actual cost benefit to the state and its taxpayers for putting out this money and making this investment?

- We'll follow that legislation, see where it goes.

State Assemblyman Al Barlas from the 40th legislative district.

Thank you, Assemblyman.

- Thank you Steve, appreciate it.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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