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

We kick off the program talking about the issues that matter to people who are more mature with our friend Christopher Widelo, State Director of AARP New Jersey.

Good to see you, Chris.

- Good to see you too, Steve.

Thanks for having me.

- You got a website up.

Tell everyone what AARP is.

Some of us get mail, let's just say that, okay.

- Yeah, we do send a little bit of mail, but all for good reasons.

AARP is a social mission organization, and we help people age in the way that they would like to help them, you know, live their full life as they get older, and, you know, we certainly are known for our advocacy around important issues that impact the 50 and older population, and we also do a good amount of outreach and education on different topics and, you know, things that are of interest to people who are older, but also a lot of times it benefits people who are under 50 as well.

- Okay, so there's gonna be a new governor in January of 2026.

We're taping in the summer of 2025.

Election's in November.

Top one or two issues facing folks 50, 60, and older in the state that the new governor needs to address.

Go ahead Chris.

- Yeah, I think the big area is around affordability.

I think people are just finding it a lot more difficult to age and live here in New Jersey, you know, partially because of property tax.

We know that we see property tax, you know, continues to increase, and people's incomes do not, so, you know, that affordability issue is huge, and you know, it also connects really to an issue around the skyrocketing cost of utilities in the state, and, you know, if you're able to pay your property tax, then you're also finding it difficult to, how do you keep the lights on?

And so I think those two issues combined really focus on affordability, but I think, will, you know, determine for a lot of people, you know, can they afford to age here successfully?

Can they stay here for the long term?

And everybody does, right?

New Jersey's a wonderful place to be and- - If you can afford it.

If you afford it.

If you can afford it.

- If you can afford it.

Exactly.

- But stay on this, the Stay NJ Program, by the way, This is a program that was put together by the legislature and the governor dealing with property taxes for folks.

Is it disproportionately for people who are older?

- Yeah, the Stay NJ Program is property tax relief for older New Jersey residents and, you know, combined with ANCHOR and the Senior Freeze program, you know, make sure that you are getting the best opportunity to save on your taxes, and, you know, we're really urging, in this legislative session that, you know, is going to wind up at the end of the year that it's fully funded, and you- - Sorry Chris, for interrupting, it's not funded fully.

- Correct.

We need it fully funded in this legislative session to make sure that it will take effect the start of, you know, the fiscal year.

- Yeah, again, the program is there, but if the dollars are not there.

- Correct.

- Speaking of dollars, Medicaid, Medicare, well, okay, let's put this in order.

Social Security, how concerned are you, Chris, for the folks you represent that social security is at risk by decisions being made in Washington by Congress and the Trump administration right now?

- Earlier this year, we really pushed back on, you know, around the issue of customer service in particular around social security.

It wasn't a threat really to the payments.

Social Security has been around for 90 years this August.

We're gonna celebrate its 90th birthday here in New Jersey and across the country, but you know, the immediate threat was around closing of social security offices, forcing folks to come into social security offices to perform basic functions that were previously done over the phone, and AARP fought back very strongly and successfully, and the Social Security Administration has certainly, you know, done an about face on this and realized that, you know, it's asking people to jump through a lot of hoops, asking somebody to drive two and a half hours to change something, to make a minor change to their benefit, just is totally unreasonable, and so we wanna make sure that people can sign up for the benefit, people can get the customer service they need, and are not, you know, given unnecessary hoops to jump through.

- What about Medicare?

- Yeah, Medicare, you know, we're certainly monitoring what's happening at the federal level.

You know, Medicare for older Americans is often the last resort for long-term care, and the long-term care system is broken in many ways, but usually people who never intend to be on Medicaid, you know, that program is incredibly important.

Medicare seems to be in good shape, right?

Medicare provides the health benefits for people who are retired, who are 65 and older, and, you know, we're feeling good about where that program is, but we're certainly always paying attention, but Medicaid is the issue that we have to definitely pay attention to.

- And as we're doing this program toward the latter end of June, 2025, we don't know what's gonna happen in Washington on that.

We'll continue to monitor it.

Real quick, I was remiss.

AARP recently came on as an underwriter of some of our public policy programming on "State of Affairs".

Now, quick follow up on this.

What would you say to the gubernatorial candidates running right now, Jack Ciattarelli, Republican, Mikie Sherrill, the Democrat.

What would you say to them right now if you could talk to 'em about the folks you represent, and what the next governor should prioritize as it relates to that constituency?

- I think, regardless of party ideology, they really have to listen to the 50 and older voter.

They are a significant voting block.

They have turned out in every non presidential election and presidential election in record numbers.

You look at 2021, 2022, 2023, better than 63% of voters in those elections were people 50 and older.

AARP has 1.2 million members across New Jersey, and there are approximately 1.6 million voters of the age of 50 that turned out in the last non-presidential election in 2022, so it's an important voting block that is concerned about things that I think a lot of New Jerseyans are concerned about around issues around affordability, fraud.

I mean, there's just so many different things, so I think, you know, it's a good barometer for them or they'd be smart to key in on the issues that are being talked about, and so, sure, we have polling that says that these are important, but this is what I hear when I talk to our volunteers, when I talk to our members across the state that they often raised, you know, "Tell us how we can afford to stay here.

Tell us how I can afford to continue to be a caregiver.

You know, how do I prepare for a retirement if I'm not quite at that age yet?"

So these are real concerns, so I hope they're paying attention, and I think they're starting to.

- Chris Widelo is the State Director of AARP, New Jersey.

Chris, we appreciate you joining us.

All the best.

- Hey, thanks Steve.

Take care.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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