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

Rowan University, educating New Jersey leaders, partnering with New Jersey businesses, transforming New Jersey's future.

Promotional support provided by the New Jersey business magazine, reporting to executive and legislative leaders in all 21 counties of the Garden State since 1954, and by politicos New Jersey playbook, topical newsletter on Garden State politics, online at Politico.com.

♪ David: Take cover, New Jersey, the state budget is coming.

Hi.

It is Reporters Roundtable.

I am a big cruise.

Colleen O'Dea, the project editor from NJ Spotlight News, Terrence McDonald, the editor at New Jersey monitor, and a columnist for insider NJ.

We will hear from the panel and a bit, but we begin a couple of weeks away from the governor's annual budget address.

As it belt-tightening time?

Looks like it.

Here to discuss how much is the Senate Republican budget officer Declan is scaling -- Declan O Scanlon.

Welcome back.

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: Thank you for having me.

Honored to be an distinguished company, all of you.

David: Oh man.

This will be a long day.

I was talking to the budget committee chairman a few weeks ago, and he said there are storm clouds gathering, so are the good times over?

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: Actually, we have way overdone the good times.

What we should have been doing over the past six years, and longer than that actually, certainly the past six years, is getting our fiscal house in order, avoiding structural deficit, and even the governor acknowledges it exists.

Because we have not done so, I don't really care how big our circle is, we run the real risk of running out of federal money, needlessly borrowed money, at a time when we have revenues on the downslope rather than expanding.

That could be a perfect storm, which could really be a problem, and it is a shame we wasted the last six years.

Republicans -- only now, it is at risk of being acknowledged.

David: I will read a press release from the Senate Republican office, it says members called on Governor Murphy to embrace their long board constructive ideas -- long ignored constructive ideas that would help address the affordability crisis in New Jersey.

I don't know if the governor is watching, but let's have a few, Senator.

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: Well, we have a whole host of things.

You can start with school funding reform, which, again, wasted precious years.

Had we done it a few years ago, we would have had billions in savings, and it would have been fair to school districts that have been screwed by this administration.

David: What else have you got?

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: We could do another round of health benefits reform and save hundreds of millions of dollars.

By the way, using suggestions from labor that the administration has refused to accept.

We could and should look at another round of pension reforms that would make it more fair to lower the income pensioners that have not cost-of-living increases for a while, while also saving money.

There are scores and scores of ideas that could save upwards of billions of dollars.

David: So what has got to go?

The Sweeney center put out a report that raised some doubts, and there is the state NJ program, -- Stay NJ program, you are OK with that stopping before it starts I imagine?

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: That was a phony, a waste of paper when the press release was written.

That was an election-year gimmick that was unaffordable.

Commitment has been made.

Our friends on the other side of the aisle like to make commitments for tax event affordability, but then they are the first things on the chopping block to go rather than make our government more sustainable and less expensive.

They cut the meager relief that the taxpayers of New Jersey get, so it will not surprise me if that is the first thing to go.

It should not be.

He made the commitment and should stick to it.

Republicans called it the phony promise it was right from the start.

Again, we have already seen hinting that it is not going to happen, and that report you cited at the Sweeney center, this is most Democrats, ones I respect, by the way, but they're calling for structural deficit between $2 billion and $7 billion between 2025 and 2028 every year.

This was not hard to see coming, and we could have avoided much of the structural deficit had we taken advantage of the past six years of the breathing room we had.

Instead, we said to Hell with it, and every year, budget year to year, kicked the can down the road, and now we could be facing tough times and choices.

David: Here is something we have heard about a lot recently.

What do you do about finding a reliable, regular source of funding for NJ transit?

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: Well, you do exactly -- again, it stems back to comprehensive review.

David: Hold on, corporate business tax.

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: There are a lot of people that signed the corporate business tax.

My friends on the other cited the aisle are cutting tax relief for taxpayers or increasing taxes.

Always the first thing out of their mouths.

The publicans would say start with leaner, more efficient government.

If you did that, you would avoid -- potentially could have avoided attacks and toll increases we have seen the past few years, and they have been massive, despite the governor saying there are no tax increases in his budgets, almost every year, there have been hundreds of millions of increases.

It is, again, almost a $55 billion bloated budget.

David: So you are saying not so much get a source, per se, but find it from the existing fit the $55 billion budget?

Got it, Tom Bracken of the state Chamber of Commerce floated the idea of bringing the sales tax cut to 7%.

You like that?

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: I will not pledge to any of these things until we have a real discussion, which includes Republicans at the table.

I will sign on to sound solutions that make sense, and I will help sell it to people in New Jersey if there were no other alternatives.

I am happy to say that, but we will be left out of the room, and they will come up with tax increases and pretty much nothing else that continued to crush the hard-working people in New Jersey.

David: Let me get to a couple other things while I have got you for a minute or two.

There is a field forming now in the Senate GOP primary.

Have you picked a winner?

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: Umm, I really like our bench.

The three candidates running are all qualified.

I am really excited by that bench.

And they are different kind of candidates, too.

So, I have not chosen one yet.

I have spoken to all of them.

I will eventually, probably, choose one.

But they are out there, working hard, and I think that we stand a really good shot with the disarray on the other cited the aisle -- other side of the aisle at winning a Senate seat finally in New Jersey.

David: Are you OK with help parties pick their on the so-called party line?

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: The party line has been around a long time.

I would be somewhat of a hypocrite because I have benefited from the party line my entire career.

Am I open to having less party control of who gets nominated?

I am open to that.

I would like to see which alternative somebody finally comes up with, but we have seen plenty of times when there is a more structured party choice of candidate and have ended up with better candidates, rather than some, as we have seen in other states, you have wide open primaries and you end up with candidates who are not all that qualified.

So, I would not through our system out.

David: Let me give you one question and seven-seconds to answer.

Are you a Trump supporter?

Sen. O'Scanlon Jr.: Umm, I am not.

David: Well done.

Budget season is upon us, folks.

We will be watching how it goes, Senator Declan oh Scanlon -- Senator Declan O'Scanlon.

Thank you for coming on with us.

Are you ready for budget committee hearings?

>> You know, I just live for this, it is so exciting, so much fun.

David: What are some of the big questions looming?

Coleen: I think he went over some of them, and given the reports that are out, that our revenues are still lagging behind statewide and the report from the Sweeney center about these, again, estimating that they are going to be moving deficits, I mean I think a big question is state in J.

Senator O'Scanlon said it was an election-year gimmick, a scam from the beginning, and it is hard to argue with that when you think of the numbers we are seeing, but the assembly, at least, will be on the ballot again next year, so if they don't deliver on that, I think there could be real repercussions for them.

So, I don't know how the state has funded them.

David: What are you when the team going to be watching for this budget season, Terrence?

>> Exactly what Colleen said, whether they will acknowledge that the financial environment has changed a bit, or whether they will proceed as normal and at the last minute, dump $1.5 billion worth of extra spending.

David: Fred, it is the same budget team in the legislature and the same budget team in the front office.

Should we expect anything difference in the process?

And what political considerations are going to be made for potential future governors, congresspeople, Senate candidates who may be serving in the Senate right now?

Fred: No, I don't think the process will change, but we should keep in mind that there is still a billion dollars now.

I realize you have to pay-as-you-go every year, but the $8 billion does give the administration a little cushion.

Yeah, our past year was not subject to it.

David: There is a photo from last week's Monmouth County Democratic convention.

I think it is McDonald and there's snowflakes in it, and it looks a little like a hostage video.

It was a hot and steamy room.

What stuck with you, other than the back of your shirt?

Fred: It was a lot of fun.

What stuck with me is that people, rank and file Democrats, do not like -- maybe they don't dislike it, but they don't like the way this is going down.

The perception is that the governor is simply taking his wife and trying to make a United States Senator, and that is the perception to many rank-and-file Democrats I talk to and seems to be reality.

I am separating average people from the political foils.

Obviously, they still have party organizations in heavily Democratic counties on her side, but normal people still have a vote.

I don't think normal people accepted.

David: Terrence, it looked like the Iowa caucus in a hotbox.

What did you hear from delegates?

Terrence: Pretty much that, right?

[LAUGHTER] I mean, none of them really wanted to talk reporting the customer few people were hanging around and they did not want to be super honest.

But I do think it was interesting that while voting was going on, we went to grab coffee, some reporters, and the governor and his son came in to watch a soccer game while the voting was happening.

I thought, shouldn't you be arm-twisting more?

I guess he felt he did not need to.

David: Maybe they felt they had it in the bag.

Colleen, Monmouth ultimately will not produce a lot of Democratic votes, ultimately, but are we making too much of the results here?

Colleen: I don't think so because I think it is just kind of a bellwether for these other counties where they are not quite as machine controlled as a Middlesex County or Hudson County.

Kim's grassroots support is pretty clear in large parts of the state, and if he can get back -- you know, the Middlesex County chairman can endorse Tammy Murphy and the marketing muckety mucks can all get on board, but you still have Democrats in Middlesex County that will not be happy, so Andy can continue to push his message and stir up grassroots support around the state.

It is possible that he could have a chance in this.

David: The rise of the muckety mucks.

Fred: I like the term.

David: I love it.

Fred: I have to point out, you mentioned Hudson, he might still be on the ballot, so he will slowly get votes in Hudson County.

And he may get some votes.

David: By the way, Terrence -- Three or four.

Terrence, you have some fun this week on the Murphy's awkward week from the convention to the Super Bowl pick to the group text that somehow ended up on his phone.

Terrence: It was not a super great week for them.

Regarding the lunar new year protest were some anti-Israel critics confirmed to the Murphys over their support of Israel, I don't know what much more they could have done.

These protesters are basically screaming in their face and accusing them of being complicit with genocide.

But, at a recent Andy Kim event, it got interrupted by similar protesters, and he sort of went down and spoke to them for about 5, 10 minutes, and then they left quietly and there was not a scene.

They let -- they later wrote an op-ed bashing him for not calling for a cease-fire, so they still don't like him, but it was not quite as embarrassing as what we witnessed on Monday.

David: Isn't it time for someone to rough Oprandi Kim a little bit?

Politically speaking -- rough up Andy Kim a little bit, politically speaking?

Fred: You may recall a few weeks ago, like, Tami's camp went after him after the endorsement of Tom Allen ASCII -- Tom, and I don't think that went over very well.

I am sure they will go after Andy Kim, but I don't know what they found out about him.

I am sure they are looking for something unsavory about him.

David: too nice.

Fred: The Palestinian protesters outside the Monmouth County convention that Saturday, they were basically condemning both candidates.

David: Colleen, it is going to be hard for Tammy Murphy to land any really sharp blows because, I mean, she has the gender double standard that is there, and she has a seriousness about her that can sometimes be confused as coldness or aloofness, no?

Colleen: I mean, she is very serious.

I am not sure if cold is the right word.

I think that she is going to have a hard time because she was a Republican at one point, and that is something that I think is going to get thrown back at her.

We also had the expensive door that was put into the statehouse so she could get back and forth into the governor's office from her office.

That is something that I think will come up.

So I think there will be an awful lot that we are not here yet.

I am sure that there are things, some votes that Andy Kim has made in Congress that perhaps were not as, you know, as progressive as she would like.

I think that is what we are going to be hearing there, but, boy, I think Andy Kim -- his campaign is just going is so photos of him cleaning up the capitol after January 6, and that will be a hard thing to go negative about.

David: Yeah.

All right.

We will have plenty of time to talk about New Jersey transit and the World Cup, but this week, it was fair Heights on the minds of passengers -- fear hikes at the minds of passengers.

These fare hike hearings coming up are going to be pretty lively.

Fred: I was not at that hearing, but this is kind of common sense.

I don't think I have ever seen anyone stand up at a hearing and say, raise the trade fairs or budget that is just not going to happen.

But I guess it is 15%.

That seems rather more than like 5% or 7% or 8%.

David: Terrence, the agency's forward face, Kevin Corbett, he does not really project, you know, average NJ transit commuter.

If you could give him more the agency a bit of advice?

Terrence: It would be to improve service, first of all.

The second thing would be, take it more often.

Not just him, if he doesn't, I don't know, but him, the governor, lawmakers, start riding it more often and you will see what riders are talking about.

One of the problems for the governor is every year before now, he bragged about how there were no fear hikes -- fare hikes and communicates to the public that it is a good thing, so when they hike them, it is seen as a bad thing and it will get opposition, so maybe that is my piece of advice.

David: Good stuff.

Colleen, more embarrassing allegations from the prosecutors in the Menendez corruption case.

It looks like they are going to be doing this every week until the trial.

What is the possibility or the calculation when it comes to him, the senator, deciding whether he should seek reelection?

Colleen: you know, I think the calculation should have ended with that poll that had him at 8% a couple of weeks ago, or 9%.

I mean, there is so much embarrassment out there.

There have been -- almost everyone in New Jersey,, credit politics, has called for him to not only resigned, but some have called for him to step aside already.

Certainly, everyone is calling for him not to run.

I just don't see a lane for him here, so when you have got news coming out about engagement ring s --I cannot wait to hear that story for he did not buy his own wife her engagement ring -- wait to hear that story.

He did not buy his own wife her engagement ring?

It was weird already.

It is getting weirder.

David: The thing is literally writing itself before our very eyes.

Fred, you had a column with some observations on the governor and the mass of the snowstorm this week -- mess of the snowstorm this week?

Fred: I basically said in a nutshell, that politicians don't control the weather.

What people expect them to do something.

I pointed out six or seven years ago there was an unusual, uncommon snow and ice storm in November, and everything fell apart, and people on the roads for five hours, kids were trapped in school, all that stuff happened.

Since then, every time it snows like four inches, the governor is going to make the rounds, and is going to be on TV, radio, talking about the storm.

I guess there is something not inherently wrong with that, but I wonder if it is really necessary.

People don't expect the governor to be a weatherman.

David: One of the people on the staff responsible for snow removal said they were going to start brining the roads in August in order to get ahead of it.

Time for our only in Jersey moments, headlines and boards that are quintessential -- headlines and notes that are quintessential New Jersey.

Terrence: Max Pizarro talk to -- she described him as a Democratic boss -- so could be a chair maybe after the Monmouth convention, and this guy or person said they "wanted a piece of Andy."

Only in Jersey because only in Jersey do politicians like that talk like mobsters.

David: One a piece of that guy -- I want a piece of that guy.

Colleen?

Colleen: this does not just come from us, Terrence wrote a great bit about this in his newsletter, but also from a viewer.

We used to have four candidates running as Democrats in the seventh District.

That got down to two, so we waved New Jersey and a bunch of other progressive groups planned a debate starting last month for the day before Valentine's Day between Sue Altman and Jason.

Jason pulled out of the race shortly before the debate was supposed to happen and I guess they did not want to lose momentum, so what do they do?

They bring in other candidates who had already dropped out of the race.

One was going to pose as Kane, -- Tom Kane, another was a special guest star, and then Tom was going to moderate the debate.

We hear about debate prep behind the scenes, but I don't think we have ever seen a Democrat posing as a Republican.

I think we all wanted to see what kind of craziness this would be, and then it was snowed out.

March 12, if you do want to see it, it is going to happen again.

David: Mine comes from East Rutherford, where the world will soon focus on the FIFA World Cup at MetLife Stadium -- I mean, New York-New Jersey Stadium.

There has been a lot of self-loathing about our selection with pundits and pontificators and Peters here in Jersey predicting a world-class soccer debacle with epic traffic on Route 3 and calamitous NJ transit operations.

Yes, the stadium is surrounded by some toxic and swampy wasteland, thank you, independent, for stating the obvious, but you tried putting a stadium downtown in Jersey -- but you try putting a stadium downtown in New Jersey.

So it is where it is, and although New York will get a lot of attention, this represents an economic and cultural plus for our state.

Anyone traveling from here anywhere in the world will find it ready to embrace it.

We don't have to be all bright and shiny.

People will feel at home on the Avenue, Little Palestine, ironbound, and India Square, just to name a few places.

New Jersey is defined by its people, not its landmarks.

So to paraphrase Jay Z, who FIFA insists was born in Jersey, you could have been anywhere in the world, but you are here with us.

So let's embrace the beautiful game because we deserve it.

And that his roundtable this week.

Colleen, Fred, Terrence, good to see you all.

Thank you.

Thank you to Declan O'Scanlon.

You can follow us at X, get first content, including full episodes when you scan the QR code on your screen.

I am David Cruise.

Thank you for watching.

We will see you next week.

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

Rowan University, educating New Jersey leaders, partnering with New Jersey businesses, transforming New jersey's future.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey business magazine, the magazine of 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, topical newsletter on Garden State politics, online at Politico.com.

♪