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Briana: Tonight on NJ spotlight news, commuters signed off on a proposed New Jersey transit fare hike.

>> Trips are canceled for mechanical issues, driver availability, and other factors beyond our control.

Briana: The agency looks for a lifeline to offset its billion-dollar budget shortfall.

With codefendant Jose rebate pleading guilty, what is cooperation a means for the embattled senior senator moving toward.

The more people you can bring from the inside of the conspiracy, to talk with personal experiences to the Jersey, the more effective it is.

Briana: The fate of some community colleges hangs in the balance as Governor Murphy's new budget removes funding.

>> We need to remove programs and reduce programs and services and layoff.

Briana: Mayor Ross baraka and the first lady of Newark launch a new education program aimed at supporting the women of brick city.

>> It is important to be on top of your finances no matter where you are, whether you are doing positive.

♪ >> From NJ studios, this is NJ Spotlight.

Briana: Good evening and thank you for joining us this Monday night, if you are a commuter with a gripe, today was the day to let your voice be heard.

The final 204 total public hearings wrapped up on New York City's proposed congestion pricing plan.

The transpiration authority has listened to voices from both New Jersey and New York in support and opposition to the new pole which is slated to -- toll which is slated to start in June, it causes an extra $15 and trucks would pay $36 fee to enter Manhattan south of 60th St.

It is money in the MTA says it needs to keep the system running at a similar argument to the one being made by New Jersey transit which is also staring at a fiscal cliff.

Hoping to stave it off at least partially through a proposed 15 percent fare hike starting July 1.

This started the first two of 10 public hearings required by the agency, senior correspondent reports they had more than price increases to complain about.

>> By 9:00 a.m. and we begin the public hearings.

>> The transit kicked off the first of 10 public hearings on proposed fare hikes in a mostly empty conference room at the Cherry Hill public library or just 10 speakers stepped up to the mic over two hours.

A couple cut out the agency for choosing a venue with scant public transit access and sort of a transportation hub like the water ran center in Camden.

>> This being the only hearing in Camden County I cannot stress enough how bad of a choice I think this is.

>> David rides the River line from Camden to Trenton and he says NJ transit refused write a request to testify via zoom like the empty aided for hearings on congestion pricing -- like the MTA did for hearings on congestion pricing.

>> The City Hall is one place to hold it, the Rutgers campus, a lot of places they could have had it.

They prioritized feeling safe about their cars instead of listening to the people who actually take transit to work every day.

It seems like a huge oversight.

Briana: A spokesman said Walter Rand had no room and buses run within a quarter-mile of the library.

They asked for a 50% fare hike and another 3% increase every year after that.

It would get NJ transit through fiscal year 2025 but there is a loan will not fill the estimated $767 million budget hole predicted for 2026.

These Jersey writers ask why pay more for bad service?

>> Trips are canceled, crew or driver availability is low, other factors within or beyond NJ transit's control.

Their frequency leaves writers with the impression that NJ transit just does not care.

>> This always seems to be a problem with those trains at all of the times.

Breaking down.

>> Another speaker talked about fair jumpers and violent fights over buses.

This present pays $200 a month for a bus pass.

>> I am paying but I do not always feel safe on there.

I never see the clothed officers.

I never see police in office are closed or in uniform.

>> They plan more public hearing over the next four days and many at transit hubs and colleges.

No doubt more people will show up for those events.

>> We cannot have trying to balance the budget on the back of writers.

-- riders.

Recognizing the fiscal cliff we are looking at.

>> An advocate says she supports the newly proposed corporate transit fee on major corporations to fix that problem.

New Jersey alliance for action called for a stable funding.

>> It is critical for the future of our commutes and our ability to get from here to there.

>> Many South Jersey businesses see little benefit in paying another tax with so little transit service available here.

Meanwhile, NJ transit still has not settled a contract dispute with its local motive engineering -- automotive engineering union which is in mediation.

>> You anticipate there will be a strike?

>> I do.

Eventually.

>> That is months down the road and NJ transit scheduled to vote on the proposed fare hikes April 10th.

In Cherry Hill, NJ spotlight news.

Briana: A key codefendant in the federal bribery case against U.S.

Senator Bob Menendez changed his plea to guilty.

Jose Uribe who was indicted alongside the senior senator and his wife and two other businessmen is the first need to guilty to the corruption charges and the first to agree to cooperate with prosecutors.

He told a federal judge that he bought a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz from Menendez and his wife in hopes of the Senator would interfere in two pending criminal investigations against Jose Uribe's associates.

Another blow to the defense after a judge rejected senior senator's claim that search warrant used to bring the corruption charges against him were unconstitutional.

How will this all play into Menendez's trial?

I am joined by Chris, a former prosecutor and a former assistant U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.

Thank you so much for coming back on the show, it is good to talk to you.

Could José cooperation with prosecutors to the kind of break that they need to convict someone like Senator Menendez who is and was pretty powerful?

Chris: It is quite possible.

In federal cases in particular, the government often time relies on cooperation to supplement the case they present to the jury.

The reason it is so valuable is because when you have a co-conspirator like Jose Uribe, he will serve as a color commentator who will explain the context of some of the communications, emails, text messages, he will confirm what the government alleges that there was a quick as a quid pro quo that they engaged Senator Menendez and they used him to benefit them.

You might see a game of musical chairs, watch one cooperator fall and there is pressure from the others to consider the same.

Briana: We saw that in former president Donald Trump's recent trial where one codefendant turned and the chips started falling.

How likely of the scenario is that given the fact that one of the codefendants is the senator's wife and the others are businessmen who he has had close ties with?

Chris: The conventional wisdom is it would be rare for a spouse to cooperate against another one.

It is always possible.

It is the other co-conspirators, their attorneys are counseling them, this is the situation, this is your exposure.

They have an ethical obligation to advise them not on what is bad or good for Senator Menendez but for their individual clients.

They are assessing the quality of the evidence and the risk going to trial and losing and the benefits of accepting and cooperation deal if one is being offered by the government.

We do not know that to be the case.

I do know that as a former prosecutor at the DOJ, the more people you can bring in from the inside of the conspiracy, to talk with personal experience about it to the jury, the more effective it is.

Briana: We are still two months away from this trial beginning.

How common or uncommon is it for a co-conspirator like Jose Uribe to change his plea to guilty at this point in the game?

>> I do not think it is all that uncommon.

In cases that are sensitive like this, sometimes the law enforcement will make a run at a co-conspirator beforehand.

Because of this is such a complex case that involves a powerful senator, I think the DoJ decided to make the arrests and charge what they did and sort that out in the wash after and this is one of the first things you see falling as a result of that.

I would not be surprised if there is an overture by the DOJ or vice versa.

We will never know into a monitor the filing document.

That is how we find out about this today.

Briana: Let me ask you about this decision on the search warrants.

These are the search warrants that are uncovered about $100,000 in cash.

We remind folks the gold bars.

Some of the other lucrative items that Menendez had in his home.

How significant is that decision by the judge which came down fairly quickly from the time the defense attorneys placed this appeal?

Chris: I did not find it surprising.

The speed of the decision told me something, the court effectively gave it the back of the hand arguments that were being made.

The court makes certain findings in its opinion and it said when it came to the argument about asking for a hearing and they were essentially challenging the governor saying that they intentionally held back information and was not sharing with the magistrate and the court said that will not happen.

They said that it is a former logical interpretation of the conversations that were cited in court affidavits.

If you read the warrant, it is pretty clear what they are looking for.

The most important thing is they recovered items of evidentiary value.

The DOJ was proven right.

Briana: Always good to have your insight, thank you so much for coming on.

Chris: Likewise, have a great day.

Briana: The race to replace Menendez's getting tighter and the Representative Andy Kim this weekend picked up his fifth straight County party endorsement in the Senate primary.

Winning the Sussex and Warren County Democratic convention's the first lady landed her second win with the union County Democratic organization line.

That vote came from the party's screening committee, not a regular convention.

Tonight that is the real test of the two candidates a for Bergen County Democratic's line in a secret ballot convention.

That is a key area because Burkett is home to the second largest number of registered Democrats.

It is also New Jersey's most populated county.

We will have a full round of owner broadcast tomorrow.

Meanwhile, GOP U.S. Senate contender Curtis Bashaw landed a win with Cumberland County's Republican convention and progressive activist got the backing of Sussex County Democrats to take on Tom Paine in New Jersey's seventh congressional district.

The fight over the most visited state park was once again being waged this weekend.

Bring a public hearing held by the Department of Environmental Protection, to talk about design ideas for the roughly 1200 acre property along the Hudson River.

Members of the controversial design task force have been criticized for their ties to a wealthy developer in the area who wants to commercialize and monetize the open space.

There are few new options presented during the Saturday meeting at a senior correspondent David Cruise reports and were high after the dep out at the task force for purposefully misleading the public.

>> The state park is an amazing place with breathtaking views and wide open spaces.

On a Sundays when the tide is low and the rivers are exposed, and of banks in the sun, it can smell a little rank.

What are you going to do?

There is another smell around the park nowadays, the stink that a lot of residents are getting from the efforts funded by Paul Fireman to turn the park into a commercial sports and entertainment venue.

A lot of them were holding their noses at the DEP session this weekend.

>> We do not have what we need for our people on this side of town.

I think what you are doing is a great terrible thing.

You can have the open space, give us hours.

I do not care what you put here it was something that these babies are able to ride their bikes or anything to do.

There is nothing here.

>> Thank you for working on this project to make sure that Liberty State Park remains a public park for the people.

>> The meeting was a presentation at a public session of the Liberty State Park in his course.

Getting input and updating folks on progress and plans for the park's restoration.

Recently stocked with associates of firemen who have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the golf course owner.

The task force was an opportunity for them to show their faces as part of an official body.

Here is the county commissioner, a former basketball coach, whose foundation is funded by firemen sounding more like youth advocates then dies pushing for stadiums in a park -- die pusguys pushing for students in a park.

>> Liberty State Park is a safe space, kids deserve the opportunity like that.

>> I am interested in us all getting together without the public to be able to talk about what we have read.

Get a better consensus.

>> As if to demonstrate their lack of interest in public input, none of the environment associated task force members hung around for the actual public portion of the meeting.

Leaving in their wake a series of flyers clutching the false narrative that the DEP plan would intentionally flood the park and the surrounding community.

>> I regret that there is misinformation on this point within the public dialogue.

This project will not cause flooding.

In liberty State Park or any sort of community.

This project is a solution to flooding.

>> We want field and they are giving fields, I did not hear anyone say I want to have a stadium there.

I want an Arena that is going to allow thousands of people to come in and drive in.

>> Bob Hurley is a great coach but he is not a hardware engineer and he is not an ornithologist, where is the information coming from that he is sharing and hopefully he stops sharing that?

What comes up to speed.

-- or comes up to speed.

Where is this information coming from and why is it being spread when we all know it is misinformation?

>> That is a good question albeit rhetorical.

If money is speech, advocates from a large scale development of liberty State Park have a megaphone.

The question will ultimately be who is the side they will listen to?

Briana: In our spotlight on business report New Jersey's public schools are not the only ones bracing for potential state aid cuts.

Governor Murphy is proposing budgets that would cut $20 million to community colleges after last year's $20 million boost to colleges.

A senior reporter reports it comes at a time community college presidents say more people are seeking out their institutions for affordability and needed resources.

>> They need to raise tuition which they do not want to do and do they need to remove programs, reduce programs and student services?

Lay off staff?

These are all decisions of the none of her colleges want to confront.

>> Their decisions that colleges are facing because of the proposed budget for the next fiscal year cuts state funding to schools by $20 million.

>> At 12% cut in one year, a significant reduction.

>> He says New Jersey's County schools are already among the lowest funded in the nation.

They serve 230,000 students per year and with the reduction in state aid college presidents say the costs will likely pass on to them.

>> If we do not want to cut services, there will be a call to have students pay more and that is what we do not want to do.

>> Do you anticipate raising tuition?

>> It would have to.

We have got to provide some level of service to our students.

Unfortunately, especially, we are in a time of some moderate inflation right now.

Our electric costs go up, those types of things, we will have additional costs.

I would love to not pass it on to the students but the reality is we will have to pass some of it.

>> A group of her Republican lawmakers who represent several counties have called the cuts astounding and are asking the governor and legislature to restore the funding before the budget is finalized.

Saying in a statement New Jersey simply cannot afford to continually underfund community colleges.

They play a vital role in our state's workforce of element efforts and provide affordable access to a diverse body of students.

Students who are likely from lower social economic areas and first-generation college students says Augustine.

>> Most students cannot afford to come to this college and what hurts is that we will continue to see the equity gap growing we have been trying to close.

>> There could be teacher layoffs and salary freezes plus they will have to cut back on expanding mental health programs that students desperately need along with other supports like food pantries for hungry students.

>> I used those services.

If those services and we get budget cuts, those services are not available, or what I be able to go?

-- where would I be able to go?

>> Cutting from the budget, already low income communities and cutting the budget does not set a good standard.

>> A community college president says he will likely have to reduce programs that helps students who have suffered learning laws from COVID, avoid repeating classes that they have failed.

>> We do a thing for three weeks after a course where we give them a second chance and we hire some tutors and we tried to get them through.

We do not charge them, these are the types of things that will suffer because of this.

>> A lot of people are depending on the resources here to get through school.

I think it would be about impact on students if we lost our funding.

Briana: This budget is still just a proposal and they do plan to sit down with their legislatures and tried to claw back any amount of this funding that they can.

Briana: On Wall Street, it looks like investors are taking a breather from last week's record-setting rally, here is where the markets closed today.

♪ Briana: Fresh off, the gubernatorial campaign announcement, the administration is launching a new program aimed at women, a 12 week financial literacy course aimed at giving women the tools they need to pay off debt, grow their savings, or invest.

In an area where wage gaps and economic disparities are among the highest in the state.

Raven has the story.

>> Were happy to be launching this during Black history month and women's history month.

>> The first lady of Newark wants to make sure that women in the city are empowered financially.

That is why she says she launched the Newark women moving forward financial initiatives which will give 1000 female residents of tools to achieve financial freedom.

The program partners with a number of organizations including a nationally recognized program that focuses on overcoming the culture of debt, especially among communities of color.

>> The movement is designed to people from the bad d's to the good d's.

You have true financial freedom.

Moving from debt, delinquencies to deposits and deeds is the goal we want to have two have full control over your finances.

There is space for everyone in this movement.

After having more than 100,000 people go through this program, we are excited to partner with First Lady Linda baraka in the city of Newark to change lives.

>> It is important to stay on top of your finances no matter if you are in debt or doing positive, stay on top your finances to make sure you are empowered and your legacy you are leaving behind is prepared.

>> The first lady who is spearheading the initiative was joined by her husband who announced that he is running for governor.

He made it clear that the focus was on his wife's achievements, not his.

>> Want to say you are not here because of me, but because of my wife, she helped make this day a reality.

To focus on the empowerment of women is the right thing to do.

Since COVID, inflation has hit our communities very hard.

It has hit the country hard and the state hard.

Black and brown communities very hard.

Women in our community have been hit the worst.

>> The goal of the program that also provides access to live events and licensed professionals is to ultimately create pathways for the black community to reach financial freedom.

>> I think the program is for everybody.

I did not want you to feel like I have to be in debt to participate or I cannot participate because I am in debt.

>> Being empowered runs deep for Luis Scott Rountree whose mother owned a mansion.

She believed to be the first African-American millionaire operated a beauty school and lived in the mansion until 1982 and it is where the Pope week program will be held.

>> I am about this and it is important because I am the offspring of a woman who came here and did more with less.

Our young women can be empowered with information and knowledge as to how they can do things with less, save.

>> While the goal is to enroll at least 1000 women, ultimately, she wants to empower every woman in Newark to financially secure their future through the program.

Four NJ Spotlight,.

I am Raven Santana.

Briana: Do not forget to download the NJ Spotlight podcast so you can listen anytime.

For the entire NJ Spotlight spot news team, we will see you back here tomorrow night.

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

And By the PSNJ foundation.

♪