>> Major funding for "NJ Spotlight News" is provided in part by NJM insurance group.

Serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and blue shield Association.

And by the PSEG foundation.

Anchor: Tonight, anchor fraud.

Some taxpayers say tax relief money was clawed back from the state.

We will tell you why a new check could be headed your way.

And in East Orange superintendent in the half the Dutch hotseat after cutting staff positions after the discovery of a budget deficit.

He's here to defend his decisions.

>> We did our own assessment and we realized quickly that what we did for did not match the amount of expenditures we would have as we rolled over the year.

Anchor: And we all know the dangers of lead exposure, but new research shows Davies can be poisoned in the womb by a mom who may have once been exposed herself.

>> It's a big surprise, you might not heavy -- have any leadf in your bloodstream into last trimester and have no idea it is occurring.

Anchor: And seniors beware, you will see a Social Security increase next year but will it keep up with the cost of living?

>> The cost of living in New Jersey continues to be high, property taxes the highest in the nation.

Anchor: "NJ Spotlight News" begins right now.

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

Anchor: Thank you for joining us on this Friday night.

We begin with a few key stories we are following, first there has been suspected fraud attempts with New Jersey's property tax relief anchor program.

The Treasury Department said it had to temporarily shut down the online status check tool as part of its effort to investigate the fraud, which resulted in an undisclosed number of taxpayers who had direct deposits of anchor benefits yanked from their accounts.

The Treasury Department tells us they have identified all legitimate taxpayers who had payments reversed.

Those individuals will immediately be issued a paper check.

The anchor program is funded with more than $2 billion from the state budget and are distributed annually to eligible homeowners and renters, as much as $1700 per recipient.

We reported last month treasury officials blocked more than 900,000 attempts to fraudulently obtain anchor benefits last year.

You can head to our website for more on our reporting.

The EPA is toughening safety standards to protect children from lead paint exposure.

The agency on Thursday announced on Thursday stricter limits on dust and lead based paint in older homes.

Any detectable level of lead dust will be considered a hazard and property owners will be required to pay for cleanup.

Paint that contains lead was banned in 1978 but more than 30 million homes in the U.S. are believed to still contain it, including an estimated 1.6 million in New Jersey.

Lead paint can chip off when disturbed or during renovations and according to the CDC there is no staff -- safe level of lead for children, even low levels can cause development of delays, cognitive's abilities and behavioral issues this comes during national lead poison prevention week and two weeks after the Biden administration set a deadline for removal of lead pipes.

We take a look at the issue later in the show.

After a years long lull, cases of living cough are climbing back to levels not seen in years.

It is spreading across New Jersey as a cold, flu and COVID season kicks into gear.

Data from the state health department show as of mid-October, New Jersey had a 423 cases of whooping cough, also known as pertussis.

It is a highly contagious bacterial infection that affects loans -- lungs and airways, that's double last year.

Nationally there are more than 15,000 cases.

Cases are largely reported in unvaccinated infants, vaccinated school age kids and adults whose vaccine history was unknown.

In New Jersey, all children entering sixth grade must be vaccinated for whooping cough but outbreaks still occur.

Health officials are reminding families to get vaccinated before the season ramps up.

Parents in East Orange demanding answers after the scoreboard last week revealed the district is facing a budget shortfall they said they weren't aware of during the beginning of the year end abruptly announced layoff notices will go to 93 employees that includes 71 in school staff positions and four district workers.

It came as a shock to teachers.

They called out en masse for two straight days, forcing the district to have half-day classes.

Now it is said the district was in violation of rules failing to report.

I want to say thank you for talking about this in person, I'm sure it's been a hectic week.

When did you first learn of the budget gap?

Christopher: We had a feeling something was challenging to the budget in mid August.

When I came on board July 1, it was clear there were budget challenges.

When I arrived, the district had a hiring freeze in place and a spending freeze in place.

The request to release those freezes were tied to the solvency of the budget.

My team came in, we started doing our own assessment and started to realize quickly that what we budgeted for did not match the amount of expenditures that we were going to have as we rolled over to the year.

It wasn't until after the first of September payroll we realized if we left everything where it was while expenses remained where they were we would be short at the end of the year.

Anchor: Why did it take getting to September payroll?

Students are in their second month of school.

Why wasn't this visible, why weren't the red flags visible before the school year started?

Christopher: I can't speak last year as I started July 1, but what was clear to me is when you factor in the first payroll and you roll that over 12, 24 pay cycles you begin to add up quickly and forecast where you will be financially at the end of the year.

Most districts, you want to be under your budget so you can use those funds to carry over.

It was clear we would not have any carryover.

Thinking about our kids in the solvency of our district and the fact that East Orange has had these budget issues the last two or three years, the decision was made, the difficult decision relative to staffing.

Anchor: Was it mismanagement whether previous superintendent?

A lack of oversight from the board?

People want to know who is to blame.

Christopher: I think it's easy to point fingers and I hear that.

I understand that.

What I'm concerned about is moving forward and focusing on our children.

I will say I don't think we properly planned efficiently for the future.

There was a transition between the prior administration and mine and obviously that information was not translated or communicated or understood efficiently relative to our expenses and how that would impact our budget this year.

I come in wanting to move the district forward in carry-on and we find ourselves at a loss.

Or a projected loss, let me be clear about that and recognizing we had to do something.

I want to be clear, if we did nothing, at the end of this year we would have been short, we would not have made payroll.

Anchor: How much?

A couple of different numbers have been going around and I looked at the budget, it said there was a $25 million overrun due to salaries but your office and the mayor's office told us that was a realized $8 million so what is the exact?

Christopher: The real number is about 27 million.

The 25, I think that comes from the fact that if we had kept all the staff -- I want to be clear, in August when I realized something was up, we put a freeze on hiring and we left every position we had advertised on the books.

Anchor: You had already hired teachers in July who are now going to be laid off in December.

Christopher: You are absolutely correct.

When I lifted the hiring freeze from the year before, I did that under the assumption that the budget was solvent.

I've never walked into a district where there were issues to the level of those discrepancies.

We realized something was off and we had to put a stop to it right away so we did a hiring freeze.

If we had left everything on the table we would have been short 25 million.

Luckily that 25 million does not exist but the real issue is about seven or $8 million.

Anchor: Was it cuts in state aid, parents want to know where is the money?

Christopher: I want to be clear it's about budget and how we anticipate revenue and expenditures.

What we did not do appropriately moving from last year to this year is we did not anticipate how much costs will rise for I want to be clear.

Health insurance, they went up 20%, cost for transportation have gone up, because for food service has gone up.

When you are anticipating those expenses you have to be realistic and you normally bass them off of the trend of what you've seen the prior years.

We undershot that.

Anchor: Quickly, obviously parents are upset and you know this.

What can you tell them to assure them that their children's education isn't going to be affected?

Christopher: I appreciate you asking that question.

I want to be clear, the actually took did not affect the in school classroom teachers.

Anchor: They had two half days so school days were affected.

Christopher: The action taken on Wednesday, that took our best and brightest teachers and challenged them to come back to the classroom and work with our students.

We are an urban district and in need of student improvement.

We have to look at our best and brightest and the investment in the work we are putting in to try and get greater yield.

Looking at the model we had relative to the academic model of the coaches and Ansell of Surrey -- ancillary support we had, they are not mandated.

If we had to cut anywhere we had to start there and make sure those folks are helping support our classrooms.

I want -- Anchor: No classroom teachers are being cut?

Christopher: Not in this plan.

Teachers in the coaching ranks are bumping back into the classroom and bumping non-tenured teachers out of the classroom because of the tenure right they have.

Anchor: The state said you needed to notify them more quickly about being in the red.

Or you not aware of that state rule?

Why didn't you let the state know this was coming?

Christopher: I worked for the state in New Jersey, I served under this administration the last two years and I know the law.

If you are running a deficit or have a deficit, you have to leave -- let the state no, we wanted to ensure we don't run into one, I think there's a discrepancy into Howie interpreted this and we have our attorneys reaching out to the state to clarify the district position but if we did not do anything, we would've been in the position to notify the state.

We did this to not be in this position.

Anchor: I want to thank you for coming in, I know it's been a really challenging week for all of you so thank you for coming in and getting on the record.

Christopher: Thank you so much.

Anchor: As we mentioned at the top of the show, much of the focus around lead poisoning has centered around dust from lead-based paint or contaminated drinking water from old pipes.

There is a lesser-known source getting more attention from doctors and experts.

It turns out pregnancy can lead to what is known as lead re-mobilization, lead locked deep in bones from childhood exposure that re-poisons the body and is passed on to the fetus.

It causes problems for mom and baby.

Given New Jersey's maternal health crisis, some lawmakers want to make it a requirement for all pregnant people to be screened for lead.

Joanna Gagis reports.

>> Lead is something we know is associated with preeclampsia, associated with thrombosis, with high blood pressure.

It's associated with low birth weight.

There are a bunch of things that it is associated with that are risk factors in pregnancy.

Reporter: Yet there is no clinical guidance in New Jersey or across the nation for screening people for lead poisoning during pregnancy.

This man has conducted research looking at pregnant moms and the impact during just a.

>> Mom passes lead to the baby through the placenta.

Reporter: Even though research is out there it hasn't been included in the states conversation around maternal and infant metrology -- mortality rates that are below the national average even though they have improved in recent years, and Black moms and babies are more likely to die.

Many of the illnesses are the same as caused by lead.

>> You might not have any lead in your bloodstream until the last trimester and have no idea that is occurring.

Reporter: Elise has been researching lead and she was shocked to learn that lead poisoning can reveal itself during later months of pregnancy even if you never knew you were exposed.

>> If you were exposed to lead as a child, it locks in the bones where calcium was supposed to be, so even if you've moved out of that environment long ago, when you are pregnant as an adult, you may re-mobilize lead locked in the bones when the body is trying to pull out calcium to nurture the fetus.

Reporter: It's called lead remobilization, it locks into the bones during childhood and is more likely to be remobilize during later months of pregnancy and can leave moms struggling with health risks and can leave baby with lead poisoning from day one.

>> It does class through the placenta to the fetus and we know it is very much implicated in infant problems at birth.

Smaller head circumference, smaller stomachs, lower birth weight and smaller stature.

>> All the things can tripping to high death rates for infants and people of color?

>> Yep.

>> It strikes me that one mom can pass this on through generations of people.

>> Yep.

Reporter: Right now there is no universal screening for lead in New Jersey but there is a bill that would test in the first and third trimesters.

Eric is a researcher with New Jersey's deposit -- affirmative health that conducted testing for years.

>> We quickly learned it's important to have the first prenatal test and again around the beginning of the third trimester just to make sure the levels are staying down.

It's also very important for medical providers to understand where the risks are coming from, especially when it comes to lead .

Reporter: But he and others acknowledge it's impossible to know for sure whether a person has been impacted without blood tests.

Lead can be contracted through paint dust, soil, even applesauce, and certain coatings on dishes were found to have lead.

>> We are thrilled to see the bill discussed and we hope it will pass and we think it's a health equity issue that all pregnant people should have a lead test just like we do testing for gestational diabetes.

If you test the pregnant person early, they can make corrections in their care or environment.

It's important to also test in the third trimester because that is when you see the evidence of lead coming back into the bloodstream from the bone.

Reporter: Treatments to reduce remobilization are simple.

>> There are nutrients like calcium, iron, vitamin C and D and folate, they outcompete lead .

Reporter: The American Academy of pediatrics is adding pregnancy screenings to the recommendations but these people are calling for it to be mainstreamed.

>> More channel -- maternal mortality and morbidity are two of the biggest issues we have in New Jersey.

EJ communities are unduly burdened with contaminants as well as not having the same level of health care.

Reporter: And from any in food deserts, inadequate nutrition only exacerbates things.

>> Support for the medical report is brought to you by Horizon Blue Cross, Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Anchor: Nearly 2 million retirees who receive Social Security benefits in New Jersey will see a 2.5% increase in payments starting next year.

It's one of the lowest cost-of-living adjustments in years and comes at a time when the cost to live in a state like New Jersey or anywhere keeps going up.

Inflation may be down but prices have not necessarily dropped with it.

Our Senior correspondent Brendan Dr. Brenda Flanagan say any -- Brenda Flanagan say seniors say they welcome any relief but it's not enough.

Reporter: This woman just moved into an apartment in Wood-Ridge and without subsidy she could not afford the rent or food.

She lives frugally and just started collecting Social Security, about $800 a month and it is not enough.

>> It was hard for me to buy clothes, hard to buy gas to travel to visit my son or thing to do because I'm constantly calling my son and saying I need money, I don't have money for this or that.

>> When my mother says she needs help I need to be there for her.

It takes a toll of being stressful and depressed.

Reporter: Her son gives her about $400 a month to help her make ends meet but she still has no furniture and sleeps on an inflatable bed.

Next year Social Security recipients will get a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment that is about $50 per month more and she is grateful but -- >> I get so little it doesn't really add up to much.

>> It creates real difficulties for older residents, particularly older residents who are on low and fixed incomes.

Reporter: AARP says because inflation dipped a bit this fall, next year's 2.5% increase is less compared to more than 3% this year and almost 9% in 2023 and about 6% in 2022.

Overall, monthly checks depend on the recipients lifetime earnings.

>> The cost of living in New Jersey continues to be high.

The utility rates are going up, property taxes are still the highest in the nation.

More older residents are food insecure and are having a tough time getting the groceries they need at the supermarket.

Reporter: some 1.7 million people in New Jersey collect Social Security benefits and most of them are retirees.

It's a high-cost state so folks here get a little bit more than the U.S. average.

>> The concept is the benefits, these are not increases but just trying to hold the line to make sure people can tread water.

Reporter: This advocate says the increases should focus more on the consumer price index calculated specifically for elderly Americans who have different financial pressures than younger generations.

>> They spend more money on health care and drug prices, they have gone up so much more than inflation.

>> We have about 10% of our seniors in New Jersey who live low the poverty line.

For them, they will feel the biggest impact.

Reporter: This advocate explains food banks, churches and advocacy groups do pick up some of the slack.

>> Went seniors living on Social Security cannot meet their needs, it puts the burden on public and private support programs to fill the gap but the real question is what can be done to help Social Security be sustained for the long-term and perhaps help better serve the seniors that repot -- rely upon it.

Reporter: Analysts figure Social Security will hit a financial wall in 2033, it won't be able to pay full benefits and less Congress can figure out a rescue plan, Democrats and Republicans have very different ideas on service cuts versus tax increases.

>> If Congress doesn't take action the next 10 years there could be a cut to the average Social Security benefit of any percent, which is all most $4000 a year.

Reporter: Which puts socials carry on the ballot this November.

Meanwhile, Rhodina's son will keep helping her but he has a sandwiched induration.

>> I have a child that is two years old and a 17-year-old going to college next year.

I have to manage as much as I can.

>> It's really rough because it's very uncomfortable.

Reporter: For Garth, her family is the ultimate safety net.

I am Brenda Flanagan, "NJ Spotlight News."

Anchor: Before we go, a reminder that early in-person voting starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday, November 3.

If you want to get to know the candidates running in your district, check out our 2024 election exchange podcast, where we go one-on-one with the candidates running for the 12 congressional seats up for grabs and the only U.S. Senate seat up for grab in New Jersey.

You can hear why they think they deserve your vote.

For the entire team, thank you for being with us and have a great weekend.

We will see you back here Monday.

>> New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

RWJBarnabas Health, let's be healthy together.

And New Jersey realtors, the voice of real estate in New Jersey.

More information online at njrealtor.com.

>> Our future relies on more than cleaning energy, our future relies on empowered communities, the health and safety of our families and neighbors, of our schools and streets.

The PSEG foundation is committed to sustainability, and economic empowerment, helping towns go green, supporting civic centers, scholarships and workforce development that strengthen our community.

>> I M the 2024 president of New Jersey realtors.

Whether it is guiding first time first-time buyers through the homebuying process or securing space for small business owners, New Jersey realtors have been helping clients through real estate transactions for more than a century.

No matter what your unique needs are, there is a knowledgeable New Jersey realtor for you.

Learn more at nj realtor.com/find.

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