Announcer: Major funding for "Chat Box with David Cruz" is provided by the members of the New Jersey education Association, making public schools great for every child.

♪ David: hey everybody.

Welcome to Chat Box.

Just a few weeks left in what has been a momentous year in New Jersey.

In our second half, we look at the outlook for the states business climate.

We begin today with the man who became the face of the rapid political evolution of 2024, Senator elect Andy Kim.

Good to see you.

Welcome.

>> thanks for having me on.

David: what an odd year it must've been for you.

I'm guessing this is not where you expected to be this time last year.

>> this is where I hoped to be.

I know others didn't think I could make it this far.

But look, I'm proud.

Not just that I have the chance to serve my home state, to be someone that can step up for 9 million people.

But also that we were able to change Jersey politics along the way for the better.

Still more work to be done of course.

I really do think that we've been able to instill a sense of hope and a lot of people that a lot of the brokenness that we have seen in the past is going to change.

That we are entering a new era of politics in New Jersey.

David: how would you assess the election results?

what do Democrats have to do going forward to become more relevant?

>> yeah.

It was tough.

It really was.

I think there is certainly a lot of consternation about what went wrong.

I think it's important that we don't shoot from the hip.

I'm hopeful that we can do some analysis and deep dives.

We need to make sure we are listening to people, listening to voters, listening to people who thought about may be voting for the Democrats are have in the past but didn't this time around.

I'm a Democrat that won a congressional district.

In 2020 after I won, I won that seat.

One of only semi-crab -- seven Democrats in the country.

I held a series of listening sessions throughout my congressional district with people who voted for Trump and me.

Trying to understand what they were thinking.

What were they worried about?

so many of them talking about this trust in our government, politics.

Needing someone that can disrupt that.

Needing a change.

Making sure that we are not trying to protect the status quo.

I think that's why a lot of the anticorruption reform message has been strong.

I heard a lot of independent voters this past campaign that said, we don't agree with all of your policies but we do respect you for standing up against leaders in your party when you think they are doing something wrong.

That's definitely part of it.

We have to have the humility at this moment.

No one knows for certain exactly what went wrong.

We need to make sure we are engaged and recognize that it's not just some surface issue.

It is something that's much deeper.

David: it's deeper than inconsistent message and unlikable messenger?

>> yeah.

Definitely.

You hit on some important points here.

I think in the political space, so much of the obsession is about, do we have the right message?

that's an important question.

That is certainly something we need to dive into.

But it's more than that.

As you mentioned, do we have the right messenger?

does the message actually get to the people you are trying to communicate to?

so much of what I've seen over the years is that the answer is no.

We need to think through and learn how people are getting information, how they come up with their opinions to try to figure out how to be able to connect.

That means going out to places and engaging with people.

Not just the people that agree with us.

If you only have comfortable conversations in politics, it means you are not talking to all the people you need to be talking to.

I do think that there's a deeper concern here.

David: how different is the Senate orientation?

is your office bigger?

do you have a D.C. crash pad?

>> well look.

It helps that I've worked in the capital for six years.

I know my way around the building.

One thing that really stood out to me, I got to walk onto the floor of the Senate for the very first time in my life.

I was there with my wife.

It was very powerful.

It does really hit you how much smaller of the body it is.

Only 100 people.

Only 2000 people in the history of America have served in the U.S. Senate.

If Senator gets a desk.

If you lift up the top, you can see the names of all the Senators that used that desk.

It's quite cool.

I think that the body is hopefully a place where I can build some deeper relationships to get something that we can try to engage in more.

Get to know each other at a more fundamental level.

So that is certainly something that was noticeable.

The thing that was most noticeable about the orientation and what comes next.

David: we were talking before we came on the air that you were in your windowless basement office that all kids aspire to.

>> in all its glory.

David: are you really in a windowless basement office?

>> yeah.

I'm going to transition.

I will be here for the foreseeable future.

They told me may or something I might be able to move into a full office.

I don't think the Senate is known for its speed by reputation.

I'm in this wonderful windowless basement office.

We will try to put up some photos.

It's everything I dreamed it would be.

David: It takes a minute.

It all starts officially the Senate stuff for you next week.

Is it Sunday or Monday?

what have you done to prepare?

david: -- >> Monday the ninth I will be sworn in.

It's very surreal.

Senator will walk with me and help me with the swearing in.

I am so appreciative for his leadership.

I'm excited to be a teammate to him.

But yeah.

It will all start off then.

It gives me a little bit of goosebumps just to think about it.

I never thought that I would have this chance.

You and others have heard me say before, this is 50 years since my parents emigrated from South Korea.

Next Monday I will be sworn in as the first Korean American never in the U.S. Senate.

I hope to be able to do the state proud.

David: do you know what committees he will be on yet?

>> that is something we are trying to line up.

I won't know until sometime in January or so.

The ratios are going to have to shift between parties and things like that.

A lot of air traffic control.

I hope to be able to focus in on issues related to the high cost of living, building strong economy, a lot of things I'm trying to do on innovation, on technology.

Given my background in national security, hoping that I can continue that in a strong way in the U.S. Senate.

David: you mentioned national security.

We are looking this week at South Korea in crisis.

What do you know about that?

>> yeah.

That was really surreal.

When I first heard the news about the martial law the other day, I assumed that it was a translation error because it was just so crazy to think that an advanced democracy would have martial law.

It's crazy.

I will say leaders in the president's own party stood up against him, condemned the martial law, the National assembly voted within a matter of hours to overturn the martial law.

While it was chaotic and certainly really shaky for the confidence of the people of South Korea, I do take heart that the democratic process was able to get it back on path.

That being said, there will be a lot of accountability.

I know there's efforts to try to impeach the president and other leaders.

We will see where that goes.

This is a strong ally to the United States.

Critical to our work in Asia and the challenges that we face with North Korea, China, Russia.

We have to make sure we stabilize this relationship and his partner.

David: You picked a wonderful time to move into the Senate.

Your party lost the majority in both houses.

So the check and balance on an administration that's talking about some radical changes is gone.

What's the plan to be a check and balance on this president?

>> I didn't sign up to do this work because I thought it would be easy.

I feel very motivated.

I think the challenge before us makes the work I'm trying to do in the Senate all the more important.

I will have a vote on every single nominee for the cabinet, for a lot of other positions.

Have the ability to try to shape some of the legislation that's going to come through.

It's not going to be easy.

I was in the House of Representatives for two years of Trump's previous term.

I know I had that experience under my belt.

I hope to be somebody that can try to not just react but put forward a competing vision for what it is that we need to try to do.

Make sure we take on anticorruption which is going to be all the more important right now.

Have the accountability.

Have a sense of transparency.

It will be difficult but this is why I decided to do this work.

Because we are living through a very tumultuous time.

Very historic moment for our country.

I have a seven-year-old and a nine-year-old.

Two little boys.

I don't want them to grow up with this kind of instability and unpredictability.

David: pardons, the use of pardons.

The president can pardon himself and others in advance of potential crimes.

We saw President Biden pardon his son.

You had some comments on that as well.

>> Yeah.

I was disappointed with the president's decision.

Certainly he had repeatedly said he would not do this.

Again, that shakes the sense of trust that the people have.

I get it.

I know we have seen how Trump has used the pardons in the past and what might happen.

We have seen abuses by every president probably during my lifetime.

It's clearly a tool that is often abused and goes too far.

That's the kind of challenge.

I think people get so frustrated when they feel like politics is some exclusive club for the well-off and the well-connected.

They can live by different roles.

They don't have the same kind of accountability.

So that is certainly a challenge.

David: you look at the powers of the presidency.

They are really broad.

We've just never had a president so intent on activating those kind of powers, no?

>> well yeah.

Look at what we saw with the first Trump presidency.

A lot of the things we thought were checks and balances turned out to be norms.

Just behaviors that most people abided by before.

The challenge that we have right now is, because of this sense of disrupting, the intention of a lot of these nominees, whether that's the nominee for FBI director or others, is to literally try to go after and got the government structures that are asked -- existing.

We see a fundamentally different kind of approach year -- here that is often done.

So yes.

In the Senate, I have more tools at my disposal than I did in the House of Representatives.

I will try to use all of them to the best of my ability to try to navigate through the next few years.

David: Linda McMahon, Marco Rubio, Dr. Oz, Cash Patel.

Not to mention Elon Musk and their Mikasa's promise on me.

It feels like an episode of The Apprentice.

That's going to be a real challenge for you and your fellow senators.

>> yeah.

I have said it in the past.

Sometimes I feel like I work within the world's worst reality TV show.

The reason why I say that is that there is so much of what I call performative governance happening.

People are just putting on a show.

What will be interesting is, are some of these nominees going to do the work?

will they realize that there are a lot at stake, nuts and bolts and making sure that we are delivering for the people?

so we will see what happens next.

I certainly have some of my concerns about these nominees.

I'm going to Baser -- certainly doing my best to ask the tough questions to them and try to make an informed decision.

Be able to articulate that to the people of New Jersey.

David: how deep are your concerns about these calls for mass deportations?

almost a million undocumented here in New Jersey alone.

>> yeah.

Look.

I know we don't know the full number.

Regardless, I think we have a state that, over a quarter were born outside of the United States including my parents and my wife.

What I would say, this is something that also would be so damaging to our economy.

Businesses I talk to are terrified about some of these types of actions.

The main thing we need to make sure we do is abide by rule of law.

That will certainly be what I'm trying to do to adhere to that.

Make sure that families feel protected and they understand what might happen next.

It will be challenging.

It will be very difficult going forward.

David: are the kids playing hooky and going with you to D.C. on Monday?

>> yeah they are.

That will be exciting.

To be able to have them with me.

When I got sworn into the House of Representatives, they were only one and three.

They had no idea what I was doing.

They certainly were rambunctious.

This time around, they really understand what I'm trying to do.

They have a deeper understanding.

They know this is meaningful.

I hope they are proud of me.

They don't fully understand all that's happening in the country right now.

One day it will look back on this and know that I did everything I could.

David: what Legos are you getting them for Christmas?

>> you know it already.

They already have Lego Advent calendar that they are making their way through.

We haven't decided.

Every Christmas we do one big project.

Usually Lego Star Wars.

I haven't decided on what it's going to be this time around.

I'm sure it will be epic.

David: thanks for taking a few minutes with us today.

Don't be a stranger.

>> any time.

Thank you so much.

David: the New Jersey business and industry association held its annual public policy forum, getting insights into what the states business community is thinking and feeling including a roundtable of prospective governors.

Joining us for an update is the president and CEO of the NJ BIA.

Welcome back to the show.

So you had a packed room and an interesting program this week.

I didn't get an invite to the VIP shindig afterwards.

How did it go?

>> you are VIP every day.

We were really pleased.

The program met our expectations.

This is a policy event.

So we go very deep in policy on the economy, what things look like in the state of New Jersey now that we are looking at a Trump Administration of the federal level.

What does that mean for the state?

what can we expect going into a governor election year?

david: this also corresponds with a survey of the state business community.

>> it is our 66th annual.

David: what did you hear from your members?

>> they have a lot of trepidation about where they are and where they are going.

In years past, I would always use the term cautiously optimistic.

That's not what we are seeing right now.

New Jersey business every day, they need predictability and certainty so that they can plan.

Everyone feels that things are very uncertain right now.

David: what are some of the biggest concerns?

I talked to a few people who talked about taxes a lot.

>> affordability.

We come back every day.

It's all about affordability and competitiveness.

We are an outlier.

That affects our regional competitiveness.

We asked the members this year, what is three things that the next governor could do to make New Jersey a more business friendly climate?

the top three things were lower my property taxes, help me with my costs for health insurance, and lower my corporate business taxes.

Shouldn't be any surprise.

These are the things that are pretty much crippling our businesses today by way of their ability to get ahead.

David: what can the next governor do to deal with some of those things?

what did you hear from some of them?

I want to talk specifically about the governors.

>> yeah.

Absolutely.

Let's seriously look at property tax reform here in the state of New Jersey.

We have the anchor program.

New Jersey businesses pay 50% of the property taxes in the state.

They don't get any relief in that anchor program.

Now we are talking about stay NJ which is the program that will bring relief rebates to seniors, supposedly starting next year.

We will see if there's money for it.

I'm doubtful.

New Jersey businesses are left out.

There's never any discussion about how we bring relief to New Jersey businesses on property taxes.

David: Murphy says you get a lot for your high taxes here.

Good schools.

Transportation.

Location.

No?

>> so look.

We did get return on investment.

The problem is, we are paying a super premium at this point.

When you are in the highest taxed, that's bad enough.

We you are -- when you are an extreme outlier, the corporate transit fee went up to 11.5%.

No other states are even in double digits.

That's for $10 million in profit or more.

The other companies are pegging 9% which is still among the fourth highest in the nation.

Every dollar counts for New Jersey business.

We say it every day and we mean it.

Every new mandate, new dollar that you impose on a business is a dollar they have to make up somewhere else.

That's why I -- we had a lot of companies that didn't report profit.

We have companies that are saying for the first time they experienced losses.

David: I mention these want to be governors.

Sean Spiller, Steve Sweeney, Steve Fulop, Bill Stadia, Jack Ciattarelli.

Did anything pop out at you from that?

>> I wrapped up by saying, they all had a lot more common than they had a part.

It wasn't a debate with these candidates.

We were giving them a platform to talk policy and not politics.

To that regard, I was happy to hear that they had the ability to answer questions on, what would you do to bring down the cost of business in the state of New Jersey?

they talked about opportunities around regulation.

Some of them have some strategies about how to drive down or get back to property tax reform.

Let's get around the table and talk about what we can do by way of bringing together municipalities and school districts and cutting some of the fluff out in between that's driving up the costs at the local level.

There were great ideas that were shared yesterday.

Making sure that the business community, that's what we need.

Those are the types of ideas that we need.

There were very refreshing ideas that came out yesterday.

David: one of the questions to the panel was about this task force or something that the governor agreed to that would OK regular meetings with business representatives.

To me, that surprised me.

Why would you need to formalize that?

I thought that was already happening.

Has it been happening?

>> yeah.

The governor signed an executive order weeks ago establishing this economic Council.

The idea being that there will be business individuals who will meet regularly with members of the administration to discuss issues.

Certain business radicals and across the horizontal.

Look.

We are going into the last year of this administration.

We've only asked for the ability to be heard a little bit more for the last seven years.

I think this is a nice move by the governor, a tip of the hat at the event -- end of his administration to recognize the importance of that voice around the table.

We are going into the last year of this administration.

What are we going to accomplish?

where was this eight years ago?

in all frankness and honesty.

David: a new president coming next month.

Expectations?

>> trepidation.

We are schizophrenic as a business community.

We hear good things about decreasing some regulation of responsive -- responsibly obviously.

Looking at things that drive up the cost of doing business.

Continuing tax cuts on the half of business.

On the other site, you hear about tariffs.

You hear about mass deportation.

Tariffs for New Jersey manufacturers could drive up the cost of doing business.

I think we are concerned to understand the details.

Until we see a complete package and what this means, we are holding our breath on that.

Same with the mass deportation.

Let's recognize there is the whole issue of illegal immigration.

I'm not going to go there.

Let's just talk in the sense that we are a diverse state.

We rely on visas here in the state of New Jersey.

Even in our large corporations down to agriculture.

Again, we are holding our breath to see, what do you mean by these policies?

how do we work to make sure that our voices are heard as a collective business community so that we can make sure that New Jersey is well-suited on whatever these policies may be.

David: we are hearing about potentially 5% cuts in all departments of state government across the board.

Is that good news to the business community?

>> 100%.

This is a little bit late in the game.

I year ago at our public policy forum, we had an economic panel where we have four economists talk about the fiscal cliff.

We were not crying wolf.

It's obvious.

We have an extreme deficit right now in our budget going forward.

There was some disclosure documents for purposes of our bond ratings that were just put out this week.

You can see where the deficits are.

The governor's call to freeze right now was significantly important.

We are grateful he did it.

You know what?

it's the warning sign that we've been ringing the bell on over the last year.

We know there was so much extra money in the state post-COVID.

We knew it was important how we spent that money.

Now we are going to reap the backend of all of it.

David: congratulations on another successful policy forum this year.

Good to see you again.

Thanks for taking a few minutes and I hope you have a great holiday.

>> Thank you so much.

Happy Holidays.

David: thanks again to Andy Kim for joining us earlier.

You can follow me on X.

If you like this content, share and subscribe you to channel -- YouTube channel.

I'm David Cruz.

For all the crew here at Gateway Center in downtown Newark, thanks for watching.

We will see you next week.

♪ Announcer: Major funding for "Chat Box with David Cruz" is provided by the members of the New Jersey education Association, making public schools great for every child.

♪