♪♪ >> From NJ PBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

Brianna Vannozzi is off.

Coming up, we get reaction from from the business community to Governor Sherrill's final budget.

Plus, Stevie Van Zant is in the house.

The musician and E Street band member joins us to talk about celebrating America's 250th with music.

But first, from extreme heat to storms and pounding rain, the weather has wreaked havoc on the state for the last few days.

We'll get the latest on hardest hit areas.

That's next.

Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

From extreme heat to massive flooding, New Jersey residents have felt the wrath of the weather over the last several days.

Heavy rain fell across much of the state, in some areas dumping a month's worth, about six inches, in just one day.

The roof of a BJ's store in Ocean Township partially collapsed from the heavy rain on Monday, but incredibly, everyone inside got out safely.

Also in Monmouth County, Asbury Park streets looked more like a river, and patients at Jersey Shore Medical Centers ER had to move due to flooding.

And in Camden County, severe flash flooding left many drivers stranded, about 40 needing water rescues.

The heavy rain came on the heels of severe thunderstorms that knocked out power across many parts of New Jersey, leaving hundreds of thousands without power.

That, after sweltering 100 degree temperatures blanketed the state over the July 4th weekend.

The blazing temperatures are suspected to have contributed to the deaths of 29 New Jersey residents according to health officials.

And today many residents are still dealing with power outages from the weather.

But the whole state has felt the pain from rising energy costs, especially in these warm summer months.

Governor Sherrill promised to address those costs as one of her major priorities, and today she signed several energy bills into law.

Here to break down what they'll accomplish is our senior writer Colleen O'Day as part of our Under the Dome series.

Colleen, great to see you.

Obviously the governor took several steps today to address energy costs in the state.

I want to start with some of the credits that she announced.

Can you explain what the two different credits were?

Right, so one is essentially a credit that every rate payer is going to get.

If you pay for your electricity, you'll get a $25 credit on your August bill, at least.

And then the other credit is for those who are part of the REAP program.

It's more lower income folks who need a little more assistance.

They're slated to get a $150 credit per rate payer.

REAP stands for Residential Energy Assistance Program.

So folks who are low to moderate income who are a part of that program.

She signed three pieces of legislation into law.

I want to take a look at them one at a time.

The first really has to do with utilities participating in the grid, which is owned and operated by PJM.

That's the regional grid that oversees 13 states and the District of Columbia.

So what did this legislation address?

So you know, back a while back, the federal government wanted to get all utilities to be part of the grid.

So it created this incentive program where if you joined the grid, then you got to add a little bit of an extra bonus onto your transmission rates.

What the state has now done is requires all of the utilities to be part of the grid, to be part of PJM, and as a result there will be no more incentives.

What we're told is that that should wind up saving ratepayers a combined 60 million dollars a year.

I'm not sure how much that's gonna work out to each individual's bill, but any savings certainly would seem to be good savings.

- Okay, there's also another bill that strengthens the state's oversight of infrastructure investments.

Can you explain, one, why there is not already oversight of the investments and what types of infrastructure investments have been going on that would require this type of legislation?

Yeah, that why is a good question.

I'm guessing that that was kind of put in place to encourage utilities to keep their to keep their lines and their power stations up to date.

But what the state says, what legislators, what the governor said today is that utilities were doing supplemental projects that maybe the state would not consider to be necessary.

And once they do a project, that money gets passed along to ratepayers.

So the state's going to take more control over those.

Utilities are going to have to ask for permission, essentially apply to get approval for those before they make any kind of these supplemental projects and would wind up charging people for it.

So this is another bill that the administration at least is saying should provide some relief, if not savings to to ratepayers.

Another bill that she signed is one that she's been talking about since the beginning of her term, looking at data centers, she wants them to pay their fair share.

What does this bill do?

Yeah, I mean, this is certainly something that's been talked about for the last couple years.

You know, data centers that process artificial intelligence consume massive amounts of energy, and they're responsible, at least in part or in large part, according to PGM, the grid operator, with the increase that we saw in New Jersey, the double digit rate increase that we saw last year.

So by requiring these centers to pay their own way, they'll have a special fee.

That should mean that that burden is not placed on the typical rate payer.

The other part of that is to hopefully provide an incentive for these data centers to bring in their own power, you know, build their own power plants, presumably with clean energy or hopefully with clean energy so that then, you know, the incentive is, well, if you don't want to pay this higher rate, you know, build your own package plant and then you won't be drawing from the grid.

There are, in the final days before the budget deadline, there was a flurry of legislation that was voted on in both houses, the Assembly and the Senate.

Two bills cleared both houses but have not been signed by the governor and I want to talk about them.

The first is the Power Act and the second is the Garden State Balcony Solar Act.

Let's take them one at a time.

What is the Power Act?

Yeah, the Power Act would essentially provide incentives for the state to essentially court utilities or others who want to build nuclear power, clean nuclear power, hopefully, in the state, provide those with incentives.

And again, we need, according to PJM, the grid operator, we need more sources of power.

If we don't have enough sources of power, that's another thing that leads to an increase in costs.

So, Colleen, the governor, the governor has said, though, that she supports increasing nuclear energy in the state.

Yeah, she does.

Absolutely.

I mean, so, you know, these bills were just sent to her a week ago.

And quite often these bills, depending on how much back and forth there is between the governor's office and the legislative sponsors, bills might need a little bit of work, or the governor, the governor's office might want to do some more analysis before they agree to sign a bill.

So it doesn't mean that she won't sign it, it just means that they're taking a little more time looking at it.

And I'm just going to jump in here with the Balcony Solar Act because we are almost out of time, but that does allow residents to plug in their own battery solar stations.

They could be off the back of your deck or off the side of your house.

But again, we have not seen that one be something that the governor said that she's going to support as of yet.

Colleen O'Day, we've got to leave it there.

Our senior writer and projects editor, thank you so much.

Thanks so much for having me, Cho.

Under the Dome is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

We continue to dissect the details of the state's record level $60.7 billion spending plan.

One of the loudest critics of the plan has been the business community, who say they're the ones being taxed in order to drive new revenue for the state.

Michelle Sekirka is president and CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, who's here to explain that perspective.

Michelle, great to have you back on.

When we last spoke, we were in the final hours, kind of final stretch of waiting to see what would come out in this budget.

Now that you have seen this $60.7 billion budget, just what's your overall reaction to how it addresses the business community?

Well, sadly, it negatively addresses the business community.

It's a little more of what we dealt with in years past, and frankly, everyone dubs this an affordability agenda, but for New Jersey business, it's nothing but.

So you have said in a statement that it uses gimmicks to pay for new spending.

In what way does it do that?

Well, we have the supplemental appropriation, where there's a lot of, you know, money that is put that is not sustainable dollars for the future.

So if there are programs in there, they're going to need funding in the future, we'll be concerned about that.

We're going to be concerned about built in holes and future budgets again, where there won't be money in the future for this.

So for example, I know we're going to talk about the Medicaid assessment deeper.

But there are some exemptions to the Medicaid assessment where those companies are still going to pay this year, but the exemption will go into place next year and quote unquote, they'll get refunds for that.

Where's the money for those refunds going to come from?

And then how is that chunk of money that's being used this year to offset other spending, where's that going to come from next year?

So we should be concerned where those holes are in the future of this budget.

I'd love to get into that Medicaid issue a bit further.

I spoke to you the day after the governor's budget address.

You were joined by a progressive actually who was opposed to this Medicaid tax in the same way that you were, but it did go through.

Who will have to pay?

Which companies will have to pay?

How much will they have to pay?

Can you explain this?

Yeah, absolutely.

So anyone who has 50, so it starts with if your company then employs 50 or more employees.

So that's the starting threshold, right?

Okay.

So then it's like if you have 50 or more employees, for every employee that is on Medicaid, you're going to be penalized.

But it's the lives on Medicaid.

So it's not just the employee, and it would include the dependents as well.

And then it's a sliding scale from $325 per employee all the way up to $725 per employee.

Now, we've spoken with some companies after this who started looking at the math, and they were like, "Oh, my gosh."

And we have to remind ourselves, and the reason why there was such a broad coalition opposed to this, which included vulnerable populations and nonprofits, etc., is because there's a myriad of reasons why people remain on Medicaid and we're actually penalizing the employer.

And these are employers who provide benefits to the workforce.

It's not like these are companies that don't provide benefits.

These are companies that can't move this Medicaid population off of their government benefit and onto the employer-sponsored plan, oftentimes because the employee does not want to move there, but we're penalizing the company.

And I also want to say this is a first of in the nation type of policy.

So yet again, New Jersey being an outlier and being an outlier on the back of business.

And that's along with some other provisions in this budget as well, which we can point to the data broker registration fee.

The data broker registration fee is the cost.

So it starts at $5,000 for anyone who is defined as a data broker.

And we're very concerned about how broad that definition is.

It goes all the way up to $1.5 million.

Anywhere else in the country where this is, the threshold, the highest threshold of the fee is California at $6,000.

So our entry point is almost one of the highest, and we go all the way up to $1.5 million.

Again, another penalty on New Jersey business on what is a broad definition that we're still trying to understand, who even fits into that definition of data broker.

I want to talk about the alternative business calculation that was changed under this budget, as well as the net operating loss deduction.

Let's start with the net operating loss.

There was a limit placed here.

I know you were opposed to it.

What is the limit?

How are businesses impacted?

Yeah, so what we did here is that the cap is a temporary new cap that is imposed at $1 million of losses.

And why I say temporary is it's four years, but on that back end, it'll extend four years.

So it's actually a delay in the ability to take more than that.

Why is this of concern?

The reason why we had this in the first place is it was a bipartisan tax fix to make our state more regionally competitive.

But now we come back and again, we're changing the rules of engagement.

When for companies who are on fiscal year, we're now changing their tax policies midway through their year.

That's the same any time we change any type of tax policy.

You know, businesses need long-term predictability and certainty in order to make investments.

And when we change the rules of engagement every year on them, we make it incredibly impossible for them to invest into the future.

The alternative business calculation deduction that was changed also for earners 500,000 to a million and then potentially drops off for those at million and above.

And I just have to ask, what do you make of the argument of folks who say, look, the highest earners in our state have to pay their quote, fair share?

They do.

We pay the highest business taxes in the nation.

I mean, I will continue to emphasize that.

Every time someone says, have them pay their fair share, I'd like them to step back and actually understand what they are already paying.

And that's just their taxes, let alone that we're the highest when it comes to numerous types of fees and costs for doing business.

Time and time again, there is a reason why, sadly, we have all these missed opportunities here in the state of New Jersey, companies that have left over the last few years.

There's a reason why we've gone from 22 Fortune 500 companies over the last seven years down to 15.

There's a reason why Samsung recently left and JetBlue is moving their training operations out of state.

Nexon Mobile moved their headquarters.

There's a reason why we keep getting warn notices over 8,000 this year.

This is real stuff.

So I, you know, for everyone who says have them pay their fair share, let's stop and look at what it costs to run a business here in the state of New Jersey.

Michelle, when you were last on, we talked about the Make Polluters Pay Act.

You were strongly opposed to it.

That did not pass in the flurry of bills that were voted on in the final hours before the budget deadline.

What your reaction to Democrats voicing concern around it?

And do you think it's dead on arrival now?

Yeah, well, it's not only that it didn't pass, it never made it to the floor.

It didn't make its way out of caucus.

So that's very, very important to know it was never even put on the floor for a vote.

We'll take that as a strong victory.

I think we're successful in explaining that where this is in other states right now is in the midst of great litigation because of constitutional challenges about federal preemption as well as is it really possible to go back and impose this type of a penalty decades back on companies that had lawful permits and we're following in our case, the most extensive air quality recommendations in the country when they were performing what is an essential service and providing means for energy, fossil fuels and petroleum.

All right, we have to leave it there.

Michelle Sekirka, thank you as always, President and CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

Thanks.

Always a pleasure.

Thank you.

On the July 4th weekend, many people came together to celebrate our nation's 250th anniversary.

Well, here in New Jersey, that celebration is far from over.

There will be events and tourist destinations for folks to visit throughout the summer months and even into the winter.

But one event this summer is bringing some big-name performers back to their Jersey roots.

It's called Monmouth NJ 250 and headlining it is none other than Stevie Van Zandt, musician, E Street Band member and head of the band Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul.

Here's my recent conversation with him about that event.

Stevie, we're thrilled to have you on the show.

Thanks so much for taking some time.

You and the Disciples of Soul are headlining a major concert as we celebrate our nation's 250th anniversary.

It's called Monmouth NJ 250 The Concert.

What can you tell us about this event?

Well, it was going to be this week, but we decided because of the extreme heat, it's like a festival, you know, it's like five, six acts on the show.

So, the door is going to be like 2 p.m.

And you're going to be there until probably 10.

So we thought eight hours in a hundred plus degrees, man, was just not going to be fair to the fans.

So we're moving it to July 17th.

And it's going to be essentially the same show.

And what are we going to see?

What are the fans going to see?

They're going to see the Weaklings, which is the best band with the worst name.

It's going to be Jake Clemens, I know, he'll be there.

Gary Bonds, Joe Gruszecki.

Just a few of the greats, huh?

Just a few of the Jersey greats.

A lot of our local fun friends, really.

It's like pretty much an Asbury and the family kind of a scene, you know?

Yeah, Jake Clemons, Joe Gruszecki.

We're going to have some big names there.

Lots of music to really commemorate this 250th.

And I just want to ask you, you know, a lot of folks are approaching this holiday with their own perspective of what it means celebrating this historic moment for America.

For you, what does it mean to celebrate our nation's 250th and to do it with music?

Well, you know, obviously we are very happy we've made it this far.

It was going to be a challenge when our founders put it together.

You know, and we've been up until recently, it's been pretty much an uphill.

I mean, I mean, you know, an uphill trajectory.

We've been trying to correct the little things that were a little bit off through the years.

I mean, the Constitution was an amazing document, but had a few problems that we've been straightening out.

And mostly it's been really an upward trajectory.

Until recently now, it's starting to level off into a sort of a place where we need to, I think we really need to re-examine ourselves, our ideals.

- Well, let me ask you this.

When it comes to that re-examination, for you, you've played alongside Bruce Springsteen in the E Street Band for decades, in your own band, Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul.

You've taken on social issues of the day, political issues of the day.

I think of your song, "I'm a Patriot," right?

You talk about opposition, doesn't mean that I'm not a patriot.

How, in your mind, does music speak to the moment?

- Well, music really is the ultimate common ground, and we've always used it that way.

We're using it that way in my education curriculum, teachrock.org, which I'm happy to say we just hit a million students, by the way, using our curriculum.

But we use music there to teach history, and we use music to bring people together.

I've never seen our country so divided as now.

It was pretty divided in the 60s.

That was the last time I remember this kind of divisiveness.

But it seems even one level worse now.

Because nobody seems to be talking to each other.

And it's really a problem.

We need to find that common ground and stay on it for a minute.

Well, I've got to ask you this.

Do you think that music that addresses some of those social concerns, do you think that it does bring people together or are we so siloed right now that it actually separates?

How do you see it?

I mean, it doesn't separate, but... You know, like, "I Am A Patriot" is basically about two things, alright?

It's about my criticism of the party system, okay?

Which I don't... I think the party system divides us by definition, you know?

So I've always been against the entire party system, which is partly what the song is about.

And yet, part of the song, which people sometimes overlook, is being very proud of one's national identity.

And I think national identity is extraordinarily important, actually.

And, you know, you can see now in Europe, things are starting to disintegrate in terms of national identity, which is a huge, huge, huge mistake.

And I feel the same thing is starting to happen here.

You know, it's a real danger.

Can I ask you this?

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

Well, you know, when you talk about that identity, America and American music has always been a melting pot of identities, right?

And the Disciples of Soul has embodied that.

Explain how that's true.

Well, we do it even physically, you know, we have, you know, different races and we always have in the band.

But, you know, we have a wide range of influences and genres that we deal with with the Disciples of Saul.

It's kind of an international viewpoint, you know, in that sense of using other people's national identities and integrating it into ours, which America was always great at.

But with that context of, you know, the basic ideals and the constitution and all of those documents and the basic beliefs of our, that we've been living by, you know, that cannot be compromised, you know?

And so the idea is for, you know, immigrants, for instance, we all, a lot of us come from immigrant parents and grandparents who came here wanting to be American and making sure that they became American and you know were integrated into America, you know, assimilated into America, bringing their ethnic gifts with them, which we all share, you know.

I mean, I think Italian food kind of caught on, you know.

Sure did.

People kind of like that, you know.

That one's not going anywhere.

But at the same time, my Italian grandparents wouldn't let us speak Italian in the house, unfortunately.

So I never got a chance to learn Italian because it was very important that we grew up American, you know.

And you carry that sense of national pride with you today, even as you get on the stage after decades of performing in so many different spaces and venues.

Yes, and when we travel, you know, we are ambassadors from America.

I feel that way, you know.

Yeah, we are very proud to be American and you know the ideals that created our country.

You know, we're the only country that was not a monoculture, you know, to begin with, you know.

So we have those ideals and they're starting to unravel a little bit.

So we need to refocus on who we are, I think.

We have to leave it there.

It's been great talking to you.

Stevie Van Zandt, musician, songwriter, performer, Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul at Monmouth NJ 250 on July 17th.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

That's gonna do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis for the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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