- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of State of Affairs with Steve Adubato has been provided by The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

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Lighting the way to a clean energy future.

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[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC] - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with Natasha Dyer who is Executive Director of a terrific organization called the Greater Newark Conservancy.

Natasha, great to have you with us.

- Thank you for having me.

It's a pleasure to be here.

- You got it.

As we put up the website tell everyone what the Greater Newark Conservancy is.

- Sure, so Greater Newark Conservancy is an amazing organization here in the city of Newark, and we work at the intersections of environmental justice, food justice, and racial justice to improve the health and wellbeing of Newark residents and beyond.

- And you're the first person of color to lead this organization in 35 years of existence.

Significant for a lot of reasons.

But you mentioned racial injustice slash justice.

Put that in perspective in terms of the work the conservancy does.

- Sure, so at the Conservancy, the bulk of our work is in the area of food justice and environmental justice.

We run and operate the largest urban farm in the state of New Jersey.

We also have an urban environmental learning center, an outdoor environmental learning center with 10 learning gardens.

And we do a lot of nutrition and health work in schools and in community.

Now, the impact of racial justice on community of colors and in particular when it comes to food access has been extensive, right.

So, these are things impacted by redlining, disinvestment, and urban, I would say environmental injustice, where you have lots of companies doing illegal dumping or contamination in less affluent cities.

So, a place like the city of Newark, we've been affected by decades of environmental injustice where we still feel the impacts of contamination in our soil, our air, and our water.

- By the way, the term redlining, some people may hear it and not know exactly what it means.

There's a history of redlining, which is not written into the law, but it's written into practice, which is to have folks who are involved in, let's say, real estate in urban communities or a whole range of communities, making sure that only certain people are able to purchase in those communities and that would often exclude people of color.

- Right.

- Natasha, let me ask you this the issue of food.

Connect food to racial justice, more specifically with a concrete example, please.

- Sure.

So for example, the city of Newark, much of it has been designated a food desert, right?

For much of the reasons that we've just discussed, particularly redlining where it limits access to land for people of color.

Coupled with that, you have things like urban blight where affluent people may flee or move away from the area due to redlining and so, that in turn exacerbates access or reduces access where companies, larger companies are reluctant to move into certain communities where we end up having food deserts like we do in Newark.

So, in the Clinton Hill section of Newark where our Hawthorne Avenue farm is located, that has been designated a food desert because we have, what, over 2000 residents who live more than one mile away to access for healthy food and fresh vegetables.

So, our organization mitigates the gap to access by providing residents with the ability to harvest their own produce.

We have 269 raised beds at our farm that community members can purchase for as low as $15 for the entire year.

And then they're able to harvest their own produce for their families and neighbors.

And that goes a long way to promoting food access and food sovereignty for community.

- Natasha, I'm sorry for interrupting.

Let me try this.

So, for so many of us for whom fruit and vegetables, very accessible, right?

- Yes.

- I happen to live in Montclair, born and raised in Newark, but live in Montclair.

And for the vast majority of people watching right now fruit and vegetables, very accessible, right?

Inflation's what it is, but very accessible.

Not the case in Newark.

And so, particularly for children, I'm sorry, Natasha, but particularly for children, our children, the children of Newark, the inability to access fruit and vegetables has a terrible impact on them.

Not just for now, but in the future.

Talk about that, please.

- Yes, so access to healthy food, healthy fruits and vegetables at a young age has a tremendous impact on learning outcomes and health outcomes, right?

We know that access to healthy foods contributes to your physical health in terms of mitigating chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity, which has impacted our communities in large measure due to things like our community members living in food deserts.

And when it comes to education, what you put in your body contributes to your ability to think clearly and to be alert in school.

And we also know that spending time in nature reduces anxiety and stress, which a lot of our students and families are still experiencing as we've come out of COVID, and becoming readjusted or reacclimated to the new normal.

- Natasha, where did you grow up?

- Yeah, so I am a fourth generation Newarker.

I was born and raised here in the city of Newark.

And joining the conservancy was, in many ways, a homecoming for me because my great grandmother used to own a house on Richmond Street, which is just one block above where we are at the conservancy.

So, I've watched this entire area transform.

- Richmond Street is that in the South Ward of Newark.

- Richmond Street is in a Central Ward of Newark where our main campus is, and that is the location of our outdoor urban environmental learning center.

- And your passion for this work comes from where?

- It comes from growing up in the South Ward of Newark.

My grandparents always maintained a vegetable garden.

So, we grew up gardening with them.

Their relatives were from the south, so they grew up on farms and it was a way of life for them.

And so, it became a way of life for me.

- So, it's so interesting that, as I said, so many of us take for granted the access to fruit and vegetables and healthy food.

But one more quick question before we let you go.

Environmental justice.

- Yes.

- Newark has a disproportionate number of toxic waste sites and what is under the ground often impacts the ability or inability to grow.

- Right.

- What needs to be grown.

And also it's just a basic health hazard.

How the heck do you and your colleagues at the conservancy deal with the plethora of sites, most of which we don't really understand, 'cause it's underground.

I know it's a complicated question, but I think about that a lot.

- Yeah.

Well, it's slow and steady, I would say.

So, as I mentioned before, we have 269 raised beds at our Hawthorne Avenue Farm.

Part of that is due to potential contamination in the land, right?

So we're not able to plant directly in the ground, so we facilitated raised beds so that community members can still benefit from it.

However, we know that community members, for example, in the Iron Bound cannot plant in a large portion of the sections out there.

- It's worse there.

It's worse in the Iron Bound.

- Yes, absolutely.

- All the chemicals and the industrial, when there were no laws or the laws were being ignored.

I'm sorry, Natasha, please.

- Right, exactly.

So again, we're still experiencing the devastation of those decades of illegal dumping and things of that nature.

- That's right.

- So, places like Down Bottom Farms which is in the Iron Bound, places like the Greater Newark Conservancy, we do tremendous, tremendous service to the community by harvesting fruits and vegetables to make it accessible to community members.

Not only just in terms of proximity, but in terms of pricing.

As you mentioned with inflation and everything else that's going on, it's important that community members are able to afford to be healthy.

- Natasha Dyer is the Executive Director of The Greater Newark Conservancy.

This will not be the last time you join us and we appreciate you joining us now.

Thank you, Natasha.

- Thank you so much.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We are honored to be joined by the Honorable Robert Asaro-Angelo, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Commissioner, great to have you with us.

- Steve, thank you for having me.

- A whole bunch of things I wanna talk to you about, but the first one is let's talk apprenticeships.

The New Jersey Apprenticeship Network, what is it and why is it so important?

- Yeah Steve, we have been big believers of apprenticeship throughout the Murphy administration.

It's one of the reasons why I am commissioner.

Me and the governor talked about apprenticeship during my interview.

His background as German ambassador where they have a really a robust apprenticeship network in Germany.

We've put in $50 million to fund apprenticeship programs in New Jersey in our time in the Murphy administration.

And since 2018, we've nearly doubled the number of apprenticeship programs in New Jersey.

Right now we have about 1200 programs serving almost 10,000 apprentices.

And we couldn't be more proud that we're investing in the gold standard of workforce training because it's not just about training, it's about the apprentice has a job on day one.

So the earn and learn model you have, giving workers credentials and a career path.

- Commissioner, what fields are we talking about for these apprenticeships?

- Literally Steve, every single field.

Of course apprenticeship is most widely known for the Gold Standard Apprenticeship which is the union building trades model.

All kinds of skilled trades.

But in New Jersey we have apprenticeships in nursing and home care and in information technology.

We have an apprenticeship program at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.

We have grounds keepers and greens keepers apprenticeship programs.

Basically any field where you have an employer who's willing to make an investment, not only in their own business, but in their own workforce as well can have a successful apprenticeship program.

- What is, and we're putting up the website for the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Commissioner, what is the PACE, P-A-C-E program?

- PACE is one of our premier apprenticeship funding programs.

It stands for Pre-Apprenticeship and Career Education.

And it's important cause it removes common barriers by linking participants to career preparedness training, but also providing funding for supportive services, transportation, childcare in certain instances.

So often we hear it, I'm sure you do too Steve from employers, about workers that just have some barriers to taking a job, whether it be finding a way to get to work or I guess mentioned childcare or even some of the food assistance.

So this program provides funding for the training as well as to help workers overcome any barriers to take part in that training or that job.

- Commissioner, I'm curious about this.

We've talked to so many people.

We're taping this at the end of June, 2023.

We've talked to a lot of different folks about this, but your perspective on it is really important.

The labor force in New Jersey has changed in so many ways.

As it relates to COVID, the biggest impact on the New Jersey labor force is- - The biggest impact surely during COVID was on education and healthcare.

But we've come, we've bounced back fully and then some here in New Jersey.

So it's almost impossible for me to understand saying this, but it's almost like COVID is way in the rear view mirror when it comes to the job market in New Jersey.

We're at 120% - - Really?

- 120% of the jobs we had pre-COVID are here in New Jersey right now.

We are firing on all cylinders.

All sessions of our economy have come roaring back as far as job numbers.

And as you know Steve from talking to employers, the hardest problem is finding workers to fill some these spots, which is why apprenticeship is so critical.

- Okay, go back to that.

So when people say it's really hard to find people to work, is it any different from your perspective commissioner, that question, that issue in New Jersey versus other states?

Is there something unique about the New Jersey workforce or potential workforce or lack of workforce for businesses and organizations looking for talented people on their team?

- Listen, it's certainly a challenge across the country.

I talk to my counterparts across all the states.

Our labor force participation rate right here in New Jersey right now is the highest it's been in over a decade.

Our percentage of employed workers to workers in general is the highest it's been since 2008.

So it's more about, in New Jersey we are lucky to have such a highly educated workforce, a highly diverse workforce, best schools in the country, which is why employers come here.

Employers follow the workers and the workers wanna be in New Jersey.

There's never been a better time to be a worker.

- Shift gears, let's talk, It's protecting the rights of temporary workers.

Who are we talking about A, and what are the protections we're talking about?

- Great, great question Steve.

As of May 7th, temporary workers who work at temporary health service firms in New Jersey, look widely considered known as warehouse workers, but also other industries also where they just go to fill in temporary assignments when an employer might need them.

As of May 7th, they had to get information of when they're being dispatched, about the job they're going to, who the actual employer is, what their rate of pay is going to be.

It's really about transparency in that workforce 'cause very often you hear about workers going in just being either put in some van somewhere and not even knowing where they're going.

And for our purposes in our department they would bring forward wage claims, they wouldn't even know who their employer was or who they were working for or where they were working.

So we're working to bring transparency and protections to this very vital workforce in New Jersey where as you know, transportation logistics and warehousing are a huge sector of our economy.

- You know the, your department, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development has full range of responsibilities.

- Yeah.

- And regulates if you will as well.

The drywall industry.

What the heck is the abuse that I keep hearing about and what is the role of your department in addressing and confronting that abuse?

- I'll answer that question Steve and the reason why drywall I think is a focus is 'cause basically almost every single construction project has that as part of it.

And for whatever reason over time that seems to be a sector of construction sites that's become more and more ripe for abuse.

And it seems to have something to do with somebody getting a contract and then subcontracted somebody else and then subcontracting that to somebody else.

And just layers upon layers.

As you get more further down to layers, there's less amount of money for the workers or where you see lots of abuse.

So one of our strategic enforcement initiatives, which means bringing all of our forces to bear, working with other state departments, working smarter, not just based on complaints is going after some of the drywall industries.

And also be very clear, this is about just enforcement.

This is about making sure that industries and employers who are doing the right thing by their workers don't have unfair competition from those who are exploiting their workers'.

We've been very active in this field.

- So it's interesting, a few seconds left, people talk about, oh, governments over regulating, they're in our way.

You're talking about protecting workers.

- Protecting workers and protecting businesses, whether it be about drywall or anything else.

And when employers are cutting corners and doing illegal things, they're hurting the mom and pop shops who are doing things the right way in New Jersey.

- Commissioner, I wanna thank you so much for joining us.

Incredibly important, timely and pressing issues dealing with the labor and workforce universe.

Thank you, commissioner.

- Thank you Steve.

- You got it.

I'm Steve Adubato, that's the Commissioner.

Be back after this.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We are honored to be joined by Steve Sweeney, the former president of the state senate and chair of the advisory board for the Sweeney Center for Public Policy at Rowan University, one of our higher ed partners.

Steve, good to see you.

- Great to see you, Steve.

- Let's talk about New Jersey's fiscal future, an initiative that we're involved in, to try to figure out what the heck our future is and what we need to do to get on the right track.

First of all, how far off the right track are we, Steve?

- We're way off.

Unfortunately, Steve, and, you know, New Jersey does year-to-year budgeting.

Many states do multiple years budgeting.

County governments do five-year budgets, six-year capital plans.

This is not the best way of doing budgeting, and, you know, there's another thing called consensus forecasting, where the legislature and the administration get together, and they get to decide what the numbers are gonna look like, and you get a much more honest process.

You know, the books don't get cooked like they normally do.

One year, one of the governors said, "We're gonna have 7% ratable growth."

You know, Steve, and I had to score it that way, so what we're trying to do is get us to a much more sound footing, so that the promises that are being made, like I wanna congratulate Speaker Coughlin for coming up with a great idea to try to help our seniors, but what the problem is if the money's not there.

You know what I'm saying?

That's the things we're concerned with.

- By the way, Steve Sweeney, the former senate president's talking about this deal.

We're taping at the end of June, right before, ironically, the budget will allegedly be struck.

It's a senior citizen property tax.

Well, it's just, frankly, it's $6,500, capped at $6,500 if you make less than $500,000 if you're over 65 years of age.

Are are you saying, Senator, that we don't have the money for that?

- What I'm saying is that there's choices that are gonna have to be made, Steve.

You can fund anything you want.

It's as long as you have to prioritize, but if, like, the think tank or economists...

I actually get to do stuff that I couldn't do before 'cause, you know, you have to be partisan, so- - Excuse me, we're talking about the Sweeney Center at Rowan?

- Yes.

- That's the think tank.

- Yeah.

- Go ahead, Steve.

- Thanks.

Thanks, Steve, and I have independents, Democrats, Republican fiscal experts, and when they're in a room working together, Steve, it's amazing.

Like all the political BS goes out the window, and what they said is, "There's an 80% chance by 2025 "we're gonna be between 12 1/2 to $15 billion "$18 billion short "between 2025 and 2028," and this isn't including the speaker's game plan, you know, tax plan, so again, something's gonna have to give here.

- Well, hold on.

Senator, we just had this largesse from the federal government.

We had a surplus, COVID money, et cetera.

What are you talking about?

- Well, what I'm talking about is real numbers, Steve.

You know, those federal dollars were one-time dollars.

We're spending more money a year than we're bringing in.

Income tax collections went down dramatically when the treasurer reported.

I think it was a couple billion dollars, you know, so when you started looking at... And then, the sales tax just came down, you know, unexpectedly, revenues, so what we're saying is, "Yes, you can do a lot of things, "but you're gonna have to sacrifice other things "to do them."

- Yeah, and I wanna talk offshore wind in just a moment, but Senator, let me ask you this.

You understand politics, government better than most.

You served on the county level.

You were the top person in the state legislature, and possibly, we'll see in 2025, if you choose to run for governor.

That being said, why the heck is it so difficult to have a candid, honest conversation about New Jersey's fiscal future?

Not just that your think tank or at other places that take it seriously, but in government, state government.

Why is that so difficult?

- Steve, because people really have a hard time having that honest conversation.

You know, you don't get a lot of kudos when you tell people the truth.

People want what they want the way they want it, and people like myself normally make enemies when you tell people, "Hey, listen, this is great, but you can't afford it," or, "Do it this way if you want to do it."

- Or you gotta make some cuts.

- Yeah, or you gotta make cuts.

You gotta make changes.

You have to approach government differently.

Like, my point is, we're doing these rebate programs, but what we haven't done is what we were focusing on when I was in the legislature, which was shared services, school consolidations, trying to rein in cost to get the true cost of government first.

You know, the legislature doesn't do property taxes.

Property taxes are- - Local government.

- Local and county levels, so we're taking money to plug holes locally, and Steve, I can tell you a lot of times when you do find savings and you pass them back to the towns, I can tell you firsthand, they don't cut taxes.

They just say, "Oh, now we can build the park we always wanted to build," or, "We can put the synthetic athletic field down."

That's what happens.

That's reality.

- We're talking to former senate president Steve Sweeney, the chair of the advisory board of the Sweeney Center for Public Policy at Rowan University.

Senator, let's talk about offshore wind.

Where are we?

What opportunity are we missing?

- Well, our great concern and the reason why we're drawing so much attention to offshore wind right now is when we did the legislation, Steve, in 2010, the focus was, yes, we wanna reduce carbon footprint.

Yes, we wanna have clean energy, but it was manufacturing.

That's what drove me.

It was my legislation with John Burzichelli and the assembly.

We passed this to capture all the manufacturing, to make it an American supply chain, and what's happened because there's been a disagreement on some federal tax credits that other states have already given to the wind developers, we were first in line.

Everyone was coming to us to build manufacturing, probably three to 4,000 manufacturing jobs.

Now, because there's a disagreement right now between the legislature and the administration, we're losing our spot.

It's like we're on the one-foot line.

We're ready to score a touchdown, and everyone's coming running after us, and they're gonna tackle us.

- What's holding us up, Senator?

- Well, there has to be an agreement where the federal government came out with tax credits to develop offshore wind.

We're already gonna build the offshore wind.

- Has New Jersey taken advantage of that?

- Other states have already said to these offshore wind producers, "Yes, cost of inflation, higher interest rates.

"It's more expensive steel.

"Here's the tax credits."

We have not done that yet.

The legislature and the administration need to come together on it, and Steve, the thing I fear the most is Orsted, who was promising to bring a GE facility, turbine nacelle facility and blade facility to Salem is now just inked a deal with New York State to put it up there.

You know, the whole goal of offshore wind was to create the manufacturing jobs to make it an American supply chain, you know, jobs program that, you know, one, we're cleaning up the environment, but most importantly, we're creating jobs here in New Jersey so people get jobs and go to work and make place better.

- We are honored to be joined by Steve Sweeney, the former president of the state senate and the chair the advisory board of the Sweeney Center for Public Policy at Rowan University.

Senator, thanks so much, my friend.

- Thanks for having me, Steve.

- I'm Steve Adubato.

That's Senator Sweeney.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

New Jersey's Clean Energy program.

PSE&G, Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Operating Engineers, Local 825.

IBEW Local 102.

NJM Insurance Group.

Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.

And by The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Promotional support provided by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

NJM Insurance Group has been serving New Jersey businesses for over a century.

As part of the Garden State, we help companies keep their vehicles on the road, employees on the job and projects on track, working to protect employees from illness and injury, to keep goods and services moving across the state.

We're proud to be part of New Jersey.

NJM, we've got New Jersey covered.