>> Major funding for "Reporters Roundtable" with David Cruz is provided by RWJ Barnabas Health, let's be healthy together.

NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of New Jersey residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey Business Magazine, the magazine of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, reporting to executive and legislative leaders in all 21 counties of the Garden State since 1954.

And by Politico's New Jersey Playbook, a topical newsletter on Garden State politics online at politico.com.

♪ David: down the stretch they come, will it be smooth sailing to the budget finish line?

Hello, everybody.

It is "Reporters Roundtable."

I am David Cruz.

We have a panel with Colleen Wilson, transportation reporter for "The Record," Matt Freeman from "Politico," and Sean Sullivan, a reporter for "NJ Advanced Media."

We will hear from the panel in a few minutes, but we begin with the guy and a lot of people say righted the Murphy ship early in the struggling days of the administration.

He pulled the same trick with Cory Booker's office 100 years ago.

It is a pleasure to welcome back Murphy's chief of staff, George Helmy.

How are you doing?

It is good to see you.

George: thank you for having me back.

David: I am sure you would not agree that you were some kind of miracle worker, but when you look back at those earliest days of the administration, what did you find when you joined the team and what were the things you felt they needed?

George: look, I will start by saying this is the greatest job I have ever had.

It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve this administration and this governor.

When I came in years ago, I'm the longest-serving Chief of Staff in the state's history at this point, I found a governor and administration all in on changing the state and creating a whole new industry from a whole new cloth, reimagining the way we deliver education to all of our children, including our urban and disadvantaged communities.

And I found an incredibly talented team here full of hard-working New Jerseyans who wanted to leave a better future for their children and generations to come.

I think that we have been among the most consequential administrations in the states -- state's history.

David: that is diplomatic, but not exactly what I asked.

What did you need to come in and fix?

I do not have to tell you my friend, those early days the administration was kind of teetering.

George: I would disagree with that.

I think the administration had a courageous vision for New Jersey, with a courageous vision for the future of New Jerseyans.

And wanting to change Trenton.

Change it in a different way.

The Murphy administration was dedicated to its vision and has effectuated a great deal of that.

And I was fortunate to be a small part of that leadership team.

David: were there difficulties dealing with legislators, as there always is when the front office has to deal with lawmakers, but is that something that you needed work on?

I mean the collective you, that those relationships needed to be, A, established and B, strengthened where necessary?

George: as you mentioned in the intro, I was fortunate to be given a a senior opportunity with Cory Booker and meaningful -- and came to Trenton with a number of meaningful relationships in chambers and on both sides of the aisle.

And I was able to use the trust and respect folks had for me in my prior job to help advance some of those conversations.

New Jersey is very lucky to have thoughtful and committed members in the legislature, both in the Senate and assembly on both sides of the aisle.

There are deep disagreements on policy but there is a stability -- civility to the work here.

It could be a model for the nation.

We have been lucky to build on those relationships and get a lot done in a bipartisan way.

David: you referenced your previous job as state director for Senator Cory Booker.

Different, I mean in a way that -- those jobs are kind of the same, but you have got a legislator that you are trying to run the office, then you have an administrator whose office you are trying to run.

What were the differences?

And what were some of the similarities?

George: the difference is the awesome authority of the executive, especially the executive of the State of New Jersey being among the most powerful governorships in basically the world, given the climate we are in.

The challenges you face from infrastructure challenges, like we have seen recently with the tragedy in Pennsylvania.

To the 100 year storms that are every month these days.

As the governor you are responsible for all of that whether it is snow clean up or , managing the devastation of these weather events.

Unfortunately, we have seen too many in New Jersey.

In the legislature, you can be more thoughtful and methodical about legislation.

The pace is not slower, but different.

And having been in the legislature in the U.S. Senate without question helped me.

David: I will run down memory lane more in a minute, but let's get to some current events.

You are reported as saying a deal was near on Stay and J, the senior tax cut plan.

Are you closer to a deal on it and what are the elements of the deal?

George: the speaker and a Senate president incredible partners to my boss throughout my time in delivering on affordability concerns New Jerseyans have had.

We will deliver 18 tax cuts and over $2 million of property tax relief in the last budget alone.

We continue to work with the speaker on his plan, which many of the pillars we had agreement on.

We want to make sure that we work with him to ensure it is sustainable and it has the equity provisions that the governor is interested in seeing.

The speaker has been an incredible leader in ensuring we have answered many of the equity issues the state has had well before any of us were here.

We look forward to continuing to deliver on that affordability narrative.

David: reporting found the biggest beneficiaries of the plane would be well-to-do seniors, is that part of the discussion?

George: the governor has consistently had this idea that New Jersey is the best place to raise a family and as a father of young boys, I agree.

And he would say it becomes -- t o stay and watch a family and grandchildren grow.

So the speaker's thought on how we ensure New Jerseyans can stay in their homes and continue to be among their families in this great state is a pillar we should all seek after.

And we want to make sure that, A, the program helps as many seniors as possible and deliver of relief that they want to see, and it is done in an equitable and sustainable way.

A Ind -- and think we can get there.

David: there is a Preston not the surcharge -- the governor has set a deal is a deal.

Is there any chance the governor will change his mind on that?

George:George: the governor has been firm on this and has made a profound case.

The surcharge was always a temporary surcharge.

Temporary does not mean permanent until otherwise stated.

As you know, the governor has always been a progrowth progressive.

We are among the highest business taxes in the nation into we do not believe taxes are the only way corporations make decisions, but we need to remain competitive.

With the surcharge lapsing, we will go from first to fourth.

We are by no means a state in which corporations are getting an unbalanced trade off.

David: you are in the final two years of the second term of to the administration come already some of the key staff have left.

How do you sell someone on joining the team for only two years?

George: I think I would sell the premise that we have been fortunate that the majority of the cabinet have stayed with this governor since his first days, as a testament to his leadership and vision he has laid out.

And a testament to our joint ability to get things done.i think of folks want -- I think people want to be part of things that are consequential, not only for the immediate, but for generations yet unborn.

This governor has laid out a profound vision for the state, where it is going, and there is so much more work to do.

Plans to be completed and implemented.

It is an easy sell.

The level of talent we are able to continually get to work for the governor is incredible.

David: so everything we hear about you is you are about ready to leave.

Can you confirm that with us?

Where might you be going?

George: no news to break there.

Although, as I said earlier this is the greatest job I have ever had, but also the hardest.

At some point and will hang up the boxing gloves.

The only thing I can say is I am looking forward to spending more time with my sons, Joshua and Elijah.

And I will figure out what to do for my job at a later time.

David: he is a diplomat with an iron fist.

George Helmy is the Chief of Staff for Governor Phil Murphy.

Thanks for coming on.

George: thank you again.

David: panel -- it's good to see you.

Matt, we just heard from the governor's chief of staff, the longest-serving Chief of Staff in history.

In the early days, the administration was kind of flopping around.

What has his impact been?

Matt: I think that he came from Cory Booker's office and had a lot of relationships already, and relationships are obviously important in Trenton.

Things turned around pretty quickly under George Helmy.

And fairly a little bit of controversy here and there, but he is still well-liked after all these years.

It's David: it is -- it is all about relationships.

David: his main role is all about a sherpa.

The governor does not have a lot of strong allies in the legislature per se, right?

Matt: right.

Murphy was a fundraiser for a long time and he was not used to the needy and greedy of the policy work and the politics of New Jersey, you know.

Every little fiefdom that you have to deal with and every boss you have to talk to.

And it is not that Murphy's previous Chief of Staff did not know that, but George Helmy was in depth.

And those are the kinds of skills you develop as a state director, for example, for a U.S.

Senator, those statewide skills.

David: calling, New Jersey transit is doing fine, says the governor.

We had him on "Chat Box" this week.

Do thate mean the budget has dedicated funding sourcess -- does that mean the budget has dedicated funding sources for some swanky trains?

Colleen: I guess you could say that things are going OK, but obviously the forecasting is showing a lot of red.

David: how is his budget treating them?

What are they going to do about the billion dollar deficit now They going to do about the billion dollar deficit?

-- what are they going to do about the billion dollar deficit now?

Colleen: no one has come up with a solution yet.

The assembly budget chair, last month, did not want to address it.They said it was something to look into next year and it would be probably a very tough issue to face.

Not only do they have to come up with a solution to fund the agency, they also have the TTF expiring.

It will be a lot of issues.

We are seeing forecasting not only for New Jersey transit staying in deficit, but the state as well with a new report out this week forecasting a grim future as far as revenues.

So, New Jersey transit is already there.

There needs to be tough conversations had.

David: meanwhile, in the criminal justice system, we saw a handful of judicial nominees before the judiciary committee this week.

But that is a drop in the bucket.

I think that there are 60 Superior Court judge vacancies.

Sean, what is the impact?

I thisf is a crisis and it has been so for so long, what comes after a crisis?

Sean: good question, because I would describe what we have been in has been a slow crisis going on and we are past the point where the government can get away with blaming the pandemic for things.

And the New Jersey system has been crippled by the pandemic and it is hobbling to get back on track because we do not have enough judges, so there are three counties right now where they are not conducting civil trials and stuff like that.

Just it is being delayed and denied because of the vacancies.

Like I said, the legislature has been addressing this but doing it piecemeal.

You know, the judiciary says as fast as they are nominating new judges, older ones are retiring, so we are in a place where they are treading water.

You have three counties where you have certain kinds of cases not being heard at all.

It is something that I think that the legislature and Murphy administration is really not prepared to acknowledge because we keep seeing the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court not exactly a drama queen, but he keeps begging the legislature and Governor Murphy, who are the only people to put judges in chairs, to do something about it.

David: for the average person, what is not happening?

You mentioned divorces, right?

Does it have an impact on criminal cases?

Sean: criminal cases are still going on, but at a slow pace.

So the, reason why you do not have civil trials or matrimonial trials is because those judges have moved over to criminal trials.

Some do not usually handle criminal cases, but suddenly they are deciding the fate of somebody who is accused of a serious crime.

Judges are on loan.If you have a medical malpractice suit in those three counties, you are not getting paid because no trials are happening.

David: we were talking to the governor about the budget process this week, Matt.

He did not say there was an agreement on this Stay and J plan.

Two weeks to go.

Is it in impasse or distraction?

Matt: they have not reached an agreement.

I think that they made a little bit of progress.

It is not a distraction, it is a real issue, but I do not think anybody -- I think the threat to shut down the government, I don't want to say they are empty but perhaps some hyperbole there.

I do not think anyone wants to go that far, but the administration's tactics are like aggressive, walk it back, say that they are close to a deal.

I do not think that they are that close.

But they get aggressive, they say terrible things about the plan, they take the temperature down.

And then yesterday, Thursday, we had some really bad revenue figures in, which normally is not what we are eager to highlight.

But they not only put out the numbers in clear terms without the usual spin on why the governor is great, but goes on to, in case you missed it, a press release, clearly a negotiating tactic regarding the high price tag on the speaker's proposal.

David: a passive-aggressive progressive.

[LAUGHTER] It has been a week since the I-95 collapse.

We heard predictions of things getting more expensive.

And it will take forever to get around.

One weekend, what do we know about how things are going and what impact it is having?

Colleen: that is going much quicker than anticipated or what was originally talked about.

They are already finished with clearing the demolition in less then a week since the horrible collapse.

The next phase will be rebuilding.

That is -- i seems the construction portiont is what can be done relatively quickly.

But the procurement is what will hold up this kind of thing.

So that is really on government to, you know, Hassan the process -- hasten the process.

David: have we seen traffic increase through the area or are people adapting?

Colleen: I think that there is some traffic.

I read a report about somebody trying to go and it took an extraordinary amount of time to go locally because of the detours.

As I saw in the inquirer, ridership increased by 12% just this week.

So, that goes to show also that in a crisis, you know, people should get out of their cars, and even not in a crisis, an use public transportationd.

That's for them.

It has had ridership issues, so that could be a good thing in the long term.

>> I think it is remarkable, when it comes to car infrastructure, people recognize an emergency when they see it.

When it comes to everything else, it can wait.

Cars are so prioritized.

I no we built the country around it, but look at what happens.

And we also have built in redundancies here we do not have with mass transit.

And that is we have the Turnpike, 295 with the through traffic, which normally would often, unless they are cheap, ca n use that instead of the Philadelphia.

I guess this is more of a traffic nightmare for Philadelphia.

It would have been a complete nightmare for me because that is my way to Trenton.

I would be screwed.

Thank God I moved.

Screw all of them, I do not care.

David: that is what everybody in Philadelphia said about you.

[LAUGHTER] Sean, you had an interesting story a couple weeks ago paid we had laughs -- ago.

We had laughs at Newark's expense.

But -- were scammed for real.

What happened?

Sean: this is something that flew under the radar.

I found out about it because there was a federal indictment involving schemers in Texas and they allegedly were doing email scams and duped Edison Township into thinking that they were a vendor who they owed money to because they had hacked an account and transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to an account controlled by these folks.

It is something that flies under the radar a little bit.

People hear about seniors being targeted by schemers, but they also target businesses and local governments.

Whether it is stealing money or holding town websites or data hostage for Bitcoin or whatever, very often the governments end up being scammed.

And we may not find out about it if nnot for court records that disclose them.

David: it is time for our only in Jersey segment, notes that are quintessential Jersey.

Do you have one?

Matt: I have been hawking this story because I spent a couple weeks digging through records related to a boardwalk amusement game violation.

My colleague and I crunched the numbers and we got five years of data on amusement game violations on the Jersey shore.

And we found the clog game is the biggest scam going.

That seems to be the source of a lot of violations.

The claw comes down and comes back up with no prize.

[LAUGHTER] And our own on the ground, this is footage from our investigation -- I was really gunning for that Mario and was unable to get it.

The story was spurred by a basketball vendor who was giving a fine for over inflating basketballs.

It opened my eyes to scams.

A basketball games on the boardwalk were almost banned because of the scandal.

David: what?

Sean: this is the deepest dive I have done on these kinds of stories.

David: Matt?

Matt: Sam Thompson retiring, after switching from Republican to Democrat, after his party ditched him.

Because he was too old.

Now, his wife of 66 years just died.

And he is on his own and he wants to think of something to do and he is thinking about going to law school.

It is interesting that they thought he was too old to be a senator where the average age is summer in the 60's and now he will go to law school with people in their 20's.

If he actually does.

I think it is interesting.

David: it sounds like a CBS-TV drama ready to go there.

Sam Thompson.

Matt: Thompson Law!

David: there you go.

Colleen?

Colleen: my colleague, Nick, wrote up that since 2014 they have been looking for the burglars of the Yogi Bear Museum and they finally caught the people who grabbed priceless memorabilia.

And sadly got rid of it.

And stupidly melted down championship rings, things like that, even though they were worth more money on auction than being melted and sold.

It is a sad story but I think of the family is happy to see those people brought to justice.

David: if they were smart they would not be breaking into baseball museums.

Mine is open.

The great New Jersey sports writer Jim Haig passed away last week.

We worked together for many years.

Jim had a tremendous knowledge of the local sports scene.

And hearing him work, because he was loud, gave me an appreciation for what an important rol schoole sports played in the life of a community.

The kids, their families, the coaches, the schools -- all of it.

Jim Haig was a giant of a man, literally 6'8".

And he wrote it like you saw it and he did not give a crap what you thought of it.

Rest in peace.

You can have those 500 extra words.

Good to see you all.

Thanks to George Helmy for joining us.

You can follow the show on Twitter and get exclusive content when you subscribe to the YouTube channel.

From the entire crew here, thank you for watching.

>> major funding for "Reporters Roundtable" with David Cruz is provided by RWJ Barnabas Health, let's be healthy together.

NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey Business Magazine, the magazine of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, reporting to executive and legislative leaders in all 21 counties of the Garden State since 1954.

And by Politico's New Jersey Playbook, a topical newsletter on Garden State politics online at politico.com.

♪ ♪