New Jersey's Next Governor with Steve Adubato

“New Jersey’s Next Governor with Steve Adubato” is a two-part special featuring in-depth interviews with gubernatorial candidates Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno (R) and Ambassador Phil Murphy (D), now Governor of New Jersey. Both candidates address issues such as soaring property taxes, the pension crisis, funding NJ’s schools, and more.

10/8/17 #101

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Welcome to New Jersey's Next Governor. I'm Steve Adubato. And we're coming to you from the Agnes Varis NJTV Studio in beautiful Newark, New Jersey. For the next hour, we'll be sitting down with the two major party candidates for governor in New Jersey. This broadcast is being seen across a number of networks, PBS stations, WNET, NJTV, WHYY, also on Verizon FiOS1 News. We're also being heard on the radio on AM 970 The Answer and WBGO, that's an NPR affiliate. You can also catch us on Facebook.com/SteveAdubatoPHD, and we're pleased to announce that we're being seen across the country on C-SPAN. Right now we're joined by the Republican candidate for governor, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's good to have you here. And we'll be joined by Democratic candidate for governor, Phil Murphy, in just a bit. But before we go to questions, we have a brief report from our partners at NJTV News on the Lieutenant Governor's campaign platform. Kim Guadagno defeated a strong opponent to win the Republican nomination. For nearly eight years she has been New Jersey's Lieutenant Governor, the first person ever to hold that office. Before that she was Monmouth County Sheriff, and before that, a federal prosecutor. She's running on a plan to cut property taxes, her so-called circuit breaker plan would cap the school portion of a homeowner's property tax bill at 5% of income. Above that, the state would pay the school district directly. Average savings? $800 per homeowner says Guadagno. Cost to the state? 1.5 billion dollars she says. Her opponent Phil Murphy questions where that money would come from. Guadagno says one billion would come from natural revenue growth, 250 million from overfunded school districts, and 250 million from a comprehensive audit of state government. Guadagno is also running on the idea of electing the State Attorney General instead of it being a gubernatorial appointment. Guadagno chose Carlos Rendo, the mayor of Woodcliff Lake, to be her Lieutenant Governor running mate. Her strategy is to hammer home the tax issue and hope it does for her what it did for Christine Whitman 24 years ago. Her Achilles' heel is her closeness to Governor Christie, who has become terribly unpopular. She has tried to separate herself from him on issues like the gas tax hike and Statehouse renovation. But she was his number two, and Democrats won't let voters ignore that. With Donald Trump also unpopular in New Jersey, it's a tough climate for a Republican candidate for governor. I want to thank our good friend, Michael Aron, the Dean of the Statehouse Press Corp, NJTV News, for that report. Lieutenant Governor..."