Sen. Tom Kean Jr Talk Sports Betting, Pension, Water Quality

Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R) – NJ, Republican Leader and Steve Adubato talk about the legalization of sports betting in New Jersey, affordability of higher education, the pension crisis and the importance of water quality in New Jersey.

7/7/18 #214

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"State of Affairs is pleased to welcome our good friend Senator Tom Kean Jr. Republican, Republican Leader in the Senate. How you doing Senator? It's great. It's great to see you again Steve. Good to have you. Senator, put things in perspective for us. A few days after... when this shows, it'll be a couple weeks... Mm hmm. Legalized sports betting means what in New Jersey? I think it's positive. It's revenue. It's new energy. I think it's a good... obviously it's something that brings people together, and as we... I think it's gonna be a positive for the state. You're not concerned about some of those who say, "You know what? We are promoting gambling. And those who may have a problem get sucked into it. And that's the state's responsibility." Well we... well we always... always need to be protective of the downside. And my hope would be some of the revenue that we use, will be used for some of those addiction and other related problems. That happens in any event. But the goal is... here, you say, legalize what's already happening across the country. Make it a... you know, regulated industry. And then also protect people on the downside for... who may have a gambling addiction. It's interesting. This is bipartisan, isn't it? It was strongly bipartisan. And that's rare in the Statehouse... Oh! [laughter] You see the dome behind you! [laughter] That is rare? It... well, actually it should be more common. I mean, there are things that I think we can find common ground on, you know, ways to make the state more affordable, make sure that we... make sure people can go to school in the state of New Jersey. Hmm. Make sure people can afford to live here. I mean, what should be our common goal is three generations of families live in the state of New Jersey. And there are ways we can get there on... Hmm. ...you know, real and substantive policies. But when people look at Trenton right now, they say, "Who's racing to increase taxes?" You've got a Senate President that wants to have the highest corporate tax in the country. Steve Sweeney? Steve Sweeney. You have a... and a Governor who wants to have the highest income tax in the country. And at a time when New Jersey's saying, "We want to attract people like Amazon. We want to attract millennials. We want to attract people who are gonna be, you know, the wonderful citizens of New Jersey." That's sending the very wrong message. So it is... unfortunately, the Democratic Majority is focused on increasing taxes. The Senate Republicans, and others, are saying, "How do we..."