♪ >> Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by the members of the New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

RWJ Barnabas health, let's be healthy together.

And New Jersey Realtors, the voice for real estate in New Jersey.

More information is online at NJrealtor.com.

Briana: tonight on NJ Spotlight News, the strike is out here longshoreman walked out at midnight, ratcheting up pressure for pay raises and job protection.

>> The ILA is fighting for respect, appreciation, and finish in a world in which rich corporations are dead set on replacing our working people with automation.

Briana: Plus, celebrating the cleanup of a South Jersey Superfund site once labeled America's most toxic landfill.

>> The part of the landfill is not even in our community.

We are downstream.

We are the victims, and we took action to correct it.

Briana: Also, Governor Murphy goes back to class, calling for lowering the voting age in school board elections.

And taxing electric vehicles is back.

We explore the push of putting more EVs on the road.

John: There has been a big uptick in the number of electric vehicles that are now registered in New Jersey, and this has been a 20-year tax break now.

We see in this whole industry mature.

Briana: NJ Spotlight News begins right now.

♪ >> From NJPBS videos, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi.

Briana: Good evening and thanks for joining us this Tuesday night.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

We begin with a few key stories.

First, thousands of dockworkers are on strike here in New Jersey and at ports along the East and Gulf Coast.

Members of the International Longshoremen's Association hit the picket line after the ownership failed to reach an agreement on a new contract, a battle that centered around workers requests for higher wages and limits on the use of automation.

The work stoppage affects 36 ports from New England to Texas, the first since 1970 seven, bringing billions of dollars worth of trade to a screeching halt, threatening to cause significant damage to both the supply chain and the U.S. economy.

In an effort to avert the strike, the U.S. maritime Alliance, which represents the ports, said they made another wage offer but it was rejected by the ILA.

In a Profanity-latest video posted to social media, the union's controversial president told dockworkers the ports will not survive the strike for long.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis was at the Port today where hundreds are on the picket line.

Larry: We are out here since 12:00, out here all day and night.

Joanna: It's the day many were driving, when port workers walked off the job at 12:01 this morning.

The strike a result of failed negotiations between the international Longshoremen's Association and their employer, the U.S. maritime Association.

Gerard: The ILA is fighting for respect and fairness in a world in which corporations are dead set on repairing our working people with automation.

Joanna the two kick sticking points, a nearly 77 percent increase, a rate of five dollars an hour for every year for the next six years.

That would bring workers up from $39 an hour to $69 an hour by the end of the contract.

But the other point, the role of automation, at the court.

The union says plans like the Maritime Association's are threatening those jobs.

Larry Employers push for : automation, and it is under the guise of safety, when we know it has high profit for themselves.

Body: Two replace men and women in the working force is not acceptable.

Joanna: It is not clear exactly what automation has been proposed, but ILA union president Harold said in a recent interview he does not want any of it.

Harold: These companies that work in the maritime business come from overseas.

Now one of them is from America.

They want to bring them in and get rid of American jobs, good paying jobs, that support families with medical, pensions, annuity, and pay taxes.

They want to get rid of them!

Joanna: In a last-ditch effort to avoid this Strycova the U.S. Maritime Association countered the wage offer, offering a 50% increase over a six-year period.

In a statement, they said our latest offer would triple employer contributions to employee retirement plans, strengthen our health care options, and limit automation and semi automation.

But in a speech, Daggett made it clear when he thought of that offer.

Harold: They were making billions and billions of dollars in the pandemic when we were working.

Who's the creepy ones here?

These companies.

They don't give a [beep] about us.

We will show them.

Because nothing will move without us.

Joanna: Between 43% and 39% of U.S. imports come through ports like this in new work.

For now, they are being real -- in Newark, but for now, they are being rerouted.

It will have major impacts on the economy.

Todd: Electronics and things we get of the big box stores, and also things we export.

If we are unable to get our materials out and shipped out to the consumers overseas, that will cause backups here.

Joanna: In a statement, the New Jersey business and industry associations and while we have a very healthy respect for the collective bargaining process, the fact of the matter is the stakes are too high for New Jersey and the rest of the nation to be subject to supply-chain shortages, higher prices now, and goods reaching homes and businesses.

They are wanting to call in the Taft-Hartley act.

At least for now, it is not seen the president will do that, and here on the ground, the mood is resolute.

>> This union will not allow foreign-owned companies to dictate how we operate on American soil.

Our union is going to support every American?

Him and we will fight for fair wages.

Until we get a fair wages, we will not give up.

Luz: the ILA will continue to fight until members get a fair contract they deserve.

Michael: I'm prepared to be out of work until the strike is over.

Joanna: How long will that be?

At the port in Newark, I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: Also tonight, the rates for the White House is also in the spotlight with the debate for vice presidential candidates.

Minnesota Governor Tim and Republican Senator JD Vance.

Governor Murphy's head leaning a watch -- headlining a watch party today.

Historically, vice presidential debates have not moved the needle much when it comes to the election, but this race is razor thin, meaning anything has the potential of making an impact.

The candidates are expected to be asked about the conflict in the Middle East and Iran's large-scale ballistic missile on Israel, along with the attack today on Israel, along with the devastation from Hurricane Helene, which took hold of the narrative for both the campaign and politics at large this week, with battleground states badly affected.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump went head to head on the debate stage last month, but it is still unclear if the two presidential candidates will debate again.

It has been more than 40 years since public health fears emerged in Gloucester County, surrounding the landfill where illegally dumped chemicals created what the EPA called those toxic site in America, a poster child for the nation's pollution problems.

Fast-forward to today, and now after lengthy efforts, that dumb has been cleaned up.

Federal, state, and local officials celebrated the landfall -- landfill's removal from the Superfund list, touting a victory decades in the making.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan has more on what it took to get here.

>> It was the first Superfund cleanup in the state, I believe.

More people use it now.

Brenda: Bob Hale is now casting for bass here at the lake where 40 years ago, fish died from waste leaking out of the landfill.

A six-acre chemical cauldron in Gloucester County were companies dumped 155 Tech Senate -- carcinogens, heavy metals, and benzene.

Residents organized and fought back.

They told PBS reporters -- >> Marlene: We are fighting for our life, for our health.

You can see big gloves of black things, I cannot even identify what they are.

The stage is tremendous.

Pat: We were all scared, because we did not have answers.

Brenda: Pat Stewart and her husband Doug stepped up to leave the town in a years long battle to get the Landfield -- landfill cleaned up.

Doug: The landfill is not even in our community.

We are downstream.

We are the victims.

We took action to correct it.

Took us longer than we realized.

Brenda: Today, the couple took part in a victory at the park.

It has been transformed, and the EPA officially removed le Carre landfill from a list of Superfund sites.

Lisa: The EPA is officially deleting the Lipari landfill from the Superfund sites.

Brenda: To get here took millions of dollars and the type of dog Perseverance that removes not only toxic sentiment but also of interest to bureaucracy.

Pittman's health and safety hung in the balance.

Mayor Razze: incredibly crucial, and that is why we follow through.

Lisa: It really was the community that fought so hard to make sure the government paid attention to the contamination, to the issues going on in the landfill, to bring this property, this lake back to what you see right now.

Brenda: Jersey has got 114 Superfund sites, more than any other state.

The EPA has listed more than 1300 on its National priorities list.

42 additional sites have been proposed for entry, and almost 460 were removed.

Including look very landfill.

-- Lipari Landfill.

Shawn: the reason we have the most Superfund sites is because we seek them out and we clean them out.

It is a remarkable result.

Doug: We each championed our site, Lipari was number one.

Pat: the squeaky wheel gets some results.

Joanna: The stewards urged the EPA to fast track a cleanup.

Agency admitted the original containment wall still linked, and some emitted toxic vapors.

Back then, a terrified Pat Stewart told PBS -- Pat: Back then I was pregnant.

They did not tell me this.

If they did not tell me then, what are they telling me now?

That's when I got inside and started crying.

Brenda: They admitted it was time to leukemia cases in adults and linked to low birth weights near the toxic site.

Some people live just yards away or write downstream, and like more remote landfills, like Kin Buc, a Superfund downside, it posed immediate hazards to humans.

Congressmen Donald Norcross works the cleanup site as a an apprentice.

Rep. Norcross: They had to be a white seat.

-- Sue.

"What is this for?"

"Don't worry about it, just put it on."

Joanna: It is now -- Brenda: It is now sealed with an impervious cap.

Structural wells track toxic vapors and pipe into a treatment center.

Staff constantly monitors the airflow, which gets scrubbed by super carbon filters.

We welcome a different -- we welcome a different system of pipes.

Along the perimeter.

The once polluted chestnut branch broke now flows clear and fish swim.

EPA officials say after years of flushing and intense treatments, water removed from the landfill that only requires a pH adjustment before it is sent to the local municipal sewage plant for final processing.

But it took decades.

Robert: Not to say there weren't some moments you scratched your head and wondered how this would come to fruition for Pittman, but in the end, it did come up.

Brenda: It also included dredging LC on Lake and cleaning up two streams.

They even took care of preserve the turtles.

Pitman developed a couple of Lakeside parks that residents enjoy today.

Doug: I'm happy for the town.

I'm happy our community made a difference.

Brenda: It certainly improve the fishing, Bob says.

Bob: there is a big bass in here.

Very nice sized bass.

Brenda: Lipari landfill may be off the Superfund list, but caretakers are on constant alert.

It will be monitored for years to make sure people and the environment stay safe.

In Pittman, I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.

♪ Briana: In our spotlight on business report, a sales-tax exemption that has enticed people to buy electric cars in New Jersey for the past two decades is now being phased out.

Starting today, you will be charged about 3% in sales tax on any electric vehicle purchased, and that will increase to the full sales tax next summer.

State leaders say electric vehicle sales are strong enough that the old incentive is just not needed anymore, but critics warn adding the tax back now will threaten the momentum for one of Governor Murphy's key initiatives in fighting climate change.

NJ Spotlight News budget and finance writer John Reitmeyer joins me in studio.

What is the reasoning for removing it at this time?

Why did they feel comfortable that kicking the sales tax back on these purchases is good to do now?

John: Yeah.

I think, if you look at the data, what you see is there's been a big uptick in electric vehicles that are now registered in New Jersey.

This has been a 20-year tax break now.

We see this whole industry mature, from when you saw barely any electric vehicles driving around on our roadways, to now, according to the state's data, they are up 10% of total registration.

So the idea is that this incentive sort of works, but also you have to keep in mind that the state budget itself is now in a situation where there's more spending on an annual basis that is occurring than the amount of revenue coming in on an annual business.

So this is the type of tax policy change that we often see when we are in situations like this, where, because of the spending emissions, you sort of -- spending ambitions, you sort of have to change your tax policy.

If there is too big of a gap, we see downgrades.

The state is trying to plug that needle as well.

Briana: It comes down to the state also needs this money.

The state is to bring in a little bit more cash.

John: A little bit of that for sure.

And when you think about it, electric vehicles, like a lot of vehicles we see in this area, it is easy to spend now $40,000, $50,000 on an electric car, so when you think about this tax break, you know, on the other end of it, people with lower incomes are just eating their -- seeing their fares increased in July, they are having to pay more for their Transportation Command a lot of those who use mass transit have lower incomes than those who have the ability to buy an electric vehicle.

It is part of that balancing act.

Multiple policy goals intersect here come and the decision was made to do a phaseout, so, again, starting today, we will get a half sales tax on the purchase or lease of an electric vehicle, starting July 1 next year, we will have the full 6.25% sales tax charge.

Briana: But the state also, correct me if I'm wrong, put in a new fee when you buy an electric vehicle.

What about concern critics are making that this will de Incentivize folks.

John: That is right.

When you talk to folks in the environmental or automotive community lobbyists, they will bring up the fee.

That is for the Transportation Trust Fund, and off budget account, that funds capital improvement to our transportation, so I can be roads, bridges, dashed back and be roads, bridges, etc.

There was the idea that they needed to start to contribute to the maintenance of the transportation network.

The roads that they are using.

That is where this fee came in.

When you put this fee and layer in the sales out of the sales-tax exemption, it does start to increase costs pretty dramatically on an annual basis for an electric vehicle owner.

Briana: What about rebates?

That was another carrot day dangled to entice people.

Will they stay, or is the state making any exceptions for putting more money toward rebates?

John: Yeah.

This is an example of threading that needle.

The state has offered tax incentives to people on a more limited budget to help them afford an electric vehicle, and funding for those tax breaks were actually increased in the most recent state budget.

The Murphy administration, if you look at its record, a lot of targeted tax breaks instead of blanket tax breaks, and I think that is what we are seeing here.

The blanket sales-tax exemption is going away with more money going to targeted tax breaks to help people with lower incomes afford an electric vehicle.

.

Briana: John Reitmeyer, thank you, as always.

John: you are welcome.

Briana: Earlier this year, Newark paved the way to give 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds the right to vote for school board seats.

Now, giving that opportunities state wide.

It is moving slower than advocates had hoped.

Governor Murphy is talking about it, and putting pressure on lawmakers to get it done.

Senior correspondent David Cruz was there and enjoyed that is outside of Hoboken high school.

David: it was first broached by the Newark city Council earlier this year.

They approve it unanimously.

Today, the governor said he approves a statewide bill to do the same thing, here in Hoboken talking to an Navy honors class of history and -- AP honors class of history and politics of students about the politics of moving this forward.

Gov.

Murphy: It is all systems go, including our state government, for school board elections this coming April.

We come of the three of us and our colleagues, would like to make that state law, not just allowing Newark to do it, but every community, Hoboken and every other in the state, to be able to do that, not just to be able to do that, in fact, to be mandated to do it.

It is about permission as much as it is, this is the way it is going to go.

It is a huge deal, and we will be the first state in the nation to do that.

And I think it is the first step for 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds participating in broader participation in ultimately all of our elections.

Sen. Mukherji: it is not hurting other jurisdictions, and even even the United States, other states that have Friday, California and Maryland.

You will inspire others in your household to vote.

Finally, what we are seeing with the school boards, with the book bans, rolling back protections for certain students, it impacts these young people's lives, and I tell you him and the students we were just with, I know the governor and others, they are better informed about their democracy than many older New Jerseyans in America, and they should have the right to participate at the school board level with low turnout, if not more broadly.

ASW.

tucker: They will have a chance to let them know what they want, that they will not stop listening to what they want, and they can vote on it too.

And even then on the school board, for those folks to get a chance to learn, and it also makes the whole family around young people ready to go out and vote.

There's no way I'm not going out and vote in the general election, if I can let my child go vote, I can go vote.

It is our goal for everybody.

David: It was only 1971 when the federal voting age was brought down to 18 from 21.

This measure will be considered in New Jersey it would only cover students voting in school board elections, but organizers say the idea is that if students can vote in school board elections, maybe they can vote for mayor or governor or even president of the United States.

I'm David Cruz in Hoboken, NJ Spotlight News.

Briana: Thank you, David.

Before we leave you, a reminder we are continuing to drop episodes of our NJ Decides 2024 Election Exchange podcast.

All 12 House seats are on the line and Senate seat is on the one this is a chance to meet the candidates and hear why they say they deserve your vote.

Today's episode features Billy Prempeh, a Republican candidate for Congress in district 9 .

He is facing Democratic State Senator Nellie Pou.

Mr. Prempeh: I'm am a first-generation American.

My parents are immigrants.

They came from West Africa.

They are here because they wanted to be American, not Ghanaian-American.

They wanted to be American.

If we are going to represent the United States, you should come into that seat with the position of what you want to do for the country as a whole, not necessarily, hey, vote for me, because I will be the first Latina or the youngest Black Republican or anything like that.

Unfortunately, that is what some people lean their voting decisions on, sadly, but my what personal belief is what the candidate will bring to the table, what they do to your country, and leaning on your race clouds judgment for a lot of people.

Briana: Check it out by downloading the NJ Decides Election Exchange podcast.

That will do it for us tonight.

I am Briana Vannozzi.

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

Have a great night.

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

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield.

And by the PSEG foundation.

>> Have some water.

>> Look at these kids.

What do you see?

I see myself.

I became an ESL teacher to give my students what I wanted when I came to this country, the opportunity to learn, to dream, to achieve, a chance to belong and to be an American.

My name is Julia Toriani Crompton, and I'm proud to be an NJEA member.

♪