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MTNJAskGovSherABlock0514_2026-05-14-18-16-50

Welcome to Ask Governor Sherrill, a special edition of New Jersey Power and Politics. I'm Eric Lance Kronner, and this is your chance to speak one on one with Governor Sher. Before we tell you how to do just that, we'd like to welcome Governor Mikey Sherrill back to the studio. It's good to see you. Thanks for coming in. Well, thank you so much for having me. It's really exciting to be back here. Last time I was here, it was Ask the Candidate, and uh we're, we're looking forward to getting to as many questions as possible. As you and I were just speaking about a moment ago, we had thousands and thousands of questions on social media. We're going to have callers. Let's tell everybody how they can get their questions into us. You can post a question on the News 12 New Jersey Facebook page or Instagram page. You can also post on X by using the hashtag ##askGov Cheryl or give us a call 888-Ns12NJ. That is 888-639-7126. And the calls are going to start coming in in a moment, but while we're waiting for those, let's start by talking about the World Cup. Very exciting time here in New Jersey. It's really just a few weeks away at this point. Yes. There's been some controversy here and there with the costs associated with the World Cup and we'll get to that also, but let's get to our first social media question. This is from Lena and Lena is asking about something that has not yet come to fruition, but she says, where will the money go from the 9% sales tax during the World Cup? So this is this bill that that you were backing for 9%, 9.6% sales tax in the Meadowlands region during the entirety of the World Cup. What's your take on where that stands right now? Yeah, so, um, as you know, I wanted to make sure that we weren't putting these costs on the back of New Jerseyans, and one of the ways I wanted to do that was with a hotel fee, uh, as well as a tourism fee so that the people that were coming in would be the ones to pay for it, not New Jerseyans. New Jerseyans would, uh, be able to get that money back. Unfortunately I don't think the legislature, uh, is going to move forward on that, but we're still in talks and, and some were very supportive of it. But as a whole I think, um, we might. Turn our our focus on some of those fan zones that we have 34 across the state and really focusing on driving our economy that way and having small businesses really gain the benefits of so many visitors. That's interesting because I think one of the one of the fears was that you would have people living in the district who would have to pay an increased tax, uh, sales tax, and then first have to worry about that at tax time. But you're saying you don't think it's gonna move forward and you know what it was a. I think it was a misunderstanding. Quite frankly, it's how you run a tourism economy in New Jersey. We haven't really run a tourism economy like that. This is the biggest sporting event in the world. Over, I, I think about 3 billion people will be watching this, so we'll have all kinds of people coming into our state, and I just wanted to make sure we saw some, uh, economic bang for our buck with having this event in New Jersey. If you go to, you know, if any of your viewers have gone to Universal or Disney, for example. You'll look and you'll pay for somebody remembers that, right, and your wallet, your wallet remembers about Floridians, they often say, you know, it often says at the bottom of the ticket, show your Florida driver's license and get money off. So this would have been something New Jerseyans would have recovered. It would not have been a tax against them. OK, so in addition to the questions that we're going to be taking in via the phone and social media questions, we also sent our cameras out. We got some questions from people on the street. Here's a question from Kevin in Asbury Park. Can you share some information about how we're going to distribute distribute the wealth for this World Cup event that's coming up. Well, that was a great question from Kevin because like I said, I am constantly looking for ways in which this is going to support our economy. So the way we've done that is, is we've done that in several ways. First of all, uh, we had to move about 40,000 people into this event and we, uh, we're facing down $48 million to do just that. So the first thing we did is say look, that is not gonna go on the backs of New Jerseyans. We've gotten corporate support. And raise the ticket prices so that that will not be paid for by New Jerseyans now we've also then taken um what was going to be one fan zone and we've moved it across the entire state because not only can we get revenue into businesses into local communities from our games that we're hosting in northern New Jersey at the Meadowlands, but actually Philly's hosting games and we have fan zones down in Camden so that people can get. Benefit there and in that way what we're doing is helping towns and communities put on events and helping uh with grant programs to have them develop those events so that they can see a lot of economic and tourism development during the World Cup games. Finally we have more World Cup teams for staying in our state than anywhere else. That means that they'll be paying for hotels, for family members, for coaches. They're also paying, um, to. Practice on different venues across our state. So in all of these ways we're driving money into our state and into our economies. You know, we have another social media question which we'll get to in a second, but state Republicans had called for a hearing with the FIFA host committee about and they're really calling for transparency. They wanted to know exactly what New Jersey is on the hook for and exactly where the dollars are going to fall here and what taxpayers could. Eventually or potentially have to pay as a result of all the costs that go into this uh there's been no response to date from leadership as far as I know. Should there be a hearing in the interest of transparency here just just so the public knows? I think what we've been really focused on is tracking down all the ways uh in which we can see economic revenue come back to the state that that's really I think what leadership and what I've been focused on is how can we make sure we're picking up all the change under the couch for this event and I think in that way we're gonna see some really great exciting business opportunities. During that event, which is so nice to see because after the illegal tariffs are raising costs and everything after this war is raising gas prices on everyone, we're seeing interest rates continue to go up. It's great to be able to deliver to New Jersey an economic opportunity that is really going to help boost our state. Let's get to this other social media question. This is from John. He posted on X. And this is actually about NJ Transit. He says, Will the NJ Transit fare increase in July still happen this year, and will bus service in the Meadowlands be impacted during the World Cup? It keeps coming back to the World Cup. The World Cup. So what we are focused on for the World Cup is making sure that those direct lines to the games, that increase is simply for going to and from the game. Um, that World Cup increase will not impact other routes, so that's simply for the to and from the game itself, um, and outside of that we're actually adding extra capacity. We're looking for ways to even drive down costs from the normal ticket price so that people who are kind of having to change their routes, etc. we're adding extra capacity for. Them and then trying to find some different discounts so that they won't see the hit from the World Cup. But the World Cup aside, what about the anticipated fare increase that's supposed to hit in July? That's still happening? That, you know, as far as I know that's still happening. I am happy. I know that our head of New Jersey Transit is listed. Right now Chris Kalori, so I'm happy to um get the get the information about that um that was on Twitter about that person and and respond to them directly. Talk about security that is involved in hosting an event like this with people coming from all over the world and what it takes to secure the Meadowlands region and all the different venues. When we're we're at this time where of course Homeland Security is worried about potential acts of terrorism and and just other potential bad behaviors. Yeah, I was just having a brief today on what um we have met with um other people who've hosted World Cups in the recent past and including Qatar and others, and they were talking about all the cyber attacks and that is only anticipated to go up at this World Cup. We also have a really densely populated area with a lot of waterways around it, so it has been on my mind since the minute, um, you know, I was taking. Office, which is why we have a very experienced head of our DHS. We have a very experienced attorney general. We have a very experienced, uh, police superintendent. We also have people internally on my team, people who worked for the federal agencies and have really, um, focused on how to keep large scale events like this safe and secure. So that is exactly what we're doing. We've also fought for a lot of federal grant money to make sure. That we can beef up all of our security, and this is really the first time that the feds are going to give the state, our state, some of the federal tools that we need to secure this, and some of the federal authorities that I think largely the reason that the World Cup, the reason that FIFA chose the World Cup to be here and chose our bid is because we are known to have the best security forces in the nation. I don't think there are. A lot of other states who have the type of police force we have in our state police who have the Port Authority police who know how to secure large scale events like this in an area of the country that is, you know, an area that's been hit before on 9/11. So since that time we've really beefed up all of our security and I think we're one of the few places in the country that can run as secure a World Cup game as we will be running. We have a caller right now. We have Dominique from Piscataway on the line. Dominique, thanks for calling in. What's your question? Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. Uh, first of all, I want to say I've been living in Jersey for 28 years now, I'm born and raised, so proud Jersey girl. Um, but I know that a lot of people my age right now are really struggling with the high cost of living. A lot of us are working full time and are trying to build a future here a long time, but it consistently feels like it's harder and harder to keep up. Many people are living, are either that I know my age are either still living at home trying to save for a house someday, while others find it more difficult to live independently because it's hard to keep up with the rising rent. So I wanted to ask, what can realistically do you think could be done to help make New Jersey more affordable for younger people who want to stay and build a life here? Dominique, you're, thanks so much for calling. You're, you're exactly the type of person that is always on my mind, um, somebody who has such strong ties to New Jersey, uh, loves New Jersey, loves living here, and yet feels like, you know, what does my future look like with these constant rising costs? So I would say two things. Um, first of all, we see this as something that, um. Is constantly impacting younger people. It it feels like there's a real divide here. People my age, many who have their homes have, um, you know, put some money in the bank and can afford this, and yet younger people, my kids, um, a lot of my friends' kids suddenly are graduating from college without a lot of great job prospects, even if they do get a great job. It's still not enough money to pay for rent or mortgages, etc. as you said, a lot of people still living at home with their parents. In fact, I was just speaking to someone the other day who said he was talking to a lot of guys in his job who are living at home, and he started to make fun of them, but then he realized he said, oh my gosh, their opportunity to pay rent or purchase a house is so different from what. We experienced when we were young when costs were so much lower. So that's why um immediately in the middle of my inaugural address I froze rate hikes. So if you can imagine the cost per gallon of gas freezing the cost per gallon, that's what I did. I froze rate hikes, um, but that doesn't get sort of the overall cost down because we know that last year they went up by 20%, which is why. Passed an executive order to expand power generation, more power, more generation, lower costs. I've lifted the nuclear moratorium so we can again generate more power in the state to get costs down, um, and then I'm also, I just passed an executive order to get the cost of housing down by looking at all of our state properties. This is an area where I obviously have a lot of power to start. To implement change so we looked at all of our state properties, properties that have already been built upon, so we're not building in wetlands or on, um, you know, farms, we're building on already developed properties that are underutilized parking garages we don't need building out houses we think we can get about 20,000 new housing units through this program. That's what we're looking at now so we can again drive down the cost of housing. Again and again we are making sure that in every way we're looking to drive down costs here in New Jersey, but we're constantly fighting headwinds from the federal government, the tariffs, the gas prices, all of the cuts to education, healthcare funding. We've seen about 70,000 people in this year have not re-enrolled. In the Affordable Care Act because it's become too expensive, about 300,000 people that were worried about being kicked off Medicaid rolls. So we are trying in our state to drive down costs for people, but we're constantly fighting the headwinds from the federal government. Governor Sher, we have to take a quick break and we're going to continue with questions when we come back, right here on Ask Governor.

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MTNJAskGovSherBBlock0514_2026-05-14-18-22-36

Welcome back to Ask Governor Sherrill here on News 12 New Jersey. Eric Lansker along with the governor. Governor, let's take another phone call right now. We have Ray from Roselle Park joining us. Ray, what's your question? Yes, Governor, I, uh, my concern, by the way, congratulations on your election. But my concern is with the AI centers. I live in Roosevelt Park, and uh we are flanked by Kenilworth and Cranford. Kenilworth already has announced that they're going to build a data center right on the shearing flower area, uh, where once you're shearing, Cranford apparently has proposed one. My concern is on the environmental concern. And also the impact on our electrical and water bills, and also the fact of where it's being built, being built right next to the parkway and right across residential areas and residents right across the street were never informed that these are coming up. So my concern is obviously utilities impact environmental and also the secrecy with which these things are being launched. Well thanks Ray. I really appreciate the call and I'll tell you as I was running and looking at all of the power costs here in New Jersey, one thing that became really clear was that because we're in a regional grid, a lot of our costs were going up exponentially because of Virginia's power centers and so, um, immediately I started to focus on this data center issue and yes, you're exactly right, we're concerned about quality of life for residents we're concerned about the environmental impacts. Which is why uh as we move forward on our data center plan we are going to really make sure that data centers bring their own, bring their own power so they're not continuing to increase power costs for New Jerseyans that they really pay their way here in New Jersey and we're also looking to make sure that as we are ensuring that we have the ability to move forward on AI and to move forward in innovation, our kids have the best. Training in the nation in AI so they can get the jobs of the future so they can actually control how AI is utilized into the future and not be controlled by it that we are looking at how we're developing these data centers. There are a lot of small data centers that are largely invisible to people across our state. That's what our state really can utilize well um we're not like Texas growing huge data farms here, but making sure we get that balance right between growing our innovation economy. Making sure data centers are paying for the power that they need and not harming our our environment, and that we're not impacting the quality of life of homeowners. And it's not just the electricity, it's the amount of water that they use also for cooling. Interesting new Gallup survey that's just out don't know if you saw this, 7 in 10 Americans are actually against AI data centers in their area. So definitely some headwinds with this, Governor. We do have to take another quick break. We've got many more questions to get to. Keep it right here on Ask Governor. We'll be right back.

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MTNJAskGovSherCBlock0514_2026-05-14-18-29-51

Welcome back to Ask Governor Cheryl. Uh, we're gonna go back to the phones right now. We have Wendy from Wharton on the line. Wendy, thanks for calling in. What's your question? My question is, Governor, uh, sorry, I apologize, Governor Sheryl, um, I live on exit 8, off 80, um. Exit 34, which is Route 15, and we've had a lot of uh accidents happening between Rockaway Mall and 15, and we're a lot of us are concerned. We know that there's speeders, but we're also concerned because there's been since January, at least 5 deaths. Well Wendy, thanks so much for calling and um I know like I said earlier that all of my commissioners are listening because um I would. Love to make sure that we're keeping people as safe as possible. We're such a highly trafficked state across the whole state, a lot of congestion, uh, very densely populated, so making sure that we're keeping our roads safe is really a big concern of mine. So I'm gonna have our, uh, Department of Transportation commissioner Jane reach out to you or someone on her team. So if you would just make sure to leave your information. Uh, with News 12, I, I really would want to, I, I really want her to dig into some of what's going on here. I really appreciate it, Governor. Uh, let's talk about the junta virus because in recent days we learned that two New Jersey residents were potentially exposed. They weren't on the cruise ship in question, but they were on a flight where they were potentially exposed. Um, what's the DOH telling you about potential risk and have you learned anything new about these two people, these residents? So I'm monitoring this, uh, really carefully because this is a big area of concern obviously as a state we've just been through COVID not too long ago and nobody wants any sort of outbreak here that is partly why, uh, my Department of Health commissioner commissioner Washington was, um, somebody I was so interested in hiring him because he's an epidemiologist, uh, has actually traveled to other areas of the world to study some of the outbreaks. And I thought just given what we've just been through and how densely populated the state is having somebody with that expertise to make sure we're doing everything we can to prevent any sort of outbreak was very important so yes, you're exactly right um. And I've been getting frequent updates. Two people were exposed on a flight. They, they were not on the cruise ship. They've shown no signs. They're being monitored to ensure that if there is any concern that we can make sure nothing spreads. But at this point. Um, we have not seen any evidence that that people this is a completely different type of um risk or or or lack thereof. You can't compare the way this spreads versus how COVID did it, you know, you're exactly right, and yet I think what people want to hear though is, look, I don't want any risk, you know, I, I, these are. Are viruses and diseases that we're not familiar with here in New Jersey so I want to make sure that people realize we take everything very seriously. You're exactly right. The, the threat of potential spread is very different, very minimal, especially given that this is simply exposure, not we haven't seen any signs of the disease, but at the same time I don't want. Anyone to think that we're not taking this threat incredibly seriously to ensure that despite a very yes minimal minimal threat that at the same time people should know here in New Jersey your government is really on top of things and and focusing on making sure the community is safe. Governor, we're going to take another quick break. We'll be right back with more of Ask Governor Sher next.

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MTNJAskGovSherDBlock0514_2026-05-14-18-42-54

Welcome back to Ask Governor Sherrill here on News 12 New Jersey, continuing to take your calls and questions. Here's how you can ask those questions. You can go over to the News 12 New Jersey Facebook page, the Instagram page as well. You can also post on X. Use the hashtag ##AkGov Cheryl, or of course give us a call 888-NS12NJ. That's 888-639-7126. Governor, uh, let's talk about the budget right now. We're in budget season. The deadline is looming at the end of June. It's always a very exciting slash stressful time. One area of concern here has been the school funding formula and how that fits into all of this, and this is something that's been widely slammed by people in both parties as a broken formula. Um, Kristen posted on Instagram, and, uh, we, we have actually two part, uh, two for question here. This is Kristen. She says. Will you address the current issues and disparities with the S2 funding formula, not taking into account regions impacted by the Highlands Act, so Kristen wants that part of it. Christina on Facebook says the Highlands region protects the water for 70% of New Jersey, but these important state restrictions are placing unfair and unsustainable burdens on the local taxpayers. Do you support Highlands impact aid to ensure communities that their students aren't left behind? So as you can see by some of your callers, this is uh a school funding formula that I think is frustrating just about everyone at this point we um. We, you know, we heard years ago that once they started running the formula and when they fully ran the formula it would even out and people would really love it and that has not been the case, which is why as I was campaigning I heard again and again about the concerns and one of the key concerns I heard was that. You know, after the budget was over at the end of June, suddenly, you know, a month later, towns would get their numbers and then all of a sudden they would be madly laying off people or canceling sports teams or canceling programs right before, right, right before school started, so I pledged to stabilize and modernize the formula as we were going into this budget cycle, what we could do then was stabilize it, put a cap and a floor on it, which we did so there weren't these wild swings year over year. At the same time what really needs to happen is some some real structural changes to the funding formula and to how we fund our schools so some of the key costs, for example, our students with disabilities and bussing routes, and I think there's more that the counties can do to help our towns out because um we know how important it is that students with disabilities have an. Appropriate education and and really can uh be mainstreamed at the the best possible rate because that's where we see the best possible outcomes but there are supportive structures needed for many children that they're not getting in some of our schools so the counties can really pick some of this up because right now we have too many schools that are struggling and it just takes some of our small school districts, you know, just a a few children can really impact. them. What about the question of the Highlands Impact Aid? Is that something that you support? Well, I, I'll, I'll say I think we have to have a whole new funding formula. So beyond the Highlands Impact Aid or non-Highlands Impact aid, I think what we have to do is really take a look at how we're broadly funding our schools and then what we're demanding from our schools, and that would be a more county-based, some more county-based and shared services, some of it with the bussing routes. We also have. Schools that just have very few children at this point, schools with a growing number of children, so making sure we are allocating resources while there as well. Just this week, Senate Budget Officer Declan O'Scanlon put out a statement about this, and he was disappointed with the response that he's gotten from your office to date in dealing with what he terms the school aid crisis. I think we have the quote here. He says, we presented the problem. We outlined scalable solution options. The governor's response was essentially too bad, so said. That kind of dismissive arrogance, uh, and this is Senator O'Scanlon saying this, uh, might play well in Trenton political circles, but it's a slap in the face to the families watching programs get cut, the taxpayers getting hammered with higher property taxes, and the students sitting in overcrowded classrooms because the state once again decided fairness was optional. So what's your response to that and, and, and how quickly can this be addressed? Well, I was really happy to talk to Senator O'Scanlon about this. We had a phone call where, um, we went back and forth, and the program he put forth would have helped his community, but it actually would have negatively affected other communities across the state, um, and he wanted to see, uh, he wanted to see the cap lifted for his community but not for other communities that also, um, were advocating for seeing the cap lifted, which I think just shows you how the funding formula is really not working across. Across the state you have a lot of people, um, and, and certainly Senator O'Scanlon is not the only one advocating specifically for more money for their communities, but I will tell you, uh, municipalities across the state, um, are coming, you know, and each one saying they want more money for this or more money for that and the state just the state budget just can't handle, um, all the impacts across the state. There is also a problem, as you know, with the state health benefits plan that has to be addressed and we're working on. That already we're already working on our next budget, but I think unfortunately we can't fix this piecemeal. We need a broader strategy to fix how we fund schools and that's exactly why I hired a Department of Education commissioner who is so well versed in this kind of solutions from across the country. We are delving into it now. We're working closely with our, our legislature. We're working closely with our mayors and our towns and different school systems because, um, this is not sustainable and at the same. Time we're seeing the outcomes getting worse and worse and worse, so 3rd grade reading across our state and large portions of our state is very, very poor. Um, we're seeing 8th grade math scores, not where we want them to be, and all of this is right before we see the huge impact that AI is going to have on our students. And so we really need to, I, I really broadly think about what our strategy is for education in this state going forward. Governor, we have another caller. Uh, we have Mark from Lavalette on the line. Mark, thanks for calling in. What's your question? Thank you for taking my call, Governor. My, my question is in regards to the Garden State Parkway. It was floated years ago about doing away with the tolls, and you had mentioned in prior question how densely populated New Jersey is. The traffic, as we all know, on the parkway, is awful and only getting worse. Why do we still have toll booths? Why can't we go cashless like states like California have? Don't you think that would be better to alleviate a lot of the traffic buildup that we have throughout the parkway? Well, thank you so much for calling, and I, uh, not only sympathize with your call, I really empathize with it because I find myself stuck in Garden State traffic all too often. Uh, yeah, I now have a, a, a commute that I do across the state. I find myself on a regular basis anywhere from. Um, from Atlantic City to, uh, Bergen County and every all parts in between, so, um, I really hear you. I think that's a really interesting idea and actually one that I'm gonna take up with Commissioner Jane and see exactly where we are. We certainly have in in some at some events just done cashless. I know during COVID they would, uh, there were signs, uh, at least on the turnpike. Saying look, these aren't monitored, so if you go through we'll send you your bills. So that's certainly something I'm happy to take up with Commissioner Jane and have her reach back out to you as well. Governor, we have a question on social media right now. This is Michelle on Facebook who wants to know, have you considered suspending the gas tax temporarily to help out with the high cost of gas. So this is a completely self-made problem by the president of the United States. He got into a war with Iran. He can't explain why he did that, and he can't seem to get out of it. And I'll tell you he has got to fix this problem. So to somehow think that the states should subsidize his. Incompetence is really upsetting because we have so many other costs we're trying to account for. So whether it's the healthcare cuts he's made, the education cuts he's made, the food aid cuts that he has made all to fund this war, and you see his next budget making even deeper cuts, he has so upended the healthcare system that we think about 300,000 people might get kicked off of Medicaid rolls and about 70,000 people have already not re-upped on the Affordable Care Act. So people. Across our state looking at going forward without health care, we're very concerned people are going to find themselves back at the worst level of care and emergency room care. Gas prices keep going up, up, up. He announces a new plan every day that fails, fails, fails because he has an incompetent Secretary of Defense and head Seth. He has got to start solving these problems and not creating more and more and more problems for the states. What I keep hearing over and over again, and this was in a lot of comments. Social media though is that to your point you're saying that he created this problem, uh, but it's within the state legislatures and the individual states' power to take away some of that pain and and you've time and again said that you want to make New Jersey more affordable so if it is something even on a temporary basis is it can be perceived as playing politics instead of helping out the little guy just until things smooth out and calm down. Look, we are running a plan to chart a different path forward for New Jerseyans, and that means making good decisions over the long term, not kicking the can down the road. Just to give you a for example, our state pension plan right now, we should be paying $1.5 billion to support people who've paid into the pension system their entire careers. Instead we're paying $7 billion because former governors kicked the can down the road, cut pension funding, and now we have to pay about $6 billion let's say. I in penalties in order to meet our pension costs so we can keep this pension plan going um. And that's why when you look at stuff it sounds like oh just you know get rid of the gas tax that pays for our roads and our bridges and keeping our infrastructure going you just heard about the concrete falling and the GW Bridge that's because over time you have seen too many people cutting corners on how you actually run government, run it well and efficiently, and keep people safe and whole and then what we're trying to do here is make good decisions to drive down those key drivers of. Cost Things like utility bills, things like housing that we've talked about today, we're continuing to look at permitting reform to drive down some of the time and money costs of doing business here, growing out and expanding our economy so we have more rateables so we can get taxes down. So at every level we are charting out real paths for it, not gimmicky, ticky tack, fake things in the short term that are actually going to imperil our economy in the long term. Governor, we have to take another quick break. We'll be right back with more questions here. As Governor.

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MTNJAskGovSherEBlock0514_2026-05-14-18-53-11

Welcome back to As Governor Sherrill. Governor, thanks again for being here. Thank you. All right, so, uh, next topic now, Roxbury this week, uh, we reported that construction's paused on that building that's slated to be the ICE detention center. Can you comment on the pause and, and the reason behind it? So I think the reason is largely because it was so unwelcome and a very bipartisan effort. We went to court. We've received the Republican counsel was very much, very much against it as well. It's just not an appropriate place. This is a warehouse that's not fit for human habitation. They wanted to put, uh, originally I think about 2000 people there. It has two bathrooms, so it, it, it's not well ventilated. It just, the sewering system's not appropriate, so the town was very upset because they didn't have the capability of handling this. And then, of course, um, we were very upset because we didn't want to push in to run all kinds of new sewer lines, etc. and we were worried about the. Down the roads as well, so this just really made zero sense. How much of a pause is this? Well, that's exactly what we're, we're monitoring right now. Um, we don't want this built. This is not an appropriate use of this property in any way, shape or form, and so we're waiting to see and, and we will be back in court should they move forward on trying to build this again now it seems as if. The new head of Homeland has some concerns himself about further development here, so I'm very hopeful that we've stopped it through our strong court case and a strong stance and a fantastic attorney general, but we're continuing to monitor it. So speaking of court cases, you, the Attorney General, and the state are being sued by the DOJ over the law that you signed requiring federal agents, ICE agents to unmask. Are you, given the fact that a similar law has now been blocked in California by a left leaning circuit Court of Appeals, are you concerned that the same will happen in New Jersey? No, we very much took that into account and we wanted to comport with the court finding in California to make sure this stood any sort of court review. So this isn't simply directed at IC. Agents or federal agents, this is any sort of law enforcement going on in our state. People should not be treating our citizens like they're the enemy. They should not be masked. They should wear identification. That's the type of professional policing that we demand of everyone here in New Jersey and certainly there are carve outs for different. Situations to make sure that law enforcement is safe and can do their jobs appropriately, but at the end of the day we are working to keep people safe and to make sure they feel that their law enforcement here of any type, federal, state, etc. is there to keep them safe. Governor, we have another call right now. We have Kaitlin from Jersey City on the line. Kaitlin, thanks for calling in. What's your question? Hi, thank you so much for your time and for taking my call, Governor Sherrill, and thank you, Eric, and the News 12 team for making this a possible conversation. Governor, I'm curious if the closure of the emergency room in Jersey City is on your radar, particularly, and forgive bringing the World Cup back up, with the influx of tourists that will be coming to Hudson County and particularly to the Palisade in Jersey City Heights in Union City. We have a lot of people that will be staying with us in this area and now only 350 beds for the entirety of Jersey City and no emergency room at all on the Heights for Hudson County residents. Is there any way to perhaps coordinate with the Office of Emergency Management around this or deploy modular emergency units that could provide interim care as we're trying to fix this? Well thank you so much again uh for such a thoughtful call and this is certainly something that's been on my radar and I can tell you it's something that's on the radar of your assembly and Senate members we've been working very closely with them and with the community to provide the services as you probably know um that center was no longer handling many of the emergency cases they were mostly going um for. Difficult cases into other areas and being uh by ambulance sent elsewhere in the area. Also we've been looking at the financing of this and how this came to be and a lot of that is because of programs uh where hospitals were selling the land out from underneath themselves um which to make money but then for shareholders but then putting the hospital system itself in a very. Precarious position so we're working on legislation with uh members of the legislature, not just from Hudson. This happened in uh Mercer County as well. So we're really looking to make our hospital system stronger at the same time ensuring that people who go to that site who don't realize it's closed, uh, that we have um the capability of getting people to the hospital. Hospitals that are open that those hospitals remain robustly financed and then looking at that area and what we need to deliver there um and the types of uh developers that are interested in that land uh and who might be able to provide more health care in the region but yes and um this is certainly something we're also in court with them right now because uh they haven't really. Been very good actors in providing healthcare at this time. Governor, we have another call. This is Rick from Cranford on the line. Rick, thanks for calling in. What's your question? Hello. Uh, thank you for taking my call. My question is, why does the Garden State Parkway do such a nice job, um, cleaning, maintaining their roadway, and, um, and, and, and the roadway that comes under the jurisdiction of NJDOT such as Route 22, 10978, like, you know, Union, uh, Essex Hudson, uh, along Raymond Boulevard, the Skyway, they're so poorly maintained. And loaded with trash on the shoulders. Goodbye. So, um, I, uh, will tell you we, um, have worked very hard with some of our transit agencies on different beautification projects. I'll have someone from New Jersey from the DOT reach out about just which roads we're working on and. And um hearing uh your concerns, I've certainly noticed a lot of trash along certain roadways, uh, as I've traveled across New Jersey, and that's something that I think we could, we could really do some better clean up on. Governor, we have to take another break. We've got a few more questions to get to. We'll be right back with more Ask Governor show.

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MTNJAskGovSherFBlock0514_2026-05-14-19-06-09

Welcome back to Ask Governor Sherrill. Governor, a couple of quick topics I want to get to here are lightning round. Let's call it. There was a near disaster at Newark Liberty Airport, that United plane clipping the pole, the truck on the landing short runway. Have you spoken to the Port Authority or the DOT about that runway? Yes, no, that was really scary, and I know the truck driver was incredibly concerned. I called right away with the Port Authority to hear that he was being monitored, but luckily, did not sustain any severe injuries, but nevertheless that something like that could happen is just really unacceptable, and I think we're seeing more and more airport accidents and concerns around the country. So that's why I've had Port Authority commit. To looking into it and making sure that we're addressing anything we need to to make sure that our roadways are safe and that our airports are safe. Belleville huge mattress factory fire impacted that surrounding area. The mayor wants a state declaration of an emergency there to free up federal funds. Is that something that you're considering? Um, we are, we have people on the ground now doing all the damage assessments so we can get the numbers and look into how we're gonna get the most amount of money into that town from the different resources we're looking at federal resources. All of this determines how much of the damage assessment is, and then we'll declare. Different emergencies that we need to to get as much money into the town as possible. The Community has been through quite a bit there. I've talked to business owners, really sad. All right, let's shift gears. Something a little bit more lighthearted, fun. We're entering summer tourism season. The World Cup aside. What are you looking at for the summer tourism season, people coming to the Jersey Shore and experiencing everything Jersey has to offer? Well, I was just funny you ask that. I was just talking to the Canadian ambassador and telling him that we just want Canadians to know they are very welcome in New Jersey. I know we haven't seen as many coming to visit as much as we'd like to, but I told them we really need them back, especially now because the water is too cold for us, so we need the Canadians to come down and utilize our. shore. Uh, final, final thoughts of the show. Well, I just want to thank you. Uh, shows like this are too few and far between, and it's really a treat to be able to talk directly to the people of New Jersey and hear their questions like this. And so thanks so much. I really appreciate it. Governor Mikey Sherrill. Thank you so much for being in studio with us and for taking questions from our viewers, and thank you for watching. Ask Governor Sherrill, a special power in politics presentation here on News 12 New Jersey. I'm Eric Lanskronner. We'll see you again next time.

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Gov. Mikie Sherrill came to News 12 New Jersey’s studio to answer questions from New Jersey residents.

FIFA World Cup preps, NJ Transit fare increases and the cost of living in NJ

Concerns regarding proposed data centers

Road safety concerns and the hantavirus

School Funding Formula, thoughts about cashless tolls and the rising costs of gasoline

Roxbury ICE facility, closure of Heights University Hospital and highway beautification

Safety at Newark Liberty, Belleville warehouse fire and tourism at the Jersey Shore

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