The Final Countdown is on with just 6 days to go before the general election in New Jersey and preliminary numbers show more residents are taking advantage of the increased early voting options this year according to the state division of Elections More Than 352,000 People cast vote by mail ballots as of yesterday and another 46,000 people turned out in the first four days of early in-person voting with more voters leaning Democratic but both parties agree afford to ility is a key factor driving voters to the polls this year yet they have very different ideas on how to tackle it tonight we continue looking at issues dominating November 7th's races for more on that I'm joined by our budget and finance writer John Reitmeyer, so John Democrats and Republicans both say they're very committed to finding solutions to the affordability issue but what do they see as the main component of it because they're not necessarily in line when it comes comes to that yeah I think that's actually a good way to frame it because I think when it comes to the Democrats who are in the majority right now in both houses of the legislature they've done a lot of things whether it's increasing funding for property tax relief programs or doing things like an expanded child tax credit that can actually cost the state money in the long run the state spends money on property tax relief benefits and collects less Revenue when it provides tax uh breaks for different things what the Republicans have tried to draw attention to is this overall incre inrease in spending that's occurred at the state level under our Democratic legislature and with a Democratic governor in office and try to make the connection that when you see things in your life like inflation uh or you know Rising interest rates that those types of things all sort of connect back to the government spending a lot of money and in this case they're complaining about the state government spending a lot of money so I do think that's a good way to frame it whether uh you're receiving you know tax credits or tax relief rebates or things like that versus just less spending in general okay so because you mentioned it the tax rebates let's talk about the anchor program which Democrats rolled out and a second check was issued just recently some folks may be even still uh seeing that money trickle in how does that play into this because democrat's argument is this is direct money into your wallet um so not necessarily taken off of your property tax bill like we've seen in programs of the past but cash in hand yeah and I think this election will be a great test for sort of um this approach you know again Republicans have drawn attention to we had yet another year-over-year increase in the average New Jersey Property Tax Bill last year and it's now a record high it has been for the last few years so Republicans like to draw attention to the fact that those types of costs have been have been rising during this period of democratic control whereas the Democrats have really ramped up spending on these relief programs now the the maximum anchor benefit is, 1750 for or for senior homeowners who who meet certain income qualifications and so there's actually been two different rounds of anchor payments this year including those that have just been going out in recent weeks and and will continue into November the deadline for filing is actually at the end of December so uh this will be a real test because a lot of people are receiving their benefits just as they're getting ready or are even voting early just as they're getting ready to cast The Ballot so it it really will be do they make that connection that this is money that's coming sort of to offset those Rising costs or are they just happy to get the money and not necessarily going to vote in a certain way vote in favor of the party that's returning that money to you and maybe take the message of the other party that's saying let's hold down costs overall instead of doing these costly re uh relief programs yeah that'll be the test as you say but should we expect to see this really Drive voters I mean there's no denying the cost of living has just ballooned um these last couple of years uh and so should we expect that voters will be you know looking at that as a a key way that they make their ballot and their choice for a candidate I mean this is really an issue that's gone back even to the election two years ago for legislature and even the governor had a near upset I think affordability has been a key issue going all the way back you know inflation's been high the rat's not as as dramatic as it has been but prices are still high so I think for a lot of Voters affordability is a key issue there are obviously other concerns but I think a lot of people will be voting with their pocketbook this time around John Reitmeyer for us, John thank you so much you're welcome [Music]