>> 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, is the World Cup paying off for New Jersey?

We'll look at the winners of the fan experience.

Plus, school's out for the summer, but many districts are already scrambling for September because of budget cuts.

But first, is the new state budget truly affordable?

We get the perspective from a progressive think tank.

That's next.

Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

- Governor Sherrill has now signed her first state budget.

Questions remain though about what the spending plan means for New Jersey's long-term financial health.

New Jersey Policy Perspective is a nonpartisan think tank whose senior policy analyst, Peter Chen, served on Governor Sherrill's transition team.

He joins us now as part of our Under the Dome series.

Peter, it's great to see you.

Thanks so much for talking to us.

I want to get your high-level reaction to the budget that was finalized, signed into law by Governor Sherrill.

Let's start with what did you like about it?

I think this budget took an important step towards bringing the state closer to fiscal stability while continuing to support programs that help everyday New Jerseyans and showed how we can balance progressive values with fiscal responsibility moving forward.

So along those lines, the expansion of the child tax credit, the expansion of funding for the deportation and detention defense initiative, as well as much needed reforms to state New Jersey and to some corporate tax loophole closure has helped to keep the state in more fiscal balance moving forward.

Some have been very critical of that deportation funding, saying that, you know, the state cut hundreds of thousands in spending for nonprofits, from cancer research to various nonprofits that are out there meeting health care needs and social needs.

What do you say to that criticism?

The New Jerseyans are New Jerseyans regardless of where they were born.

We live in a state where a substantial portion of the population was born outside the United States.

And a ramp up an increase in deportation and detention activity hurts New Jersey.

And when we think about a state that includes all of its residents, that means ensuring that all of its residents can stay.

How many times have we heard that people are fleeing New Jersey?

Here are people who want to stay in New Jersey, and they deserve legal representation in order to do so.

I want to talk about what criticism you have of the budget.

I know that you've raised a couple concerns and one of them we spoke about just the day after the budget address was delivered.

You came on with Michelle Sikirka from the New Jersey Business and Industry Association to talk about concerns around this Medicaid fee that at the time was being proposed for businesses employing folks on Medicaid.

That did go through.

How do you feel about that?

You know, we continue to have serious concerns about whether the fee is going to potentially deter people from using Medicaid and some exemptions were added to the law which create exemptions for part-time seasonal employees, new employees that could potentially create downstream effects where a business might say, "Okay, well then I'm gonna convert this full-time employee to a part-time employee and now I don't have to pay the fee for that."

So, you know, we remain concerned that there are some unintended consequences of what sounds like a good idea, but the broad issue that we're facing as a state is we're gonna be losing people off of Medicaid because of changes in federal law, right?

The work requirements and other changes in the law are gonna force people off of Medicaid and become uninsured.

What's the solution that the state has to raise the insured rate, ensure that everyone has access to health care coverage?

We haven't seen exactly what the plan is for that, and the money raised from this is also unstable.

You know, the Office of Legislative Services put out a fiscal note for this, which showed projected $150 million in fiscal year 2027, but only $22 million or $23 million in fiscal year 2028.

So that means the next year, the bottom falls out of the cost of this, the revenue generated from this program, and it might not even generate the revenue that's hoped for as companies respond.

So we remain concerned that this is potentially even going to dissuade people from using Medicaid and continue to think that there are better ways to fund Medicaid that involve more broad-based taxation on corporations and employers more broadly.

Rather than these very targeted types of fees.

You also I know take issue with the supplemental spending bill that was approved that actually didn't go towards the next fiscal year but was allocated to the fiscal year 26.

Let me just ask you what are your concerns there with first the spending and then we're going to go process?

Well you know none of the spending items necessarily you know jump out as particularly egregious.

I think the main issue is a process one that you know when when the budget passes it's understood that it's a forward-looking document.

There are going to be changes.

Some charges are going to come up that were not expected but a lot of the things in the supplemental feel like they were to be expected right.

Some of it's like world cup spending.

Well people knew that there was going to have to be there was going to be state spending on World Cup.

So why is it coming in the supplemental and not in the original budget?

Right so I think because it's again pushed through at the last minute along with next year's budget with very little time for public debate and you know oftentimes this is money that's already been spent and the supplemental appropriation bill is simply a formality.

Maybe it shouldn't be a formality right maybe we should be thinking about what the supplemental appropriation looks like before the end of June closing out the whole year.

And you know this is has been a problem in prior years as well.

There was an additional supplemental appropriation at the end of the lame duck session in January that similarly pushed through a number of spending items that might not have been approved had they had a full normal bill passage cycle with committee hearings and debate.

The governor did set aside about 10% of the overall spending.

There's about a $6 billion surplus.

It's a $60.7 billion budget.

Is that where you believe the state needs to be in terms of surplus?

And if not, what changes would you recommend?

So I think I want to phrase that it's not exactly a surplus.

It's more aptly described as our cash reserves.

It's our savings account.

And so a 10% is like-- that's like the minimum of what we should have on hand for a recession.

The problem is that number is getting smaller.

We were at 10 billion a few years ago.

Now we're down to 6 billion.

And we still have a structural deficit, which means we have more expenditures than we have revenues.

That means that that number is going to keep getting smaller unless we're able to close that.

And the governor made it a point in her budget address that this was going to be something she's targeting to fix.

And she made important progress towards that this year with the changes to Sanjay, which some of the corporate tax changes.

But is there enough to I mean, there's gonna have to be more next year, right?

We only got half the job done.

And the other half may be harder.

Yeah, what is your recommendation in terms of where the state needs to perhaps tighten its belt?

Is that is that the answer?

Or is it raising revenue?

How do you see it?

You know, on the revenue side, we think there's still more to get out of a corporate tax code.

You know, corporations got a huge tax cut from the federal government last year, and they keep recording record profits.

But when it comes time to pay their corporate taxes in New Jersey, somehow, you know, they're not as high as we would expect based on the profits that they're reporting.

And so closing those corporate loopholes to make sure companies actually pay what they are supposed to pay based on the profits they're generating is going to be particularly important as the economy gets more and more concentrated in a small number of companies.

But on the expenditure side, there's corporate issues as well.

The state has billions of dollars in corporate tax credits that it hands out, and these add up.

And unless the state's able to take a much closer look at some of these credits to ensure that they're really generating the economic growth that they're promising, they run a real risk of hurting the state further in its fiscal stability.

I'm going to jump in there and just say I know that the business community feels they've already been taxed very high.

Of course, this budget did change deductions that they can claim and reduce those.

So I would imagine there'd be a whole lot of pushback to how you see it in terms of them paying what you call their fair share.

But we have to leave it there.

Peter Chen, Senior Policy Analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective.

Thanks very much.

Happy to be here.

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

-With the final state budget in place and a new school year on the horizon, New Jersey education leaders say the time is now for lawmakers to take drastic action on school aid allocations.

Our education and child welfare writer, Cat Carrera, spoke with several school districts to hear their take on critical school funding issues.

She joins us now.

Cat, great to see you.

You have been covering a whole lot when it comes to funding of education in our state.

And we did see this budget come out and when the state aid allocations were made, there were no significant changes to the school funding formula.

But we do see yet another year where there are caps on increases and losses.

Can you explain what's happening there?

Yes, thanks Joanna.

The Sherrillette administration continued some caps that the Murphy administration started.

And that is to prevent drastic fluctuations in state aid.

So you see a 6% cap on increases and 3% cap on cuts, and that's aimed to sort of help districts stay within a window of what they could expect from from state aid but districts to push back on that, and especially those have that have seen cuts year after year, or have seen a lot of cuts.

Or have seen caps on their increases year after year, and they really do feel like they need the extra state funding to close budget holes.

So it's a way to prevent fluctuations, but it's also causing some stress.

Yeah, for some districts, they say it's proof that the formula doesn't work because they say these are arbitrary.

Some districts I know who you talked to, Tums River in particular, faced drastic cuts, and then when it was time to actually see increases, they were capped, and so they say it creates inequity.

Let me just ask you this.

Almost every district across this state is facing increases year over year.

What's driving many of those increases?

Yes, so the costs are just out of control, especially when it comes to health insurance premiums and especially for those who are in the state school employees health benefits program.

They're seeing increases in those premiums up to 30% in some cases.

And then there's also that on top of other increases to transportation, utilities, the same increases that we're seeing in costs in our own homes, just to a greater extent with school districts.

And in addition to that, special education costs, they're all really driving up district budgets, including salaries.

And so district school leaders, education advocates, lawmakers, they're all aware that one of the biggest problems right now is the health insurance premium costs.

Is there any, as far as you know, any real coordinated plan to address either the rising costs or changes to the school funding formula in this next year?

Well, one education advocate I spoke to, she said if there were, they would really like to see lawmakers start talking about this this summer.

It's an urgent issue and it really shouldn't be kicked down the road any further, but they're ready to start those discussions as soon as lawmakers come back from their break.

And if there is something that we, if we can't target and solve all of the issues, most school district leaders agree that the health insurance costs are really out of control and unsustainable.

And so they really want help with that.

But really, it's as you said, the school funding formula.

It's been years of districts saying that this really needs to change and, and just be updated to the needs that we see today in 2026.

Let me ask you this.

I know that there's this nearly $360 million supplemental spending bill that was passed is part of the same budget signing process.

You might say, what does that have to do with school funding?

Well, some districts are pointing to the fact that about half of that money went to aid to Jersey City.

What do those two things have to do with each other, Kat?

Yeah, well, school districts have been operating on really lean budgets for some years now.

As one superintendent for the Toms River Regional School District told me, seeing this infusion of money go toward Jersey City really did feel like salt in the wound.

And they've had school districts we're seeing are starting the upcoming school year with cuts to staff, to programs, they really have done all they can on really lean budgets.

And so that did create some tension there, but other advocates are saying we just really need to work together and find a way forward so that we're not constantly feeling like there are winners and losers when it comes to state funding, when it comes to aid, state aid in general.

So yeah, that was hard to swallow for some districts.

Yeah, and many will say, "Look, this is not a political issue," although we've heard many districts say it feels political when they look at kind of the map of who gets additional aid and who doesn't.

But just very quickly, a few seconds left, we continue to hear from districts in the Highlands and the Pinelands who say that they need additional funding or they need a major change to how aid is calculated.

Did you hear anything from them in terms of hope that there will be some change?

Yeah, the outgoing Jefferson superintendent to say that she remains hopeful that lawmakers are really hearing them this time around and that there will be some accountability for the restrictions that these towns in the Highlands and Pinelands regions, they cannot increase their tax base, despite how much other costs are rising.

So yeah, there's some hope there.

- Hope, but a lot to figure out.

I know you'll be covering it.

Kat Carrera, our education and child welfare writer, thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Take it from me, being a journalist can sometimes be a grind, but every once in a while it gives you a front row seat to history being made.

And in New Jersey this summer, that history is being made on a global stage with the World Cup played right here in our backyard.

Tom Bergeron is founder and editor of Binge, who's been front and center as the plays unfold, both on the pitch and off.

I got to speak to him this week about all of it.

Tom, great to have you on the show.

Hey, every once in a while in this job, we get to have a little fun, right?

Tell me how many games you've gotten to go to of this World Cup.

How many matches, excuse me?

So, so far four matches at MetLife Stadium and one match down at the Link in Philadelphia.

It is a time like you wouldn't believe.

What is it like to have, so to speak, front row seat to all the activity that you've gotten to see so far?

It's hard to explain.

The best way to say is that there simply is not a U.S.

equivalent.

For everything for the Knicks championship on their parade and when the Giants made the Super Bowl, the sense of patriotism and nationalism that all comes together at a World Cup game where we bring in these countries from around the world, their fans coming from around the world, their fans coming from around the country, and for two hours it's a love fest like you wouldn't believe.

Win or lose, you've never seen people have so much patriotism, so much spirit, so much fun at the same time.

I think one of the fun elements of watching this World Cup come to the U.S.

is just seeing all of the fans excited to be here.

But on the flip side of that, I want to ask what are some of the fan traditions that have been most fun for you to watch, kind of the global energy that's come here.

So it's amazing to see fans sing in unison.

What's taken over this country has been Norway where they do this rowing chant where they pound the drum and they all row together like Vikings.

I talked to someone from Norway a little while ago and he said they just started it and nobody seemed to like it but the world loves it so now they're chanting in Times Square, they're chanting in American Dream, they're chanting at games.

They just love to support Norway.

It's unbelievable.

England, as you know, they have got more songs than you'd ever believe.

Believe it or not, Sweet Caroline is the unofficial anthem for England.

So they sing that during the games, they were singing that at American Dream and then they're so creative.

So the game I went to, the match I went to with England, Jude Bellingham scored the winning goal and after he did his on-field interview with the BBC or whoever it was and he was jogging back across the field to their locker room, everyone there, probably 30 or 40,000 British fans started singing "Hey Jude" by the Beatles.

Just in unison, again, it's a party, it's an atmosphere that we'll never see here and that's what makes this event so special.

Some New Jersey towns are really capitalizing on this moment.

I know in particular, Montclair has the MC Hotel where a couple of different teams stayed.

You were there, I know, when the Norway players walked through.

What teams, as far as you've seen, excuse me, what towns have done it right in terms of really capitalizing on this moment?

So you have to say towns plural with an S, right?

And this is one of the things when Mikey Sherrill and the administration canceled the overall film fan festival that was supposed to be in Jersey City, they wanted to spread it out to various towns.

So Montclair with the MC Hotel has done a fabulous job.

Flag Cities has moved around to various spots in Newark and Jersey City.

Patterson done a great job.

The Yard down in New Brunswick is a real fan fest, fan friendly entertainment center.

That's been great.

And then there's just simple towns like Basking Ridge realized early on that both Brazil and Morocco who were playing each other were staying nearby.

So they just created the Battle of Basking Ridge day.

And for one day, they brought everybody out, they got some old World Cup heroes to come.

They had fans there, you do the face painting, you get people stopping by the shops.

So for one day, you got that excitement, everybody liked it.

And that's really what the state was hoping for was to have towns, if you put the effort in, they will come and have a good time.

Yeah, it's interesting because there's been a lot of kind of scrutiny about who's actually going to benefit.

Is this going to be New York benefiting.

Is it New Jersey.

And by and large it does seem like most of the crowds that gather are spending time in New York.

Are you seeing though as you go out that these are international crowds.

Are they New Jersey.

Is there any way to know if this just brought people out of their homes or if it actually brought people to the state.

So look, this is always going to be the New York, New Jersey challenge.

We know that from the Super Bowl.

We know that from the Final Four.

We know that from every other spot.

The first question I ask people when I do the man on the street in the parking lot at MetLife is, "Where are you staying?

Where did you go?"

More people than you would think flew into Newark, right?

A lot of business there.

And I don't know about the hotels, but I've heard a lot of people saying they got Airbnbs in Hoboken and Jersey City.

One gentleman said he was staying in Hoboken, New York, so we're not sure where he was.

But from that standpoint, they've benefited.

Where really the local towns have benefited in the local places is when they've taken upon themselves to do more.

There's a restaurant La Fortelisa in Carlstadt.

You literally can see MetLife Stadium.

They didn't get any money from the state.

They're not part of any official program, but they've created a soccer fantasy area for a hotel, for a restaurant outside in their parking lot where they've painted the parking lot like a soccer field.

They've got big screen TVs.

They can host an extra 200 people.

Every night there is a party.

They're really doing it right because they saw the event.

They said, "We're going to take advantage of it and we're going to go."

So the areas where you see a specific town or a specific restaurant take the initiative have really benefited.

If towns were waiting for people just to show up because the World Cup is here, they haven't.

Yeah, one of the things you get to do is, like you said, get out there and just talk to the people on the ground.

Give me one or two of your favorite stories.

I know you spoke recently with some volunteers, not something we often think of when we think of the World Cup, but there's volunteers out there.

So volunteers with multiple S's.

There's 7,500 volunteers that are coming to MetLife Stadium.

And look, it's an opportunity to be part of a global event.

You know, the fine print is this, you get selected for a certain area and that's where you are for all seven or eight matches, right?

You might be handing out water, you might be pointing people in a direction on the bridge to American Dream, you might be inside working the press box or working this and that.

The funny thing about being a volunteer is you don't actually get to see any of the action.

So their biggest issue is we wish we could just see one minute of a game or go to the Fan Fest.

But there was one great story.

I was talking to these two women who were volunteers and all they were doing was saying, "Gates one and two to your right, gates three to your left," over and over again.

But they had the best attitude and the best spirit.

And as I'm talking to one of the ladies, someone walks up and says, "Hey, I just found these car keys right behind you."

So, you know, there's the hook to my story.

She holds up the car keys, and we joke that the volunteer got a new Audi out of this.

So no sooner does the story go up on binge when a very high-level executive in New Jersey calls me up and he says, "Those were my keys.

I lost those keys in the parking lot."

So it was sort of a World Cup miracle.

We were able to connect that gentleman to the host committee.

He got his keys back.

Everyone was happy.

Just a fun story with a great ending.

A whole lot of fun stories coming out of your reporting that folks can find on binge.

Binge stands for?

Business in New Jersey every day.

It's sports in New Jersey.

We're going to keep watching.

Will you be at the final match?

It's unclear.

Listen, I've had I've been lucky to get a press credential for every match so far.

This is the largest press event in the history of the world.

There's people all over the world that are looking for a credential.

I hope I get one.

We'll see what happens.

Crossing fingers for you Tom Bergeron, founder of Binge.

Thank you so much.

- 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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