[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

Welcome to a very important conversation we have with State Assemblyman Al Barlas, who represents the 40th legislative district.

First of all, welcome Assemblyman.

- Good morning, thank you, Steve.

Thank you for having me.

- You are Bergen County, Essex, Passaic, three different counties in one legislative district.

- 15 towns.

- 15 towns.

- By way of background talk about it.

In fact, I met you through former senator Kevin O'Toole, who's now the chair of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

You work with the senator, your movement from being a "staff person," also the chair of the Republican Party in Essex County to elective office.

Talk about that journey for you.

- Never thought it would happen.

I sort of enjoyed being behind the scenes.

I enjoyed, you know, shaping policy, being involved in certain meetings, but never had a desire to put my name on a ballot.

And then after the latest round of redistricting, the opportunity presented itself for Essex County to have a representative in the delegation.

And you know, certain opportunities like that don't come around much in life.

But when it was there, I took it.

- Born in Pakistan.

- Born in Pakistan.

Moved here when I was four years old.

- Describe that.

- You know, it was, you know, I talked to my parents a lot about that and one of the reasons why they came was for opportunity, right?

I mean, Pakistan was at that time, you know, and still is to this day an unstable democracy.

It's unstable economically.

And so my parents decided that in order for them and for myself and eventually for my younger sister to have opportunities, to have a real safe, secure life, and be able to provide for yourself, they had to leave Pakistan.

And that's why we came here.

- You know, your background clearly, all of us.

I mean, I served, as you know, in the state legislature for one of the shortest terms in the history of, yeah, I know.

- I wasn't gonna go there, Steve.

I'm gonna break your record, that's my goal.

- Leave it alone, will you?

Just win your next election is the key.

I didn't, so let's do this, affordability in New Jersey.

A huge issue for all of us.

But for you, what does the state need to do in your opinion, particularly in the legislature, to deal with the affordability problem in the state?

- Look, I think that's a big issue.

I'm the first one in my family to own a home.

And property taxes, listen, they're a part of a civilized society in order to provide the services that we have.

But I think the state has to do more.

We have to fund our schools at a better level than we do today.

Granted, we made a huge investment in schools this year, but we also cut funding to a hundred some odd districts.

That's just not fair.

And when I talk affordability, obviously a lot of people immediately go to property taxes, property taxes, and property taxes.

But there's also what comes outta your paycheck and the cost of your taxes, the cost of fuel, the cost of groceries, everything is an affordability issue.

When you talk to the average New Jerseyan, it's not just their property taxes because plenty of people are renters and they still have a hard time being able to afford to live here.

So, for me, affordability is everything.

It's the cost of goods, it's the cost of services, it's obviously property taxes, and it's also creating economic opportunity for folks to have better higher paying jobs so that they can and continue to live here.

- But as someone, and the other piece of that is we've been doing an ongoing series for years about affordable, the need for affordable accessible childcare.

That's an affordability issue too.

It's an economic development issue as well.

Your views as to what needs to be done to strengthen the childcare system in the state.

- So listen, there's no doubt about it.

I have a three and a half year old and a five and a half year old.

I mean, last year between the two kids, I think we spent close to $30,000 on childcare costs.

That's after taxes, right?

So you gotta make close to $60,000 to be able to pay for two kids to go to childcare.

And that's a lot for a lot of folks.

So now you sacrifice your child's early development education or your ability to earn a living.

And these are choices that nobody should have to make, right?

And so I think there has to be more incentives to open more childcare centers.

There have to be tax incentives and tax benefits for folks who have to go to work, but have to pay for childcare.

So if you don't get it on the front end of having more childcare facilities, then the state should provide more incentives on the backend through taxes for folks who do have to pay for childcare.

- Assemblyman, let's talk a little bit about urban issues.

We do a series called Urban Matters, the graphic will be up, people can check out previous segments we did and programs we've done on Urban Matters, whole range of urban matters.

Talk about crime.

And I wanna ask you this in particular, because there's so much media coverage.

We're doing this program mid toward the late end of September.

It'll be seen later.

So much talk about crime and its connection to the migrant crisis.

Do you believe that there's an accurate description that crime is through the roof and out of control in urban communities, not other communities, but disproportionate urban communities in large part because of the immigration crisis?

- Listen, I think crime is crime.

Doesn't matter where you come from at the end of the day.

And there is there a crime problem in our state and in our country?

Absolutely there is.

You know, we could talk about the root causes of it.

You could talk about immigration, you could talk about lack of economic opportunity.

You could talk about a desperate need of folks trying to be able to just get by today.

So they resort to these types of acts in order to make ends meet.

Whatever the reason or the rationale is separate.

I think the issue that we have in Essex County for us, Steve, you're in Montclair, I'm in Cedar Grove, is crime is an issue in both urban and suburban communities.

It may be different kinds of crime, right?

But crime is still crime.

And ultimately that impacts everybody in one way or another.

Whether you feel unsafe to walk out after dark, whether you feel you're worried about your car being jacked from your driveway or your home broken into at 10 o'clock at night as you're watching TV, whatever it is, we have to address it.

And I think we have to sort of think outside the box in terms of how we provide resources to law enforcement to fight crime.

You know, you have to look at the liability issue.

You have to look at allowing police officers to pursue criminals, license plate readers that have been help for a lot of communities that are chasing car thieves up and down in our case, right?

280 Bloomfield Avenue, whatever you wanna say.

So I think we have to, we have to look at it from a perspective of, in order to fight crime and provide a safer community for both urban and suburban residents, we have to be willing to explore every and all options.

- Assemblyman lemme shift gears with the time we have left.

You call yourself a quote, pragmatic conservative, the graphic is gonna come up.

We've been doing an ongoing series called Democracy in Danger.

It is in danger.

I know you agree.

It is, it's not debatable.

You, Senator O'Toole before you and Kevin and I have talked about this for years.

He writes about it at NJ Globe as well.

You should check it out.

- He makes me read it.

- Excuse me?

- He makes me read it.

- Well, me too, but I also learn from it every time I get one of Kevin's articles.

But here's why I'm raising this.

We are so polarized.

You don't need me to tell you that.

We fight, we argue, but then we're somehow enemies.

What does it mean to be a quote pragmatic conservative and how the heck does someone who is so reasonable and moderate, like you fit into a Republican party that sometimes doesn't feel that way.

Democrats have their own extreme folks who are way, way outta the mainstream.

But how do you deal in your party as the pragmatist that you are?

- I think the biggest thing, Steve, is conversations like this.

And as I tell folks that I talk to of all ages about this issue, the one thing I always say is you don't agree with your family on a hundred percent of all issues.

You don't agree with your friends on a hundred percent of all issues.

You can disagree with somebody on their views on a particular issue, whether it's crime or education or anything else, or taxes or whatever, without that person being a bad person, right?

Steve, you've been a Democrat your entire life.

I've been a Republican my entire life.

Your lineage is second to none.

But at the end of the day, what our fathers taught us is that there's a time and a place for that, and then there's a time and a place for coming together, because there is a greater good that we all have to achieve.

And that is to move our communities and our country and our state forward.

And so you have to be willing to understand and respect the other person's point of view and be okay with taking half a loaf today in order to move the ball forward, so you can make everything better tomorrow.

- What a radical idea.

The idea of trying to find ways even when we disagree with, there's some common ground and not hate each other.

State assemblyman.

I was just elevating you to the Senate, sorry.

- Please don't do that.

I'm happy right where I am.

- State assemblyman Al Barlas from the 40th legislative district.

Thank you Assemblyman.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you, Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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