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>> Tonight on NJ Spotlight News, the Newark mayor sit-down for his first TV interview since declaring his run for governor saying the issues impacting his residence are felt across the state.

>> I have been in the storm.

Turbulence is what I wake up to, what I wake up -- what I go to sleep too.

These issues are state issues.

>> The cost to live in New Jersey takes center stage at the Statehouse has some lawmakers call for the reinstatement of the court business tax.

>> This is not a penalty on business.

It is asking those who make more to pay more.

>> New Jersey celebrates a three year high from legalizing cannabis tells but the industry is still growing.

>> We do not consider it fully legal without fully cultivation rights and we are lacking behind other states in this area.

>> And restoring black history.

Bergen County champions the preservation of a historical African-American burial ground.

>> This is not just a cemetery where people are buried.

This is telling us a lot about our history in Bergen County.

>> NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

♪ >> from NJPBS Studios, this is NJ Spotlight News.

>> Good evening and thanks for joining us this Thursday night.

New Jersey will never be the same according to Newark Mayor baraka because he is seeking to be the next governor.

The mayor of New Jersey's largest city this week said despite a crowded field for the 2025 gubernatorial election, his entrance to the race will leave an impression in part because of his legacy as an unabashed progressive who has led Newark to a decade of resurgence, affirming to his critics and supporters he could do the job as an outsider.

Baraka made the unexpected announcement on Monday in front of an electrified audience during a Black history month event in Trenton.

He joins at least two other high-profile Democrats in the primary race and sat down today with me for his first TV interview since announcing the campaign.

Welcome.

Happy to have this opportunity with you.

I have to ask off the bat, did you surprise even yourself with the announcement on Monday?

I saw Bonnie Watson Coleman come up on the stage and smack you in the shoulder like I did not see that coming.

>> Absolutely.

I was not sure if I was going to do that.

Nobody else knew that.

>> There were rumblings for a long time.

>> Absolutely.

>> What was it about that moment?

>> A lot of anticipation.

People came down there.

I prayed on it.

The speech was riveting.

It just came out because that is what is in my heart.

That is what I feel so it came out.

>>>> To a warm reception.

>> A surprisingly overexcited reception.

>> Why surprising?

>> I thought folks would be supportive of the idea but I did not know to what extent did a lot of people seemed excited this was happening.

>> In the days since, we got a little hint through some other interviews about what a baraka administration would champion.

It is things like bringing back the CBT, the corporate business tax surcharge, affordable housing, desegregating schools, baby bonds.

These are a lot of social programs I think when people see them whether they are on board or not also see dollar signs.

How would you go about them without raising taxes which as you say is a big issue if not one of the biggest issues for average families?

>> I think the tax problem in New Jersey is it is uneven.

I don't think everybody is paying their fair share.

We have to begin taking about getting the richest New Jerseyans to pay their fair share.

Whether does mention tax, estate tax, getting to figure out what that looks like to help us fund transportation, help us fund affordable housing.

All those things that are necessary to get rid of the loopholes that allow companies and corporations to take their profits to other states.

We have to bring the prophets back to New Jersey.

You live here.

We shoulder the responsibility of your family come of everything you have here.

We give you everything we have and we ought to get something in return.

>> These are issues you are working on with the city of Newark.

You see them translating to a statewide level?

>> Everything we fight for in Newark are state issues whether it is affordable housing, reducing violence, reducing cost of living and making it easier for people to live in New Jersey.

Housing is the number one issue across New Jersey.

Making sure kids get a decent education.

These are kids all New Jerseyans want for their families.

>> I'm thinking back to 2015 covering Phil Murphy on the campaign trail.

A very ultra-unabashed progressive Phil Murphy who in the years since has had to walk back some of that to work with the moderate wing of the party.

Are you going to be willing to compromise on some of this in order to get it done which tends to be the key word once you get to Trenton.

>> I know how to collaborate.

Let me say that.

Most of the things we have done in Newark we are successful at has been about collaboration.

People did not think the business district would be this booming when a mayor comes in with my background.

Activism, schoolteacher.

>>>> A radical mayor as you were called.

>> We had the reverse.

I look forward to working with all the people in Trenton and around the state that want to do the right thing.

I'm not going to walk moderately and slow.

That is the problem with New Jersey is we have had this slow moderate pace toward progressiveness.

At the end of the day, we walked so slow it is almost not moving at all.

>> It is not working in your eyes.

How do you do it when you have a state like New Jersey where we have a lot of moderate voters?

>> You have to put your shoulders in it.

Be able to convince people why this is necessary.

You have to be able to talk to residents and people and sell what it is you are doing the same way you did when you were running for office.

You would be surprised.

I don't think New Jerseyans are as moderate as people want them to be.

The real issue is people want to be able to live in the city.

They want to be able to afford it.

They want to be able to send their kids to decent schools.

That have great services in New Jersey but not everyone is paying fairly.

When they begin to understand some people are paying more than others, how do we even that out?

How do we give -- lower people's housing?

Why is it necessary to build more affordable housing?

It helps other folks who are middle income, middle class folks in the state of New Jersey because it reduces or lowers or stabilizes the rent and the mortgages when you build more housing.

>> What is the difference between a progressive baraka administration and I will use Steve Philip because he's the only other has touted himself as a progressive who has thrown his hat into the Democratic primary.

The mayor of the second like city, Jersey City.

What is the difference and are you concerns is going to become a crowded field with some ideals that seem to be on the same page?

>> We should have ideals that are close because we are all Democrats.

We should be believing basically the same things.

We should have a blanket that warms everybody.

We should be progressive on immigrants' rights.

Making sure we build affordable housing.

Alternatives to violence and crime in our community.

All these things should be things Democrats are talking about.

We have a record on challenging and facing these problems head-on to when you get on the plane and the pilot says this is my first flight you might be a little scared.

Tubeless is going to come.

We fly the storm in Newark every day.

Turbulence is what I wake up to.

At the end of the day, the issues we are fighting our state issues.

We have experience in not only facing them but facing them down.

>> New York Mayor baraka, thank you for coming in.

Ahead of the annual budget address next week, progressive groups are once again pushing the administration to deliver on affordability promises.

The way they see it, a recently expired corporate business tax or CBT could do the trick.

It generates about a billion dollars a year and activists have been arguing for months the money could be used to plug budget holes.

Governor Murphy is not budging.

Business industry leaders point to data showing New Jersey had the fourth highest CBT in the nation telling Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan the real solution is to rain in spending.

>> Progressives are ramping up political pressure as Trenton lawmakers confront building the next state budget.

They face lacking tax revenues, expiring pandemic aid and build in deficits, constraints that could throttle spending on programs these groups consider crucial for low and moderate income New Jerseyans to survive.

>> Let's not unlearn the lesson and go back to an austerity budget that means cuts and flat funding when families need help the most.

>> Is it fair that we have to look at service cuts throughout our state and local governments as a way to make ends meet?

I don't think that is fair at all.

>> This coalition called for the many says it is a matter of equity.

They went lawmakers to raise a billion dollars by restoring the 2.5 percent surcharge on New Jersey CBT or corporate business tax that expired in December.

It impacted corporations making more than a million dollars in annual profits.

>> This is not a penalty on business.

It is asking those who make more to pay more.

That is fair.

That is equitable.

That is what we need.

>> Analysts called the upcoming spending plan a transitional budget.

NJ transit has already announced a 15% fair hike with 3% increases to follow.

Potential revenue raisers under discussion include boosting New Jersey's sales tax back to 7%.

It set at 6.6 25% since 2016.

Union leaders claim low income families are already struggling with inflation.

>> And are now facing the specter of increasing sales taxes and other fees and tolls at a time when they can afford it the least.

>> One New Jersey business group says don't raise taxes.

Spend some of jerseys a billion dollar plus budget surplus.

>> You don't have to cut an important program or investment.

You don't have to increase taxes that will harm taxpayers.

>>>> The governor is scheduled to deliver his budget message on Tuesday.

He has resisted re-imposing a surcharge on the corporate business tax.

He has also said raising NJ transit fares is fair Pip weeding Democrats are not all aboard with that.

Nobody has yet rolled out a concrete plan to save NJ transit from plunging off a fiscal cliff.

The Senate president says he is open to considering a CBT surcharge.

The assembly speaker told David Cruz he wants hard revenue figures first.

>> We get the numbers in May.

That gives you real numbers about where we are at.

From there, you make real projections.

>> The conversation should be not about what additional taxes we can raise but what spending can we pare back and reduce?

>> Assembly Republicans say Governor Murphy needs to make drastic spending cuts starting with the 1.4 billion added at the last moment to this year's record-breaking $55 billion budget.

>> Absolute pork spending that should immediately be pulled out before we start talking about what the budget is going to be.

We should be reducing the billion out of the budget.

>> The next budget will be a heavy lift.

>> Funding New Jersey's public schools is expected to be a tough topic during the budget season.

State aid cuts looming from changes made more than six years ago to how the state dulls all-cash districts.

All makers believe now is the time to revamp the funding formula.

One legislator has a temporary fix in mind.

Lift the pretext cap to help districts facing the steepest cuts.

>> We have seen an increase in class sizes.

We have seen a decrease in available staff that can push and support our students.

We have less ESL teachers.

We have less special education teachers.

>> The Wildwood school district soul 18 staff positions cut last year.

These changes the results of the school funding formula that has been tweaked in recent years changing the amount of state aid each district receives.

20% of the school districts have lost millions through the changes.

>> Our district lost $15 million in actual state aid over the course of six years.

That would be bad enough.

The reality of a 2% cap in six, 7% inflation periods of time is that.

It takes more than 2% to operate.

>> The 2% cap is the limit any district increase property taxes in a given year put in place by Governor Christie.

Districts can exceed it with a voter approval but a bill introduced by Senator injuries liquor would allow districts that effaced year-over-year funding cuts to increase property taxes beyond the 2% cap without taking it to voters first.

>> If under the reallocation funding you lost a certain amount of money, that is the only amount you can go over to percent.

If 2% does not get you there, 2.2% will, that is it.

You cannot go a dollar over that.

>> The educational center is in support of the bill they say will provide critical funding to districts on the brink of crisis should >> In a lot of cases, these districts are not raising the property taxes the state formula says they need in order to meet adequacy under the formula.

>> The term associated with what the state believes you should be spending per student.

The Senate, the governor, nobody cares about the adequacy number the actual formula which they praise spits out.

>> The Scott -- the South Brunswick superintendent says the camp would help the real issue is a reevaluation of the formula overall.

A move that has consensus from many in the education arena.

>> We believe the structure in general is good.

.

It is one of the best formulas in the nation but it has not been evaluated over 15 years.

We think the state needs to step up and do an in-depth review of the formula as required every three years to make sure the formula is operating at the level that is adequate for students.

>> The Senate education chair is screening a working group to address the formula and plans to hold a legislative hearing in the near future.

>> We dramatically need to revamp it.

Mental health cost, special education, transportation should a lot of things have changed since when Safari as to started in 2008.

>> Last year, an additional $103 million to close budget gaps for districts that faced years of funding cuts.

This year that funding is not coming.

It is replaced with a 2% cap adjustment.

>> We are trying to provide certainty for the next couple of years so that we don't have to go to the last minute with a budget appropriation.

>> When you do it with appropriation, this coming out of state funding.

You have to allocate the funds.

When you do it this way, it falls on the taxpayer.

>> There are towns where they have commercial development.

They have growth overall.

The amount of money they need to go over the 2% cap is not that much.

There are going to be some districts where there will be no impact whatsoever on the homeowner.

There will be some that could be some.

>> District will learn about new rounds of potential cuts in the coming weeks.

They say this gives them one more tool in the toolbox to hopefully stay afloat before cuts are made that will have a direct impact on students.

>> In the recreational cannabis world, today holds a lot of significance.

It marks three years since Governor Murphy signed the bill legalizing a dull use marijuana.

A key component to the law was and remains social justice.

Today, a number of activists acknowledge the amount of marijuana-related arrests that have been prevented because of the law but pointed out to Ted Goldberg there are still plenty of inequities within the system.

>> Free the weed, free the people.

>> On the third anniversary of Governor Murphy signing the bill that legalized recreational cannabis statewide, activists marched, smoked and smoked in transit about what is next for cannabis.

>> We do not consider the stateful illegal without home cultivation rights and we are lacking in behind other states in this area.

>> Most states that legalized cannabis also legalized growing your own plants.

New Jersey has not and will enforce heavily penalties if you are caught.

>> Even three years later, every district cannabis medical patient could end up in prison for five years growing one plant.

A plant that 3 million New Jerseyans voted to legalize.

>> I don't want to see anyone going to prison because of a nonviolent cannabis offense I'm here to.

Say don't let patients continue to suffer for the sake of corporate greed.

>> It is tough to remain hopeful when things look this bad.

>> Activists say they are not asking to grow acres of cannabis at home.

Just enough to fill a grow tent like this.

Some patients say the strains available at commercial dispensaries are not with a need and can even make their symptoms worse.

>> Having epilepsy and brain damage, I am very strain specific.

Certain strains can trigger seizures.

I cannot get my medicine at the dispensaries but if I were to try to grow a plant at home I would have five to 10 years in prison potentially.

>> There been several bills introduced to legalize and regulate homegrown cannabis but they have gone nowhere in the statehouse.

>> In 2021, with a slate of leaders dismissed homegrown as a nonstarter when it should have been recognized as a no-brainer.

>> What makes New Jersey special?

Why couldn't New Jersey legalize cannabis but also include home grow when it was first legalized a few years back?

>> There is no good reason not to do it.

>> Senator Vigneault Paul has introduced a bill to legalize home growing multiple times.

>> I think we should have done it when we did it on day one like every other state.

I don't get a lot of cosponsors.

There are 120 legislators.

Folks that want homegrown new to reach out to legislators, asked them to sponsor our bills, cosponsor our bills.

It has had trouble getting support beyond me.

>> The senator says some of his constituents would prefer to grow their own since it is cheaper and requires less travel.

>> The purpose of legalizing cannabis is not just of a bunch of corporations from out of state can come in and make money.

They were supposed to be for criminal justice purpose.

.

I don't believe we have gotten there.

It is supposed to be for health purpose.

I don't believe we have gone there.

>> He has heard the argument big business is keeping homegrown cannabis from getting off the ground.

>> Homegrown and every state has shown it does not have an impact on the business market.

Businesses will allow to operate to have someone with 4, 6, 8 plants will have no impact.

>> Governor Murphy has said before he would sign a bill legalizing homegrown cannabis but there is a lot of cultivating to do before a bill like that lands on his desk.

>> Turning to Wall Street, stocks powered higher today to snap a three-day losing streak.

Here is how the markets closed.

Make sure to tune in to NJ business with Raven Santana.

She digs into the cost behind our furry friends from owning a pet to a critical shortage of pets in South Jersey and the financial challenges to run a shelter.

♪ Just west of the Hackensack River on a sandy one acre Hill in Little Ferry sits a small African-American burial ground that was neglected and vandalized for so many years.

Few gravestones and markers remain.

The site at more than 160 years old has national historical significance.

Among those buried are formal enslaved persons in two Civil War veterans.

The cemetery is now out of the carrier of Bergen County and this black history month, the public is being invited to visit and pay homage.

>> Memorializes life because I look at past generations.

We stand on their shoulders.

If we stand on their shoulders, we should protect them.

We should recognize them.

We should honor them.

>> A mission historian Dr. Arnold Brown is making sure to achieve at the cemetery in Little Ferry.

>> The cemetery was created in 1860 just before the Civil War commenced.

The reason it was created is African-Americans could not be buried in a white cemetery here in this particular area of Hackensack.

This was created.

It is a little larger than a one acre parcel of land.

It is a Sandhill.

There was nothing but sand all around here that they used to build bricks.

This is the last hill you can see that we have sand in.

>> He spearheaded efforts to make the cemetery a historic site and restore the grounds.

>> The cemetery has been vandalized as you can see.

When we first came here, we saw there were fire pits where kids would come and have fires and hang out so to speak.

It was in shambles.

Like I indicated before, there were car parks over here.

Over here was an automobile place.

They were just dumb through things in here.

Refrigerators and car parts.

It was disgraceful.

It was a dishonor to our ancestors.

You can see how the stones are.

Laid over.

How they were vandalized.

>> Nearly 20 years later, Bergen County which owns the cemetery is inviting the public to learn about its historical significance in honor of Black history month should >> This is not just a cemetery where people are buried.

.

This is a cemetery that is telling us a lot about our history in Bergen County.

I think that is what makes this cemetery the most important thing in the fact that we still have people alive such as Arnold Brown, Dr. Arnold Brown you will hear from who was important in making this happen.

This was a potter's field.

It was an area where people tended to throw their junk when they did not want it.

We cleaned it up.

We put the friends -- the fence around it.

>> Nearly 500 people are documented as being buried here.

Among them are formal enslaved people, local business owners and two Civil War veterans.

These panels posted throughout the cemetery will allow visitors to learn more about them.

>> This is hallowed ground.

This is a ground we all should honor.

And protect.

At all costs.

And we hope the county who has acquired the title of that and has ability to take care of it -- so we are satisfied this cemetery will be preserved for many years.

>> The self-guided tours will be available Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. >> And that is going to do it for us tonight.

But make sure you catch Reporters Roundtable tomorrow.

David kicks off the show with assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin with a look at the upcoming budget address and the hard conversations ahead for lawmakers as they work to balance the books.

Then a panel of local reporters break on this week's political headlines.

Watch roundtable tomorrow at noon on the NJ Spotlight News YouTube channel.

For the entire NJ Spotlight News team, thanks for being with us.

Have a great evening.

We will see you tomorrow.

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

And by the PSEG foundation.

♪