[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with an important conversation with one of the ranking members of the state legislature.

Senator Britnee Timberlake is a Democrat representing the 34th District in Essex County.

Good to see you, Senator.

- Nice to see you too, Steve, thanks for having me.

- You got it.

Hey, listen, we are talking childcare right out of the box and part of a series, and the graphic will come up, Start Strong NJ, which is a public awareness initiative that deals with childcare issues, affordability, accessibility, quality childcare.

You have a playpen behind you?

- I do have a playpen behind me.

- Talk about that.

- Absolutely.

I've birthed three times since being in the legislature, and my husband and I may not even be done yet.

We may birth some more.

And I designed my office to be able to incorporate my children and my family.

I'm a working mom and I believe very deeply that we need a ecosystem that supports families and working mothers and children, and that includes supporting our daycare sectors in which I have children of daycare age, and we rely very much so on our daycare providers, which are primarily women-owned businesses throughout the state of New Jersey.

And right now they're at risk of having to potentially close their doors because of different changes at the state as well as unfortunately, people who do not have the money or making low income are at risk of losing their subsidies.

And it's going to cause a big issue for our economy as a whole, because we're talking about workers having to make the decision as to whether or not they can provide childcare for their children, or decide to go back to work.

Not everyone is able to build in, incorporate their children into their offices like I have been able to.

- But you're taking the lead here along with Senator Ruiz, who we've talked to many times.

Please check out our previous interviews, steveadubato.org is up right now.

We've had many interviews with Senator Teresa Ruiz on this issue, a leader, along with Senator Timberlake.

Be specific, what exactly are you and your colleagues engaged in to change policy, to change funding patterns on the state level to improve the childcare situation, Senator?

- Sure, so short term right now, there was a shortfall of about $30 million that has resulted in the state freezing the applications for subsidies.

So that means that there is a woman who is low to moderate income or the working poor, United Way did a report called ALICE, that stands for Asset Limited Income Constraint but Employed.

Then, unfortunately, if they're pregnant right now, they are more than likely not going to be able to get the subsidy needed to send their child to daycare.

And that's a problem.

Not everyone has a grandmother, an abuela, a nona at home who can help out with that.

Not everyone has extended family or friends who can step in.

The high cost of inflation has made it to where people have absolutely got to drive income into their households just to be able to afford life's basic necessities.

I mean, look at the prices of energy, which is another issue that I've been fighting very hard on, so- - We're talking about the money.

I'm sorry for interrupting, Senator.

There's real money you're looking to increase state dollars.

How much, and where do those dollars go?

- $30 million.

- To where?

- $30 million to infuse into the department that handles all of the childcare.

- Is that Human Services?

- Yeah, that's it.

It's Department of Human Services.

- How the heck, Senator, does it get down into the community and directly impacting childcare in the most vulnerable communities, how does that happen?

- Absolutely, well, they, it starts with them unfreezing the applications.

They're saying that they had to freeze the applications because they had a $30 million shortfall.

So if they can unfreeze those applications, it gets into the community because if a woman needs to put her child in daycare and this is the first time that she's been on subsidy and was relying on that in order to go back to her job, right now, there's a freeze in those applications, so it needs to unfreeze right now.

The other thing that they did was they increased the actual copay, which is difficult.

Have you seen the price of eggs?

Have you seen the price of, you know, your PSEG or JP&L or whoever you have as bill?

Elizabethtown gas, you know, it's the cost of living is astronomical and people are absolutely struggling, and now we have this as a crisis.

- So talk about the disparities.

We've had many conversations about this, but put it in perspective because your perspective is particularly important.

The disparities and the health and survival of Black mothers and their counterparts following birth, it's disproportionately not good.

- This is correct, and we have taken the lead as a legislative Black caucus to introduce legislation, pass quite a bit of legislation to help close that gap.

And unfortunately, these gaps exist not just in childcare as it relates to Black and brown peoples, but also the wealth gap.

So there are so many different gaps that are unfortunate to our community that myself as a legislator, being an African American woman, have dedicated my life and my time to help close.

So making it safer for women to birth in New Jersey has been absolutely paramount, and I have a number of bills to address that issue, starting with every single hospital that has a maternity ward ought to be Mommy Baby certified, which is a special designation that will increase the chances that a woman is being heard when she speaks and says that something isn't right.

And it also incorporates more of a holistic approach, such as skin-to-skin contact as soon as the baby is out of the mother's body and which promotes bonding, milk production.

And it also involves being visited by a lactation consultant at least twice, there's another bill for that before a person is discharged from the hospital.

These are very important things.

- Real quick follow up, totally different subject.

Maybe it's not totally different.

The Affordable Housing Trust Fund, what is it, and why are you looking to restore a significant amount of money to it and what the heck does that have to do with affordable housing?

- Yeah, absolutely, great question.

Affordable Housing Trust Fund is a pool of money at the state that developers are able to apply for and tap into in order to create and incorporate affordable housing in their housing development.

New Jersey has a housing shortage, a vast housing shortage of affordability, and I do believe myself to be an expert in affordable housing.

That's my background long before I ran for office, so I understand what it takes in order to produce it.

But the number one question that we get as housing professionals is, "Okay, so where do I get the affordable housing?"

And the answer to that is that the lists are long and that the resources are scarce.

But with the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, we're supposed to be incentivizing developers to be able to offset the cost and incorporate that affordable development into their actual project.

Unfortunately, dollars were diverted, and we are fighting hard for about 130 million to be placed back in, where there was a victory of some millions being placed.

But it's still not enough, we need more.

We're talking about our Habitats for Humanity, we're talking about our New Jersey Citizen Actions, La Casa de Don Pedros.

I'm thinking of various CDCs throughout our state who need this money in order to build.

We're also talking about the for-profit builders who- - That's right.

- Would apply for that to incorporate at least 20% or so affordable housing into their projects.

- Senators talking about not-for-profit organizations and for-profit organizations involved in development housing.

Senator Britnee Timberlake from the 34th District, I wanna thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you, Senator.

- Thank you, good to see you, Steve.

- Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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