As I mentioned, Brianna Vannozzi was set up in the Assembly chamber today during the state of the state speech, where all 120 members of New Jersey's legislature were gathered, along with several of New Jersey's past governors, all tuning in to hear Governor Murphy's plans for the year ahead.

And throughout the day, senior political correspondent David Cruz was traversing the hallways, speaking with legislative leadership and others he ran into in the statehouse.

Brianna and David are with us now to talk about the key moments from the speech and their big takeaways from the governor's address.

Brianna, David, you are in the hallway in the state House.

Want to talk to you about some of the things that we heard from the governor's speech today.

As we know, governors tend to use this state of the state speech as somewhat of a victory lap for the year that's just passed.

We heard the governor do just that.

He talked about how he's created a stronger, fairer New Jersey, creating more economic security for families, touting things like, property tax relief through the anchor rebates.

He talked about increasing wages throughout his term, his administration.

He talked about the Retire Ready NJ program, the state's first publicly run retirement program that he launched.

But obviously, some new things came out of today.

Brianna, I'm going to start with you talk about the paid parental leave, program that the governor just announced.

Yeah.

I mean, Joanna, as you point out, this is often a time for the governor to both look back and look forward.

We saw a lot of items that have been really hallmarks of this administration.

So the governor came out of the gate today with a speech, talking about giving all state workers, you know, fully paid parental leave.

Now, this would not apply to care for a sick loved one or a family member, but it would apply for anyone with the birth of a new baby.

You would get the full scale of your pay right now that's capped at a little over $1,000 a week for the 12 weeks that you could take.

New Jersey has one of the most progressive policies in the nation when it comes to parental leave.

The governor, of course, looking to really solidify his progressive bonafides there.

But there were a number of other items, including full day kindergarten.

To be honest, there are only 11 districts right now in the state that don't offer, full day kindergarten.

But, you know, you remember when Governor Murphy took office, free universal pre-K was, a big lynchpin in what he hoped to achieve.

And this is I sort of took it as him saying, not only did I do that, but now I want to take it a step further.

Yeah.

I mean, a lot of, the stuff that we're talking about as far as, kitchen table issues, affordability, etc., is really been the theme throughout this administration.

Stronger, fairer.

And a lot of these initiatives that he announced today are pretty.

I mean, I guess you could call them low hanging fruit.

But we got to remember, everybody in the Assembly is up for election in the fall.

And so these are great opportunities for them to be able to say, look, we voted for this affordability item and this, social justice item without having to go too far, as far as they're concerned in terms of, supporting controversial issues and so on.

Speaking of a controversial issue, obviously affordable housing is perhaps one of the most controversial issues in the state.

The governor saying today he wants to reform some of the zoning laws to allow the state to build more affordable housing.

Just speak to that a bit.

The governor did, address affordable housing, of course.

This comes on the heels of a state report which issued the mandated number the towns are going to have to build in order to meet their obligation, which a lot of Republican lawmakers, in particular, have pushed back against saying that it would not only cause overcrowding, and that towns can't necessarily afford to have a greater density, but they also can't pay for the services that need to come with it.

So what the governor proposed today is reforming the zoning and permitting laws, as you mentioned, to allow small homes.

These are things like and law suites, you know, mother daughters as, as I call them on to be built on single and two family lots, to allow for housing construction on vacant or distressed land and then to change some of the parking requirement as well, which has been a big issue.

A lot of these are really intended to address the objections that a group of mayors and others have had against the mandating of affordable housing.

Taking the zoning out of the local out of the local governments is an idea that helps the state move forward with the goals without having being blocked by local zoning boards and say, oh, you can't do that here, or you can't do that there.

And so that's a strategy that's been deployed for many years.

And this is something that proponents of affordable housing have been calling for for a while.

So, Brianna, we heard something today that we know will get some pushback, I'm sure, from the Republicans.

The governor's saying that he's going to stockpile mifepristone.

Just speak to that.

And how he touted some of his other accomplishments and what he says is securing reproductive freedom for people here in new Jersey.

Yeah.

I mean, the governor talked about the elephant in the room, as he called it, which is the incoming administration in the white House, president elect Donald Trump.

Of course, he'll be sworn in in just a couple of weeks.

And, there are concerns, especially among Democratic circles, about, access to reproductive rights being limited under this new administration, especially with the fall of Ro.

And so new, new Jersey under Governor Murphy, is looking to follow in the footsteps of some other states that have already started stockpiling the abortion bill, the abortion pill.

And, he's looking to get about a six month supply.

There's about $50 million, I believe, from the state budget.

That's been allocated toward that.

But a step further, Joanna, is that he also wants to, have out-of-pocket costs for abortion paid for.

And, of course, we know that the governor talked about voting and expanding voting rights.

Brianna, what did we hear today about that?

Yeah, I mean, Joanna, that was just a quick mention in the speech, but he did say that if the legislature sent him a bill to codify same day voter registration, he will sign it.

He has, of course, doubled down on that, as have, the legislative leadership, which are, also under the Democratic control.

They have expanded voting options and voting availability.

So, you know, this is something that is a mainstay of Governor Murphy and something that I think he wants to solidify, in his legacy.

Yeah.

And of course, the governor couldn't let the speech end without talking about the Netflix deal that he secured here in new Jersey, the FIFA World Cup and coming to New Jersey in 2026.

And of course, what he said is new Jersey reemerging as the medicine chest of the nation.

Brianna.

David, great recap and insight from both of you.

Thanks so much.

All right.

Thanks so.