>> major funding for Reporters Roundtable is by RWJ Barnabas health.

Let's be healthy together.

♪ David: some ideas are too terrible to support, but also necessary to vote for.

Hey everybody.

It's reporters roundtable, I'm David Cruz.

Today's panel includes Brenda Flanagan, Daniel Han, and Fred snow Fleck.

We will bring the panel in in just a few minutes but we begin today with a State Senator accustomed to straight talk, no matter how it may sound sometimes.

The latest example of that is his rant/admission about the pitfalls of a vote on stay MJ -- NJ.

He joins us now.

Welcome back, Declan O Scanlon.

How are you doing?

>> I'm doing well.

David: excellent.

You had some of us chuckling when we saw some of your exchange with budget commission chair Paro -- Pulsar low.

The subject was stay NJ, the pet project of Greg Coughlin.

Let's talk specifics about that in a minute.

Let's run this clip which covers part of your exchange.

Then we will come back.

>> we need to be honest to the people of New Jersey.

This was garbage policy when it was announced and now we are seeing the reality that it is turning into.

Generating enough methane to hit New Jersey for the foreseeable future.

With that, I will vote yes.

>> how can you vote yes after that?

>> it's easy.

You are not going to fool me into voting against property taxes.

David: that's pretty hilarious.

It is so very Trenton.

Someone running for office.

>> please.

It happens all the time.

There's been bills that have been designed to evoke a responsible no vote that claimed to care about workers rights, you name it.

So that the votes can be used against Republicans in the future.

It might happen the other way around.

I won't deny that that might've been the case.

It happens all the time.

There was a workers rights bill that permitted folks who claimed some malfeasance in the workplace and it extended back like 10 years.

It was horrific policy.

If you voted against it, you were against defending workers.

So purely designed to evoke no votes.

This isn't necessarily that.

Look, I can support a mission which is to cut property taxes but condemn the methodology and the lack of planning and the complete lack of realistic fiscal responsibility that it would take to make this work.

David: we will get into that pile of garbage and gunk that you call this bill.

Let's get a question in here from one of our panelists.

>> yeah.

How are you doing?

good to see you.

Listen, aren't you just conceding the PR campaign to the Democrats when you say, if I vote yes for this, it will come back to haunt me in a campaign?

if you are standing on the principles that this is methane garbage, then won't you be able to make that ploy obvious?

when you are trying to defend constituents who you say this could harm.

>> here's the thing.

This is in exactly that scenario.

I'm not voting -- the overall mission, I'm on board with.

If you followed it during my remarks, if you followed Republican fiscal plans and measures, certainly we detail those alternatives over the past five or six years.

If you did it that way, you could cut property taxes in a fiscally responsible way and not cause massive tax increases.

I'm not voting against something -- I'm not voting for something that I disagree with.

The mission is fine.

It's the Democrat's lack of planning and lack of paying for it that I'm condemning.

So I'm condemning the methodology, not the mission.

David: Daniel Han, you had a question?

>> good morning Senator.

I had a question that is not related to budgetary issues.

Governor Phil Murphy has recently been stumping for a bill that would allow 16 and 17 year old's to vote in squibber elections.

Do you think it will get Republican support as it gets more attention?

what do you think about the matter?

>> it won't get my support.

Nothing against 16 and 17-year-olds.

When I was 16 and 17, I wasn't mature enough to digest the issues and really, critically analyze them and cast an informed vote.

I just wasn't ready for that.

There's a reason why we don't let 12-year-olds vote for instance as well.

Sick seen and 17, maybe nine-year-olds?

.

David: that's a little much, Senator, no?

>> no.

I really don't think so.

When I was 16 and 17, -- you guys are more mature than me.

Maybe you were mature and wise at 17.

I was not ready to add anything of consistent substance to the electorate at that point.

I've told my kids, I don't think they were ready.

My daughter is now 19 and is a really bleeding heart liberal.

I don't think she's ready to vote yet either.

But I got to let it happen.

She's wonderful as well, by the way.

I just don't think it's wise.

16 and 17-year-olds are probably , a significant portion of them will be co-opted by their parents.

I don't think it's a wise option.

I don't think it will help the value of our electorate.

David: we are still a ways away from a budget season.

What's your sense about what the next budget process is going to be like?

is there any federal money left?

>> there is actually.

A couple hundred million dollars.

We are now arguing when it's going to be repurposed.

Half a billion.

That should be done in a transparent matter, involve the legislature.

It's our understanding that the administration is currently intending to simply unilaterally reallocate.

There could be a debate over that.

Most of it has been while not expended, has been allocated.

There will be very little fed money back.

The administration has shown no compunction about dwindling down our surplus.

They have also set us up to steal another half bill or so from the debt defeasance fund.

They are loath to spend that money when they should be doing it right now when interest rates are higher.

I suspect they will try to co-op that.

We will have to see what happens with the New Jersey transit fee.

They stole a billion dollars this year.

None of it went to transit.

You out all that up, we start this budget process with at least a $4 billion structural budget deficit.

Go ahead.

David: I want to move on because I'm running out of time.

I wanted to get your comment on a little bit of politics here.

We were talking with Chris Russell who you know.

He says Trump will do better in jersey than expected.

I feel like Republicans always say that about their candidates.

Do you think he is?

will it impact down ballot?

>> I think he will do better than expected.

Whether you love Donald Trump or don't love Donald Trump, the momentum is definitely with the drum campaign right now.

Trump folks can feel more optimistic now than at any time.

It's interesting to see the pendulum swing.

It has swung into Vice President Harris's direction for quite a while.

I think the Democrats missed an opportunity to nominate someone of higher caliber than Vice President Harris.

Indeed.

So I think that Trump will over perform.

I don't think he will win New Jersey.

I think he will over perform.

If he's not going to win here, he will have less of an impact down ballot.

That bodes well for our congressional candidates.

David: so you think that is something that Curtis Pasha might benefit from?

he's not a particular Trump favorite.

>> that's true.

He will.

If the top of the ticket performs better than people are anticipating, just by natural selection as you go down the ballot, there are a lot of people that just vote down.

They choose a column and vote down.

The more people who choose that column, it will benefit Curtis.

No question.

David: in the last 20 seconds, looking for a good soundbite from you on the New Jersey sports and exposition Authority approving $7 million for securing and hosting WWE's Summer slam at MetLife Stadium.

This comes from pandemic era federal recovery funds.

Your thoughts?

>> it's ridiculous.

This is a $7 billion value company.

Vince McMahon -- Vince McMahon is worth 3 billion and we are giving them 7 million?

for what?

give me a break.

There's a lot of other things we could do.

We have great causes that are starving for funds.

Schools that are being decimated by the Murphy administration cuts.

A lot of other things we could do with that 7 million then give it to an entertaining but theatrical sport.

There's my two cents on that.

David: all right.

Republican budget officer Declan O Scanlon, good to see you.

Thank you for playing with us.

>> good to see everyone.

David: panel, welcome to you all.

Good to see you all.

Let's start with stay NJ.

Is he right that this program is going to die before it even is born?

>> now.

I don't know if he's right or wrong.

I think it's an interesting case.

He said that he likes the idea of lowering property taxes.

Of course, everybody likes that.

He doesn't like the method of doing it.

He's right.

If you had voted no, it would've been used against him.

He obviously -- it's nice to see someone admit he took a vote with politics in mind.

Politicians do that all the time but many times they don't admit it.

David: this is the speakers pet plan.

If he's going to run for governor, he needs this thing, doesn't he?

>> well obviously it would be a good campaign point, if you are going to be courting folks who are feeling forced out of New Jersey because they can't afford property taxes.

Affordability is a big deal.

But he's going to be hammered on the sustainability of funding.

That could make up for a very vulnerable campaign issue.

David: you've got some news on the party line suits.

What's up with that?

>> yeah.

Actually I believe that while we are taking this right now, the SM plea speaker just announced the formation of a new legislative committee that would review legislation.

Yesterday, it was announced that three Republican County organizations are withdrawing from a lawsuit that challenged the county line.

They had interviewed in support of the county line.

While that's not necessarily a surprise, it's telling that we are seeing County parties, County clerks settle the lawsuits and acknowledge the fact that the county line is no longer here for future primaries.

David: as you heard, lawmakers say they will put together a task force of some sort to redesign the ballots.

I think 10 to 12 members.

Could it New Jersey state Commissioner of ballot design be in our future?

>> it may be.

That sound like a good job to have.

It depends on how much it will pay.

David: did they say that they will have one?

not really, right?

>> I don't think they will.

I mean, the people who follow this no that ultimately it's a design.

That would be better for everyone going forward.

David: in other news, after decades of waiting, New Jersey transit has finally named a new commuter advocate.

It wasn't really decades of waiting.

It only felt like it.

What do we know about this new higher?

>> it has felt like decades.

It's been four years since Stuart Mader, the first customer advocate who was appointed by NJ transit, left the position after huge outcry that he was essentially just shilling for the agency.

The new guy is from France.

He was educated in France.

Worked mass transit there.

Also worked for mass transit, customer service in Bangladesh.

Most recently in Boston.

He starts Monday for NJ transit.

With a salary of $175,000.

Already there's comment on X saying, we want this guy to ride the rails with us, get on the bus with us.

He shouldn't have a car.

The expectations are extremely high, particularly after the summer of hell that we just went through with all of the disruption of service.

So he's going to have to come in here with guns blazing and really make a good impression to satisfy all of the angry customers at NJ transit.

They want all kinds of things fixed.

David: let's talk about this debate for the U.S. Senate that just occurred this week.

Basch versus Kim.

The take away for a lot of people was his near fainting.

You think it will have an impact on potential voters who were maybe just seeing him for the first time?

>> I do agree.

I think that's probably the take away from the debate.

Debates are not one when you -- they are remembered by one or two viral moments.

During the presidential debate, Haitian migrants were eating dogs and cats.

As to whether this will change motor minds, I think the context is important to keep in mind.

The Senate race in New Jersey is almost prohibitively democratic.

Andy Kim is the strong favorite to win.

New Jersey has elected a Republican senator since 1972.

Especially in a year that's a presidential year, he faces the headwinds of Donald Trump at the top of the ticket.

He was pretty unpopular in New Jersey.

How much does this change the overall course of the race?

I'm skeptical of that.

David: from what I saw, he seemed to have held his own after he ate a power bar.

In fact, Andy Kim looked a little nervous and unsteady.

>> that's true.

As Daniel pointed out, this debate wasn't getting any real wide media coverage.

And so the take away was the viral moment.

And what did people see?

they are going to remember what was reported.

It got picked up nationally.

Here's a Republican candidate.

I don't know if they will remember his name.

Here comes Andy Kim, concerned.

Going over to his opponent, asking, are you OK?

reinforcing that good guy image that they got of him when he was cleaning up the capital after January 6.

If I had to just overall gauge the impact of this debate, I don't know, it would be a check in the Kim column.

David: yeah.

He just can't get own of his own way, that Andy Kim.

Thoughts on this debate?

>> no.

I agree with what people said.

That's what people have to remember.

It's not a good luck.

It's very unfortunate.

I understand he could do better at the debate.

I just happen to be watching on the national news.

That's what people saw.

There's another point.

We know he's not a Trump guy at all.

Some of the Republicans may not foot for him.

They won't vote for Andy Kim.

They will vote for nobody.

That's the thing.

His chances are very small.

David: you had an interesting column this week on what some are calling a political pain in the neck.

Mike crispy.

Tell us about that.

>> he rose in prominence.

He was one of the pregame speakers when Donald Trump had his rally in Wildwood.

Trump gave them a shout out.

Strongly condemning him for not being conservative enough.

For not being a Trump person.

Not exactly in line with that crowd.

That's what I was just saying a few minutes ago.

I don't know how many people are going to vote against him just because there will be some Republicans will not vote for him.

Said he should be exercised from the party.

David: all right.

The weather was very much in the news this week.

Brenda, you had an interesting piece on the misinformation that's coming from some quarters about the response to the storms.

Tell us about that.

>> it's not so much misinformation as direct, deliberate disinformation.

It's beyond belief.

Obviously, you will have people that tell you that's impossible.

This is being put out there as not just feeding into the climate change hoax but as politically complicating disaster response.

I think that's part of the problem.

When FEMA is coming to help folks in western North Carolina and they are being told that FEMA is going to take your land if you accept the $750 because your house is now collateral, obviously that's false.

It may persuade people not to accept assistance.

When you have Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia overlaying maps showing how Helene followed the red state voters, that this was some sort of conspiracy to suppress the vote.

That also makes people angry.

It dissuade's folks from believing in government response when they are actually trying to get out there and help people.

There is also a very dangerous crossover into other kinds of conspiracy theories.

For example, that this is geo-engineering, a Jewish conspiracy.

That was getting a lot of play as well.

It was just a flood, a flood of disinformation.

David: yes.

She's got a bit of an obsession with Israel.

The one who sent the lasers from space as well.

Interesting perspective.

I want to touch a little bit on this other race in CD seven Altman versus Kane.

What's your sense of that?

what does that look like to you?

>> two things happen this week.

There was a poll that said she was only to print -- two points behind which is very good.

Sometimes you have to take internal poles with the help the -- healthy degree of skepticism.

The political one change the race from a foursome to lean Republican.

I mean, what that means is in contrast to the polling.

There was a Townhall last night that I went to.

She dismissed the political report and said the polling is good for only two points.

Two points is basically a statistical tie.

The district still has more Republicans than Democrats.

I guess her hope is that there will be a big turnout for Kamala Harris and that could carry her over the top.

District seven is suburban, most of it.

It's one of the locales that Democrats have been doing better of late.

David: she is raising a lot of money.

She's going to need every penny of it.

>> we hadn't really seen the investment from national Democratic groups.

Underscoring that this is a competitive race that's getting national attention.

It is the most competitive in New Jersey.

We did know that it is generally competitive.

The fact that there is no national Democratic groups investing in this race is a little bit telling.

David: very much telling.

Programming note here.

Join Briand and me for a conversation with the U.S. Senate candidates.

Not a debate.

No timeclock.

Just straight talk about the things that are important to you.

We are partnering with Rowan University for this live event so be with us on Tuesday night at 8:00 right here on NJPBS.

That's Tuesday, 8:00 here on NJPBS and streaming on your YouTube channel.

That's roundtable for this week.

Good to see you all.

Thanks for your work.

Also thanks to Declan O Scanlon for joining us earlier on.

You can follow the show on at -- X.

If you like this content, share it and subscribe to the YouTube channel to find more great work from our journalists.

For all the crew here at Gateway Center in downtown Newark, thanks for watching.

We will see you in two weeks.

>> major funding for Reporters Roundtable with David Cruz is provided by RWJ Barnabas health.

Let's be healthy together.

♪