Speaker 1: We're pleased to be sitting down with New Jersey Governor
Speaker 1: Phil Murphy here at our global headquarters in New York City.
Speaker 1: Governor Murphy, I want to start with a topic that
Speaker 1: hits close to home, which is congestion pricing in Manhattan.
Speaker 2: Last week, the MPT.
Speaker 1: Approved a revised plan to charge drivers nine dollars to
Speaker 1: enter much of the city versus the original fifteen dollars.
Speaker 1: You oppose both versions and are fighting it out in court.
Speaker 1: Are you seeking an emergency ruling to hal implementation? Do
Speaker 1: you think that you'll be able to stop this.
Speaker 3: I can't speak for the judge who's adjudicated here, but
Speaker 3: we're going to try. Like heck, it's not that listen.
Speaker 3: I think we've got the strongest environmental record of any
Speaker 3: state in America over the past seven years.
Speaker 2: I'm proud of that.
Speaker 3: We're not against lowering pollution, We're for that. But there's
Speaker 3: a time as a place, there's a deal that works
Speaker 3: for New Jersey commuters and ones that don't, and this
Speaker 3: displaces the pollution to New Jersey.
Speaker 2: It doesn't get rid of it.
Speaker 3: It's an enormous burden financially on our commuters. And lastly,
Speaker 3: none of the money comes back on our side of
Speaker 3: the Hudson, where we've also got transit fiscal challenges.
Speaker 2: So with all due.
Speaker 3: Respect to the MTA, will we want them to solve
Speaker 3: their problem within the four walls of the MTA, just
Speaker 3: like we have withinj Transit in New Jersey. And perhaps
Speaker 3: when the gateway tunnels are finished and you've got four
Speaker 3: tunnels with rail tracks as opposed to two, or when
Speaker 3: the Port Authority bus terminal is finished the new one,
Speaker 3: which we've got both going at long last, there's a
Speaker 3: time in a place perhaps, but not now.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to follow up on a bunch of
Speaker 1: those questions. But first of all, when it comes to
Speaker 1: congestion pricing, you have said that you're open to a
Speaker 1: form of it. What would that plan need to look
Speaker 1: like for it to gain your support?
Speaker 3: I don't have the parameters of it, but it would
Speaker 3: need to be a reasonable price, discounts that make sense,
Speaker 3: amount of money that comes back to Jersey, and a
Speaker 3: timetable that allows our commuters to look at what their
Speaker 3: options are. I think that's a reasonable By the way,
Speaker 3: what we've asked the federal judge is not We're not
Speaker 3: asking for the Moon. We're asking that he forced the
Speaker 3: federal administration to do an environmental impact study and we'll
Speaker 3: live with the results of that.
Speaker 4: Have you had conversations, specifically with the Governor of New York,
Speaker 4: Kathy Hochel as well as the Mayor of New York
Speaker 4: about those issues, and if so, what was their response.
Speaker 3: So we've got a great good news is we start
Speaker 3: in a very good place with our relationship with both
Speaker 3: Eric Adams and Kathy Hochel, and we do an enormous
Speaker 3: amount with both the city and the state together. Yes,
Speaker 3: we've spoken person to person, team the team. This has
Speaker 3: been a multi year process, and our ask has always been,
Speaker 3: let's do an environmental impact study and at the same time,
Speaker 3: let's get at the table together, and while that's playing
Speaker 3: itself out, let's talk about what the contours could be
Speaker 3: of a deal that we could all live with.
Speaker 4: That this congestion pricing plan is more than just about
Speaker 4: the environment. It's obviously to leave a congestion as well.
Speaker 4: The idea that there are just a lot of folks
Speaker 4: coming into this city that you know, at least certain
Speaker 4: people think maybe shouldn't or they should take public transit
Speaker 4: into the city. If you don't have the congestion pricing.
Speaker 4: What is the solution to alleviate the traffic conditions?
Speaker 3: So let me say first and foremost, And the MTA
Speaker 3: wrote this themselves, the number one objective here is to
Speaker 3: solve their fiscal hole. They've said that themselves. Don't take
Speaker 3: my word for it. While congestion and lowering pollution is
Speaker 3: a noble objective and it's certainly one of their objectives,
Speaker 3: it's one that the number one objective is to solve
Speaker 3: their fiscal hole. We've got the same challenge at NJ Transit.
Speaker 3: We've chosen to solve our problems within the four walls
Speaker 3: of New Jersey. We put in a corporate transit fee.
Speaker 3: While New Jersey Transit takes a few years to get
Speaker 3: back on their fiscal feet, which it will take, all
Speaker 3: the big transit systems, by the way, in the country
Speaker 3: are going through a similar reality.
Speaker 2: We've found a fee which we.
Speaker 3: Don't do lightly, that will allow a bridge to a
Speaker 3: better fiscal future for them. I don't know what the
Speaker 3: alternative is for the MTA, but I strongly would like
Speaker 3: to encourage them to pursue other avenues. As for New
Speaker 3: York City, we root for New York City. It's success
Speaker 3: in so many respects is our success. I don't know why,
Speaker 3: for the life of us, when people are working from home,
Speaker 3: we're still digging out from a pandemic, why New York
Speaker 3: City would want fewer people in New York City than more.
Speaker 2: But that's not that's not my domain.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to New Jersey Transit, which you've mentioned
Speaker 1: a couple of times. Commuters who rely on it very
Speaker 1: frustrated by the breakdowns, especially this past summer. You've pledged
Speaker 1: to fix the system even if it kills you, and
Speaker 1: you've mentioned this business tax, perhaps to support JT. You've
Speaker 1: also raised fares not so long ago. How much of
Speaker 1: this is simply a funding problem versus something bigger.
Speaker 3: Well, it ultimately will be a big funding problem if
Speaker 3: we didn't if we did not find the solutions, and
Speaker 3: we have found the solutions, which are multi year, we
Speaker 3: did not raise fees fares. Rather, for six years longest
Speaker 3: stretch of fares not being raised ever in New Jersey transit,
Speaker 3: we just finally raised them this year. We put in
Speaker 3: place this corporate transit fee.
Speaker 2: People.
Speaker 3: I'm not making an excuse for what we're calling the
Speaker 3: summer of hell it was unacceptable to commuters, It was
Speaker 3: unacceptable to me period. In fact, we put a free
Speaker 3: week at the end of the summer just as a
Speaker 3: tip of the cap to the fact it was.
Speaker 2: A miserable summer. But if you look at the.
Speaker 3: Mess we inherited when we first got in office almost
Speaker 3: seven years ago, NJ Transit has made a lot of
Speaker 3: progress on on time performance, safety, customer satisfaction. We don't
Speaker 3: like anything on those less than one hundred percent, and
Speaker 3: we will keep fighting until we get there.
Speaker 1: Remain mentioned congestion. Obviously, that's a big goal.
Speaker 2: First time I've heard about that, the.
Speaker 1: Gateway Tunnel project to build those two new tunnels under
Speaker 1: the Hudson River. Donald Trump halted federal funding during his
Speaker 1: first term. He stalled it. Basically, how concerned are you
Speaker 1: that these funds will be stalled once again or held
Speaker 1: up or pulled during the second Trumpet minute?
Speaker 2: So to all the.
Speaker 3: Funds are obligated, and that's a word with heavy definition
Speaker 3: around federal funding. So that's as close to cement as
Speaker 3: you get. But having said that, we've.
Speaker 1: Found obligated and dispersed are two different things.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but obligated is a big step. Obviously, This is
Speaker 3: an eight to ten year project, so you can't expect
Speaker 3: that they'll all be dispersed at the moment. Having said that,
Speaker 3: a big part of the project is the Portal North Bridge,
Speaker 3: green lit by Donald Trump as president in June of
Speaker 3: twenty twenty. I spoke to him last week that bridge
Speaker 3: is going to be complete next year, on time and
Speaker 3: under budget. I asked him if he'd come up and
Speaker 3: cut the ribbon with me. I don't want to speak
Speaker 3: for the president, but privately he said he'd very much
Speaker 3: like to do that. I think he's somebody who understands
Speaker 3: this region and understands how important infrastructure and moving people
Speaker 3: and stuff around is. So I'm at this moment with
Speaker 3: a high degree of confidence. It's a huge union job
Speaker 3: building trades source of tens of thousand. I think the
Speaker 3: President will be in the right place on this.
Speaker 4: And you think you'll have a decent working relationship with
Speaker 4: them for.
Speaker 2: The next year that you're an office.
Speaker 3: We're gonna we're gonna fight on stuff well as we did.
Speaker 3: When I walk out of here in January of twenty sixth,
Speaker 3: I will have been the longest serving Democratic governor. Alongside
Speaker 3: Donald Trump as president. We've already done it. For three years,
Speaker 3: we fought like heck on where our values were challenged,
Speaker 3: our communities were assaulted or challenged, and will continue to
Speaker 3: do so. But that does not mean we will not
Speaker 3: aggressively look for common ground. I have a good relationship
Speaker 3: with him personally, and we'll continue to do both.
Speaker 4: When you first ran for governor seven or eight years ago,
Speaker 4: you ran on a platform of bringing jobs and bringing
Speaker 4: companies to New Jersey. What has that progress been? And
Speaker 4: I am curious if you find yourself in competition with
Speaker 4: your neighboring states, primarily New York and I guess so
Speaker 4: a smaller extent Connecticut and attracting those companies and jobs.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So our story is a good one, but it's an
Speaker 3: incomplete We've made an enormous amount of progress on GDP growth,
Speaker 3: on job creation growth. Our unemployment numbers have been coming
Speaker 3: into a very good spot. We've got a lot of
Speaker 3: magnets in place that attract both companies and families. Number
Speaker 3: one public education system in America.
Speaker 4: Do new companies want to set up shop?
Speaker 2: You bet in New Jersey. You bet.
Speaker 3: The one area where before we got here we had
Speaker 3: really lost our way as a state was the startup community,
Speaker 3: and that's now changing dramatically. We've got these strategic innovation
Speaker 3: hubs in a number of different fields. Venture capital, we
Speaker 3: were top three in the nation in the first half
Speaker 3: of this year, behind only California and New York. That's
Speaker 3: the one area in particular where we had a lot
Speaker 3: of wood to chop, and we've made a lot of progress.
Speaker 3: We're not there yet, We're not satisfied by any means,
Speaker 3: but a lot of good progress.
Speaker 1: So FARMA has a strong foothold in New Jersey, and
Speaker 1: you're talking about startups as kind of the next big area.
Speaker 2: Of growth for the state. You bet so.
Speaker 3: Life science is one of the big innovation hubs is
Speaker 3: in New Brunswick. It's being built as we speak, called
Speaker 3: the Helix that will be a life science focused both
Speaker 3: big companies, big hospital systems Rutgers and Princeton with their research,
Speaker 3: as well as a big startup component.
Speaker 1: Okay, one last question here. New Jersey has long been
Speaker 1: a true blue state, but Donald Trump won more votes
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four than he did in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: and the state feels like it's shifting red. There are
Speaker 1: questions about whether New Jersey's next battleground state. I wonder
Speaker 1: if you could talk to that and also the single
Speaker 1: most important lesson that you think the Democratic Party must
Speaker 1: learn from the twenty four O.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't see it as a battleground state. I
Speaker 3: just don't. That doesn't mean we're complacent about it for
Speaker 3: one second.
Speaker 2: And you're absolutely right.
Speaker 3: President Trump's margin was about five points in New Jersey.
Speaker 3: Joe Biden won New Jersey sixteen ish points. By the way,
Speaker 3: if you look at New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland, New York.
Speaker 4: ALIPHOI concern you was a Democrat.
Speaker 3: So the big blue states all shifted like that.
Speaker 2: It concerns me.
Speaker 4: Why did it shift though?
Speaker 3: Do you know a whole number of reasons? I think
Speaker 3: twelve to fifteen individual reasons. It did not impact us
Speaker 3: down ballot. I would be hyper concerned, and I'm not
Speaker 3: saying complacent about this because I'm not. We have to
Speaker 3: be sober, look in the mirror, analyze what happened.
Speaker 2: But I'd be really.
Speaker 3: Panicked if it had a down ballot impact. It did
Speaker 3: not for the most part. I'll give you an example
Speaker 3: one Passaic County, big Latino and Muslim populations. By the way,
Speaker 3: he won that County Democrats had four county wide candidates,
Speaker 3: including two newbies.
Speaker 2: They all won handily.
Speaker 3: So the lessons we have to figure out where the
Speaker 3: lessons are, but we also have to figure out what
Speaker 3: was at the top of the ticket in lessons that
Speaker 3: were unique to the top of the ticket versus Democratic
Speaker 3: Party down ballot lessons.
Speaker 1: What's the lesson that's worked for Democrats in New Jersey
Speaker 1: down ballot that didn't work at the top.
Speaker 3: Be on the side of working families period. We're the
Speaker 3: number one state in America to raise a family. That's
Speaker 3: especially true for working families. Own that space, invest in
Speaker 3: it the present, and that has worked for us.
Speaker 4: Some would say the Democrats did that certainly at the
Speaker 4: national level. I can't speak specifically to New Jersey. The
Speaker 4: issue wasn't whether they did that. The issue was how
Speaker 4: that was communicated to the voters. And I'm sure you
Speaker 4: know there are a lot of voters, both Democrats and
Speaker 4: Republicans alike, to look at the economy over the last
Speaker 4: four years and did not feel that that investment was there,
Speaker 4: at least from the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, the notion is that it got too abstract,
Speaker 3: like nice, nice soundbites, but where is it for me?
Speaker 3: Inflation is still in the system. People are Look, that's
Speaker 3: the data point that I think matters the most. What
Speaker 3: am I paying for X today versus four years ago?
Speaker 4: That's still the number one thing you hear from your residence.
Speaker 3: I think the economy is still top of the list.
Speaker 3: It always has been, always will be. The fascinating reality
Speaker 3: in New Jersey and nationally both is that President Trump
Speaker 3: got some more votes in New Jersey than he got
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty. A lot fewer people voted on our side.
Speaker 3: That to me is the po both sat out the election.
Speaker 3: People sat on their hands, both nationally and in New Jersey,
Speaker 3: and that's something we have to get our arms around now.
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty was an all vote by mail election record
Speaker 3: turnout across the board, including in New Jersey. But that's
Speaker 3: to me, the big sobering. Why did you stay home
Speaker 3: with so much at stake? How come you sat this
Speaker 3: one out? That, to me is the question we need
Speaker 3: to get a crisp answer to.
Speaker 1: So what is on your to do list as you
Speaker 1: get ready or as a state gets ready for elections
Speaker 1: next November to determine whether there's a democratic governor to
Speaker 1: follow you up or perhaps the Democratic a Republican governor
Speaker 1: takes her vice.
Speaker 3: Yes, and so while we have not been a swing
Speaker 3: state at the presidential level or at the Senate US
Speaker 3: Senate level, we have been historically back and forth.
Speaker 2: As governor. So we'll see how that plays out.
Speaker 3: There's a crowded field on both sides of the aisle,
Speaker 3: a lot of talent running for governor, so we'll see
Speaker 3: how that works. I think in terms of us, more
Speaker 3: of the same. So number one public education system in America,
Speaker 3: keep investing in that, keep expanding pre K, make sure
Speaker 3: you're you continue to be top healthcare of top five
Speaker 3: healthcare state in America. A big clemency initiative. I want
Speaker 3: to do parole reform, more broadly, criminal justice reform. We
Speaker 3: got elected to grow the economy, but also to make
Speaker 3: it a fairer economy. Address those inequities. We'll continue to
Speaker 3: do a.
Speaker 4: Lot of You only have about one year left in
Speaker 4: office months, so I assume you're going to be involved
Speaker 4: in politics. Posts your good natory.
Speaker 2: I have no idea. I have no idea.
Speaker 4: It sounds like it.
Speaker 2: Launch public service.
Speaker 3: Public service is something that I was an ambassador. It's
Speaker 3: something that that's important to me in the job of
Speaker 3: a lifetime has been Governor of New Jersey, so I
Speaker 3: love doing what I can do to serve the public.
Speaker 1: Film Orphie, thank you so much.