[Theme Music] -We're ticking down to the end of budget season.

Hi everyone, I'm Joanna Gagis.

This is Reporters Roundtable.

We've got a panel of journalists here with us to help break down all that's happened in the last week of New Jersey news.

Let's check out who we have with us.

We have Colleen Wilson, transportation reporter with The Record and NorthJersey.com, Jelani Gibson, politics reporter with NJ Advanced Media, and our own Colleen O'Dea, senior writer and projects editor with NJ Spotlight News.

So, the legislature's been questioning each of the department heads of Governor Sherrill's cabinet process.

Treasury took its what was first expected.

about what treasurer Aaron Yeah, there's maybe as mu in, which of course is go always good.

Um, what the governor has said is that he'd like to see that money or the governor would like to put that money in surplus.

Um, you know, our surplus has dwindled as we've spent down money over the last few years.

Uh, what legislators have been saying is that they'd like to see more of that money spent perhaps on more school aid, perhaps on other items.

You know, we've, we've heard legislators, uh, legislators all along, uh, during this process, complaining about these, uh, negotiations.

They're called these individual spending, um, projects that they've put into the budget being completely cut out this year.

So, um, what happens to that money?

We don't know yet.

Jelani, pick up on Colleen's point that legislators are calling for more school funding.

It's something that we're seeing on both sides of the aisle.

What have you heard from legislators?

Well, the legislators made very clear during the hearing that when it comes to negotiations, they're going to add more, um, ask for, you know, school funding, you know, even Senate budget chair, Sarah Lowe literally said, you know, expect to get some questions about school funding from both sides of the aisle.

And so when it comes to the budget negotiations and what the final budget looks like, if there's any money that's put back in, a large portion of those items are probably going to be education.

But the treasurer also still stuck to their guns and made clear that any increase in funding, it would be their preference for that increase in funding to be accompanied by cuts.

So probably a potential tension point there.

Yeah, we saw a tension point, some back and forth between Senator Declan O'Scanlan and the governor talking indirectly and responding to each other indirectly through interviews and other formats, but he's calling for more money for schools.

Do you know how, can you tell us kind of what that back and forth looked like between them?

Yeah, well, I mean, there's always been a back and forth between Declan O'Scanlan and almost every Democratic governor when it comes to the budget.

to be clear, it's not just Declan O'Scanlon.

It's also people from the other side of the aisle in the Democratic Party.

And a particular sore point for Republicans also seems to be funding for schools that are in their districts and also funding for schools that might not be able to raise their property taxes due to part of their municipality being on protected land.

Yeah, that's part of the Highlands Act.

We know we've seen in Jefferson and towns surrounding there some real strain on the school budget because of that protected land, because they are part of the Highlands Act.

So right now, a lot of questions remain about what does happen with this surplus.

As legislators try to figure out this part of the budget, Colleen, there's a whole lot going on when it comes to World Cup and the preparedness for the matches.

Money is top of mind across the board, but there's some news that came out recently in terms of ticket prices.

Just kind of tell us what's happening when it comes to transit, folks trying to get to and from the games using NJ Transit.

Yeah, I mean what we've seen is this kind of really interesting classic New York, New Jersey rivalry to get prices down for the World Cup shuttle prices.

So as on the same night that New Jersey Governor Mikey Sherrill announced that the New Jersey transit shuttle price would go down to $98 from originally $150, you had Governor Kathy Hoeple in New York announcing that the host committee sponsored bus shuttles would go down to $20, in part because of an infusion from their state tax dollars and on the contingency that, or on the condition that some of those, about 20%, would be reserved for New York residents.

Let me jump in here, Colleen, because we spoke with NJ Transit CEO Chris Calori.

I want to play a quick clip that he, in my conversation with him earlier this week, that he explains a bit of how on the New Jersey side they were able to adjust.

Let's hear what he had to say.

Governor has been very forthright on this from the very beginning.

She says that, she has said, that New Jersey commuters or taxpayers would not pick up the tab for fans to go to the stadium and back to their destination.

But I will tell you, at the same time, she also said that she will, and the administration would look for sponsorships to defray the cost of the transportation that we have to provide.

And in the end, it was a combination of corporate sponsors, higher than anticipated advertising revenue to New Jersey Transit, and frankly, federal grants that came in that ultimately brought the cost down from $150 to $98.

So Colleen, just looking at how the difference in terms of how they're handling these ticket prices, he says Governor Sherrill's been really clear about not putting this on the backs of our taxpayers.

You see some stark difference here, yes?

Yeah, look, I think where Governor Sherrill is coming from is that she knows that New Jersey has already paid and invested over, at least from our count, over $300 million into this tournament.

So continuing to shift that burden onto either the commuters or the New Jersey taxpayers isn't an option she wants to pursue.

So and again, I mean, she has made the point.

Others have made this point.

FIFA stands to earn over $11 billion in profit from this tournament.

So she has specifically called them out about, you know, stepping in, trying to subsidize that cost and bring those costs down for their fans.

Jelani, there was a proposal on the table that would increase the sales tax by about 3% during the time that the World Cup was here in New Jersey.

Where do we stand with that?

And perhaps legislators and the governor seeming like they wanted to pad the budget maybe even a little bit more and take advantage of this moment.

- Yeah, well, it's looking like it's dead right about now.

You know, Senate Budget Chair Sarlo also made clear during the sessions this week that he felt as if the tax wasn't going to happen.

That tax also affects a lot of businesses that are in his backyard as well.

And Governor Sherrill also alluded to legislative, this deign for it several days ago.

And so between what Governor Sherrill has said and between what the budget chair has said, it's more than likely dead in the water.

- I think I heard him say, "We just can't get that done in time."

I'm just curious, obviously it's not, it doesn't seem like it's gonna move at all, but I'm curious your thoughts if it had.

Would this have perhaps been an early mark on the Sherrill administration?

Do you think folks would have reacted negatively who live in the region, who would have been impacted by that increase?

- Well, from a variety of the sources that I've talked to on background, the governor's office was just fine with it, but it was the legislators that were getting heartburn about the matter and the business industry basically lodged a very intensive effort to talk to the legislators that were in the backyard of the places that would have been affected.

you mentioned some of these, you know, we call them earmarks, right?

We call them Christmas tree items, pork barrel spending, but it's these add-ons to the budget that often come late in the process.

You wrote about this this week.

The governor says early on she's doing away with it.

What can you tell us about some of the digging and research that you did into how those earmarks typically get doled out?

Yeah, so we periodically do this.

We did this again looking at last year's, or the earmarks, Christmas tree items, whatever you want to call them in the current budget.

And it's about $600 million just going to very, very parochial items, right, not including items that might benefit people across the state.

And 80% roughly of those go to Democratic districts.

Republicans got only one of their requests in, and that was one by Senator Singer, who was part of a district with Assemblyman Schnell, who is a Democrat, and that's pretty much the only reason that that one got in.

It's a process that's very different from the federal process in that, regardless of who is in control of the House and the Senate, both Republicans and Democrats are able to put in these requests and get money for their districts.

That's not what happens at the state level.

It was 99.999% of those requests came from Democrats.

And not only, I mean, we're talking about earmarks and it can seem like a kind of small thing when we say things like add-ons, earmarks, but this is hundreds of thousands of dollars in each case, right?

You gave a few examples.

A lot of this goes to things like playgrounds, right?

Yeah.

You know, and there's no question that many, if not most of these, go to programs that are important.

I mean, it would be hard to argue against some of these things, but there are others that go, you know, to help fund a town's maintenance or just help a town out, help a school district out for the year.

And again, just about every town, just about every school district is saying, "We need help.

How come we don't get the help?"

I think that's the point of it, is that these things are not given out under a, you know, like in a blind process where people would fill out an application, as we talked about, these local recreation grants, which is something that DCA gives out, and that is a competitive grant process.

That's not the process that happens in the legislature.

It's if, you know, you ask your legislator, and if he happens, or she happens to be a Democrat, and they happen to, you know, have a good relationship, I guess, with the, you know, the Speaker or the Senate President leadership, then they can get that in the budget.

Yeah, not a very transparent process, as we've learned, as we've seen over the years.

Jelani, the governor signed a bill in a bar.

Tell us what happened with this bill signing in a bar that the governor says was her first, but maybe not her last time that she's doing that.

- Yeah, so basically, you know, during the World Cup, bars are going to have more autonomy over their hours.

They're gonna be able to stay open later, or they can also open up earlier.

It's usually gonna be on a town by town basis, but the entire intention here is to basically allow municipalities to, you know, leverage the World Cup and to basically generate as much revenue as possible.

Now this is not a requirement, right?

If a municipality doesn't want to have these late hours, they don't have to, right?

Correct, correct.

It's a town by town determination.

Do you have a sense as to how municipalities are responding in terms of those who are wanting to have these later hours, these later options?

Do we have any clarity there yet?

Well, I mean, obviously, Hoboken is very much a fan of those options.

They also had the mayor there and she said they plan to definitely have a lot of block parties and so more than likely a lot of the municipalities with a large you know population of bars and also soccer fans, municipalities that are going to be in proximity to the stadium, those are usually the towns and municipalities you will be looking at here that may be basically changing their hours.

Yeah we'll be watching to see who jumps on that.

Colleen Wilson, some news came out yesterday that was pretty startling for folks who've been following World Cup and all that's transpired.

What can you tell us about the host committee, the New York/New Jersey host committee, buying tickets to the games, to the matches for New York.

Yeah, New Jerseyans were pretty shocked by this.

So it seems that the New York/New Jersey host committee at the behest of Zoran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, who's a big soccer fan and also a big critic actually of FIFA from what it seems, sought a thousand tickets that could be, you know, basically affordable for his residents and constituents and worked it out with the host committee and the FIFA president to do so and they announced it yesterday.

What's so startling about that is that New York City is a co-host partner with New Jersey, which is of course where the actual tournament is taking place.

And New Jersey didn't get one ticket.

Okay, I'm going to throw this out to the panel because look, New Jersey is not, we're no stranger to being considered the little sibling, right, of New York.

We're in the shadow, metaphorically, in just about every way.

But Colleen O'Dea, Jelani, jump in here in terms of what you make of the way that all this is handled and whether New Jersey really, one, has taken on more than New York, or two, gotten the raw end of the deal.

Colleen O'Dea, let's start with you.

So, you know, one of the things that I was thinking about is the chair of this committee, we were told, was the former governor's wife, Tammy Murphy.

We haven't seen or heard from Tammy Murphy, at least I haven't, in months.

I know that after the governor Murphy left office, the Murphys, I think that night, went off on a trip.

I'm not sure if they're back, but you would have thought that if, you know, if she was the chair of the host committee, that New Jersey would have seen some sort of benefit.

And it certainly does not sound like we're getting it based on this ticket.

I mean, I would think that New Jersey soccer fans should be outraged.

Yeah, that's a great point that you raise about the former first lady.

Jelani, your thoughts here?

I would just like to take the time to remind everybody that the stadium is in New Jersey.

And even though the stadium is in New Jersey, New York still seems to be getting first billing on just about everything, from the name of the stadium to the ticket prices.

Governor Sherrill has obviously said that she's a fan of soccer, but that her love of soccer does not always extend to FIFA.

And so, you know, it is oftentimes the view of their administration that some of these maneuvers are clearly acts of retaliation for her criticism of the organization itself.

It's a great point that you raise about the stadium being in New Jersey.

And I can't help but think that for so many folks, especially who don't know the area, who come from overseas, they're not even going to know that they're in New Jersey because they're going to get on a train, they're going to transfer, transfer, and really not know where in space they are.

And so I bet folks go home saying, wow, we had a great time in New York, not even realizing that they ever stepped foot in New Jersey.

Colleen Wilson, you have been critical even before this move, you've been critical of the host committee.

You said that they, you wrote an article saying, where are they?

Like they should have been doing a whole lot more.

What could, what should the host committee have been doing that you think or that analysis shows didn't happen for our state?

Yeah, it's a really interesting dynamic.

I mean, the host committee, I will say, and I think the reporting showed also that they are in a really tough spot.

They are a really unusual organization that has to manage a lot of different things.

They handle security, they handle all of the planning.

They have to work with all of the different local governments.

And in this case, which is truly unique, I think, with all the other host cities, there's actually two different states, not a city like, you know, in Boston, you have Boston and Foxborough where the Gillette Stadium is.

And FIFA does not allow them to get sponsors that are similar to their sponsors that they have.

They have Copa Cola, they have Visa, they lock up all the big ones.

So the local host committees can't compete with that.

So they're kind of left with more local, you know, real estate, law firms, health care organizations, things like that.

And look, I mean, they had the opportunity, the New York/New Jersey Host Committee, to lock up 20 sponsors.

Last they told me, they have seven.

And the point of those sponsors is to help reduce the cost on the local governments that ultimately will foot this bill.

And again, our reporting shows New Jersey has so far been the primary footer, if you will, of that bill.

So it's really discouraging.

It explains what we are hearing from a lot of different places, that there is a lot of tension among all of these host partners.

You have the former Murphy administration that is largely, and as Colleen O'Dea pointed out, led by, the host committee is led by his wife.

And then you have the Sherrill administration that came in, that had to execute, you know, plans that weren't quite ready.

They had to come in and it seems they decided that they needed to make some pretty swift changes in order to make this tournament a success.

And it will ultimately be in many ways her legacy.

Her name will be on the headlines when the headlines get written about how this tournament goes.

Sorry to interrupt you there.

Jelani, do you see some posturing here between Governor Kathy Hochul in New York and Governor Sherrill here, just in terms of how they handle ticket prices and how they've posted about it?

Do you see this being a tension point between those two governors?

Well, I mean, there's certainly been, you know, the occasional, you know, lighthearted jab between both of them in terms of social media statements.

But you know, the jab certainly comes from on the New Jersey side of basically New York getting a better deal, even though all of the fiscal infrastructure of what has to happen with the event is, you know, coming to New Jersey.

All right, switch gears quickly.

We've got an update, I think, on Congressman Tom Kane, Jr., who's been missing from Washington for a couple months now.

Jelani, what's the latest?

He's made a re-emergence, kind of?

Well, you know, he did an interview in the Globe, and there's also been some social media chatter.

But basically, he said that he's dealing with an illness and that his prognosis is good and that people can expect to hear from him in the next couple of days to next couple of weeks.

Okay, so Colleen O'Dea, we've got a hotly contested District 7 primary coming up on June 2nd.

It's right around the corner.

Tell us what's happening.

We've got Rebecca Bennett, I think taking the lead by close to double digits.

Where are we with it?

Where are we there?

Yeah, that's exactly what's happening.

And for the first time, we are seeing some negative ads.

There's a dark money group called Real Change PAC that we don't know much about, but there are the ideas that there's probably Republicans behind it trying to portray Bennett as not really anti-ICE, whereas the other candidates are.

And the idea being that the Republicans would least like to face Bennett, that she would be the strongest candidate.

And Tina Shah, one of the Democrats who's running, has also put out some mailers and an ad criticizing Bennett for being a Republican for most of her life.

She was a registered Republican up until 2016, and she's a Republican now.

She was a Republican before that because that's what her parents were.

Tom Malinowski, the former congressman in that district, a Democrat, criticized Shaw, saying Democrats shouldn't be infighting.

The goal should be to take that seat back.

So there's a lot going on in the district right now.

It's T-minus less than two weeks until that election.

Jelani, I'm going to let you close us out.

What in the world might be happening to Jersey pizza?

Listen, I don't care if you're from New York.

We in Jersey know we have the better pizza.

But that might change.

The recipe might change.

What's this bill that's in front of the legislature?

It doesn't matter how the recipe changes.

Jersey will still always have the best pizza regardless.

But basically there's a bill that's making its way through the legislature and it's going after additives and food dyes.

One of the things that is being talked about is a specific ingredient that's used in pizza dough to basically help cook it quicker.

It's not used in all pizza, but there are some pizza people who say that that's what's needed to basically give you your pizza on time.

And so the legislature is saying there are health-- - But it's a carcinogen though, yes?

It's a carcinogen, this one ingredient.

- Yeah, yeah.

And so I can tell you, it's also a potential carcinogen as well, which is the reason why the legislature is going after it.

And the food industry is saying that it's going to result in increased costs.

So we'll see how that one turns out.

- We'll see how that turns out.

I think it's important to note this bill is co-sponsored by Republican Senator Mike Testa, who's Italian himself.

We'll see what happens and if, in fact, this does change our pizza here in New Jersey.

But Colleen Wilson, Jelani, Colleen O'Dea, thank you so much for being with us today.

Follow me on Instagram @joannagagisnj and go ahead and scan that QR code on your screen to see more episodes of Roundtable.

On behalf of all the crew working behind the scenes to put this show together, I'm Joanna Gagis.

Thanks for being with us.

A huge thank you to our veterans and all who've served our country.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.