- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of State of Affairs with Steve Adubato has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Choose New Jersey.

NJ Best, New Jersey'’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

IBEW Local 102.

Lighting the path, leading the way.

Veolia, resourcing the world.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

New Brunswick Development Corporation.

And by Englewood Health.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by Insider NJ.

[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC] - Steve Adubato here, We're joined to kick off this program by State Assemblywoman Britnee Timberlake, who happens to be the chair of the State Assembly Commerce and Economic Development Committee.

Assemblywoman, thank you so much for joining us.

- Yes, thank you so much for having me, Steve.

- There are so many issues we could talk about, but I wanna focus in the time we have on the initiative that you're involved in called the Community Wealth Preservation Program.

What is this legislation?

What does it have to do with a property that is foreclosed?

- Yeah, sure.

The Community Wealth Preservation Program is a very innovative, creative solution to the issue of foreclosure.

As you know, New Jersey has one of the highest racial wealth gaps in the country.

We know that real estate is the number one wealth building tool around the world, and unfortunately New Jersey is constantly leading in the area of having the highest foreclosures in the nation too.

So this bill will actually create the process of equity, enabling a person to be able to save their home at the time of sale, helping like, their child, grown adult child, can save their home at the time of sale for the parent.

Or, a nonprofit organization will be able to gain access to the property and put it back online in the community, for the purposes of creating affordable home ownership or rental opportunity.

And also for people who want to contribute, and live, and be a part of the community and not just flip the houses as a business model, but actually contribute to, to living and being a part of the beautiful fabric all over New Jersey.

They can use this program too.

- Assemblywoman, how could it be that approximately 50% of the homes in Newark that are foreclosed on are owned by corporations?

What, why would, A, why would that be, and B, how does that make any sense?

- Well, we have had corporate ownership over black and brown communities, and I speak in terms of black and brown because you mentioned Newark, it's a primarily black and brown community.

Corporations have owned our community for years.

Now we're seeing national headlines that show a trend where they're also beginning to own in suburban areas, which is now gaining traction for the issue.

This bill is also about creating community ownership.

So it gives you the opportunity to have 3.5% down at the time of foreclosure sale, and the rest of the money due in 90 business days.

Versus what it is now, which is a process created for corporations, because you need 20% cash or money order upfront to bid on that property, and then you need the rest of the money due within 30 days with interest building on the 11th.

- Who has that?

- And it's primarily all cash.

Exactly, exactly.

- Who has that?

- Most people don't have that.

That sounds like corporations have that.

So this bill is changing the power dynamic of property ownership, and creating it so that it's owned by community members so that we have an opportunity to save our wealth all over the state of New Jersey.

- So I'm curious about this, as we speak on the 20th of September, again, it'll be seen later.

I often say that because I want people to know that we're taping at a certain time.

My understanding, and this may not be the case once this airs, this legislation, your legislation the Community Wealth Preservation program, has been conditionally vetoed by the governor.

That's not an outright veto, it's a veto with language that says, "I want you to change some aspect of the language in the legislation."

What exactly does that mean?

- Well, we're taking a look right now what the conditional veto language is and we're gonna be making some serious decisions about whether or not we're going to accept the language or send the governor a clean bill.

My biggest concern is always about closing the loopholes.

You have to close the loopholes because if a corporation can get through a loophole wide enough to drive a Mac truck through, then what this bill will do is the reverse of its intent.

It will actually displace more residents than it will help.

So the loopholes have got to be closed.

We're evaluating it extremely close to see exactly what our next steps are.

This would be the first of a kind in the, in the nation, a bill like this.

And again, it would be a game changer because it's all about putting the power back into the hands of the communities to hold on, to preserve their wealth, to create, to create wealth through home ownership and so many other things.

- So I'm gonna follow up on this.

Take the governor out of the equation for a second.

What was the vote in the lower house in the state assembly on this?

You have 80 members of the assembly.

What was the vote?

- You know, that's a great question, Steve.

I'm not exactly sure exactly how the numbers split.

- I'll tell you why I'm asking.

- But it was the majority, obviously.

- Okay, but obviously it was a majority, or it would have had 41 or more.

But here's my question.

Was there opposition to this?

And if so, where did it come from?

- So we actually had opposition through the corporate banks, and we were also working with the sheriff's department to get some language together.

Over the summer, we spent a great deal of time working on language that addressed the governor's concerns, the banks' concerns, sheriff's concerns.

- When you say sheriffs, because sheriffs are the ones who oversee the foreclosure process.

- That's correct.

- Go ahead.

I'm sorry assemblywoman, go ahead.

- We've been with them on the, from the beginning working on this legislation.

They've been really great to work with.

And we also made sure that we addressed the nonprofit concerns, and that of the people, and it was really great language.

So my request, you know, was if, if there was going to be a CV, to pull that language where we got everyone on board for, but unfortunately, you know, we have to take a look at the CV language that wasn't completely accepting of the language that we had offered up.

- And CV is shorthand for conditional veto.

Real quick, we have a childcare initiative called Reimagining, Reimagine Childcare.

Your primary concern about the childcare crisis in the state is?

- My primary concern is that we're going to have childcare facilities closing.

Women are going to be dropping out of the workforce, all because childcare is too expensive now.

But in order for our daycares to survive, they're going to need to raise tuition, which is going to then have parents decide not to, you know, one of the parents, more than likely the woman, is going to have to decide to stay home.

And it's really a cause and effect.

So you have high daycare expenses, it's not uncommon to see tuition be $1,200 to $1,500 for one child a month.

- A month?

- A month.

You keep multiplying that, and you start to have those conversations about, okay well is it worth it to go to work to actually cover this expense?

Which is, can be as high as a mortgage.

What, and then what you'll have is you'll have the daycare centers, which are primarily women owned.

- That's right.

- And also many of them minority owned too.

- Right.

- Closing their doors because they don't have the clientele.

So that's gonna cause a drop out of the workforce, which is again, it's all cause and effect.

And you're gonna see also the downfall of our economy, because you're gonna have a workforce decimated.

- Right, without, and again, part of this initiative is creating greater public awareness regarding the connection between, assemblywoman... childcare, access to affordable, accessible, quality childcare, and the economy.

Assemblywoman, I cannot thank you enough for joining us.

We appreciate it.

Will not be the last time you join us.

Thank you so much.

- Thanks so much, Steve.

Appreciate it.

- Stay with us, we'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We are now joined by State Assemblyman John DiMaio who is the Assembly Minority Leader, which is another way of saying he's the leader of the Republican Party in the lower house.

Good to have you with us, Assemblyman.

- Great to be here, Steve.

Good to see you again.

- You got it.

Assemblyman, what's the biggest concern you have about the ANCHOR Property Tax Relief Program that governor Murphy and the Democrats passed in the last several months?

- Well, Steve, I guess is, I would rather have seen something more permanent.

This is never ends up being a permanent thing.

We've seen rebates over decades, eventually shrink, get whittled down, and evaporate, like a rainstorm in the desert.

That probably the biggest thing here.

We had offered up some suggestions on things that were a lot better.

The index, the tax brackets in New Jersey, income tax brackets, haven't been indexed for inflation since 1996.

The federal government does this each year.

If we were to index for inflation back to the year 2000, it's about a 68% difference.

Married couples would save, making $110,000 a year, would save about $1,600 in taxes.

A single earner at $70,000 would save a thousand dollars, and this would be permanently baked into, in law, into the tax rates, and be a long term, what we feel would be sustainable solution to this.

If you think about it, the ANCHOR Program is not a law.

It is simply in the budget language of the current fiscal year's budget.

And the other thing that really has us concerned is this doesn't come this year when inflation is running pretty rampant in the country.

Fuel prices have settled down for now, because the president is burning up a million barrels of the oil out of the strategic reserve.

We'll see how that acts.

After that's done and we have to replenish that supply.

But the reality is, there's no real relief for people now, and there's nothing that's sustainable and long term.

- Switch gears.

Let me ask you this.

The state legislature, along with the governor, and I know how you voted on this, as it relates to Roe v. Wade, legal right to an abortion, which the United States Supreme Court overturned in that historic and important decision.

When the legislation was up to codify Roe v. Wade, to protect a woman's right to a legal abortion in the state, you voted against that effort, because?

- Well, let me tell you, first of all, full term abortion is a heinous act.

And there are a lot of pro-choice people that I know that do not like this.

I think that there could have been a more acceptable path, maybe something in the middle of the road where there were limits on time with the exception of course, health of the mother.

- What about rape?

- With rape-- - Assemblyman, what about rape?

- Rape and incest could be part of that as well.

I think-- - So, you believe, under, if in fact, a woman is raped, a victim of incest, or her health is at risk, that she should be able to get a legal abortion in the state of New Jersey, and in the Nation?

Just to be clear.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- That would be a more acceptable bill, Steve.

I mean, the way this is, it is very difficult to even envision a full term baby.

I have a eight month old granddaughter and a three-- - Congratulations.

(Assemblyman chuckles) Yeah, thank you.

I'm getting older.

And a three and a half year old grandson, who, when you see today's ultrasounds, you could literally see the baby.

I mean, when my kids were born it was this blob of, I couldn't see anything.

But now you can see the baby, and when you see that, it would make it really difficult, except for extenuating circumstances, or some really difficult thing that brought you to the pregnancy.

There could have been a more modest approach to this but there's no way I could support the bill the way it was.

- Let me ask you this, and while this is not a state public policy issue, it is a larger issue.

As I ask this, our graphic "Democracy at a Crossroads," we have a mini-series we've been doing for many years, that looks at representative democracy, in very difficult times.

Would you characterize, or how would you characterize those who attacked the United States Capitol, the insurrection, if you will, in the effort to stop the verification of the vote in the 2020 election?

How would you characterize those who assaulted and attacked the United States Capitol that day?

- It was wrong.

It was wrong, pure and simple.

You don't act like that.

We have the right to go anywhere.

People wanna stand outside the State House with signs with my name on it, they hate my bill, whatever.

Perfectly within reason.

Even when they were outside of the building and they were doing their protest, I have no problem with that.

Everyone's entitled, under the Constitution, to express their opinion.

But it was an absolute breach to enter that building that day.

And some of the acts that happened were totally wrong.

- And when President, former President Trump says if he were elected again, he would pardon all of them.

Your view on that?

- That's his opinion.

You know, I mean, I really, I can't, if he were to be elected, I mean... - But you disagree with that?

- I think that laws were broken, and we're a Nation of laws.

- Let me ask you something.

You've always struck me as a very, the word reasonable is ridiculous.

You're just a very civil, respectful legislator who has differences of opinion of people on the merits.

No rancor, no anger, no whatever, that is a problem in our nation in so many levels.

Why do you believe that public discourse, not just among elected officials, but among people, have gotten so divisive that we can't even have a conversation, just because we have different points of view, Assemblyman?

- Well listen.

Just recently, we swore a new member on the floor, and I was there to witness it.

Unfortunately, one of my wonderful friends and colleagues Assemblyman Dancer passed away, and a new member was sworn in.

And part of what I told him the other day was to make friends with everyone, Democrats and Republicans.

The reality is what we talk about is not personal.

There's nothing personal about issues.

It's business.

I mean, there's a business of, we believe that we would have smaller government, we'd be taxing you less, we'd be outta your pockets and outta your lives.

And you do less regulation for businesses to make the world flow better the way we believe the Constitution was made to be.

And the other side sees it differently.

It's not personal, period.

- It's not personal, is it?

- End of subject.

It's not personal, not at all.

- And name-calling has no place.

- No.

And I think that if you watch, and we've been putting on a pretty tough floor mission this year.

- Yeah, sure.

- We've been putting them on notice that we're gonna point out policy issues, and we're gonna make them accountable for their votes.

That's our job.

We're the minority.

We're a growing minority, too, I might remind everyone.

- And one issue you may agree on with the folks on the other side of the aisle, childcare, accessible, affordable childcare, being very important in our state, particularly regarding our economy, our series, "Reimagine Child Care."

The graphic is up right now.

We need to deal with that directly, do we not, Assemblyman?

- Yeah, obviously something needs to happen.

A lot has changed.

I have two daughters that are 35 and 31.

When we put them in preschool or childcare, it was a lot less expensive.

I don't know what drives those costs so high.

But certainly it is important.

In today's society, the majority of families, unfortunately, or fortunately for the income and better lifestyle, require two income households.

And it's something that we need to look at.

But hopefully it's not more expensive as a result of government.

- I knew you were gonna get that in, Assemblyman.

(Steve laughing) Okay.

- Sorry about that.

(Assemblyman laughing) - Assemblyman, I really appreciate you joining us, and as always, engaging in an honest and civil discourse.

We appreciate it, Assemblyman.

- Good to see you, Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We are honored to be joined by Dr. Teik Lim, who is the President of New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Good to see you, Mr. President.

- Steve, it's great engaging you today.

Thank you for having me here today.

- You got it.

Now you are, in fact, the ninth president of NJIT, Dr. Joel Bloom, the previous president, and also a member of our board of trustees at the Caucus Educational Corporation.

We've had a chance, you and I've had a chance to talk offline.

What is the biggest change from your- you were, your background in Texas?

You were, in fact, a higher ed leader at the University of Texas at Arlington, the leader there.

Biggest difference between Texas and New Jersey is?

- The weather, (both laugh) of course.

Right, this is a much, much better weather here.

You know, I love four season.

In fact, Steve, before I moved to Texas, I live most of my life in the US, in Ohio, and in Ohio, wonderful four season, just like New Jersey.

So I'm back to my, sort of my old stomping ground in terms of weather.

- Got it, got it.

And I wanna also make clear that the NJIT, New Jersey Institute of Technology is one of our higher ed partners.

Dr. Lim, let me ask you, what do you see as the most pressing issues in the world of higher education, particularly as the college age?

I don't even what that means anymore, but the population going to college appears to be declining.

Doctor?

- Right, yeah.

You know, the- I think the most pressing issue that higher institution like NJIT and many others are facing, okay, is to reimagine itself on what tertiary education, what higher education means.

You know, traditionally you have the first time, full-time college students that everybody tried to attract.

But today, in my mind, okay, education is a lifelong process.

When we award a degree to a student, we don't want the student to just go off and never engage us at all.

We want the student to come back to NJIT time and again for upskilling, reskilling.

When they want to make a change in their professional career they will come back and get advice from us.

We want to be like a one-stop shop for all of our graduates for the rest of their career life.

And I think institution that does that well, and also institution that embraced digital technology, in doing that, I think will flourish down the road.

That's, to me, is the most critical issue that are facing us today.

What is higher education today?

That's the question.

- Dr. Lim, I'm curious about this.

With the digital revolution that we're experiencing, with COVID accelerating, if you will, the digital revolution, with so much work being done like this.

What opportunities does that present for a university like NJIT?

- Oh, the opportunity is plentiful.

As you just say, we're going to a digital revolution.

Now, let me take a step back.

Traditionally, higher ed institution, okay, move on a geological time scale, you know?

(laughs) But, once a while, once a while, there'll be events, okay?

Or incident that happen that leapfrog us into the future.

The pandemic, although we don't never wish for it, because many people suffer, - No.

- but the pandemic, the silver lining underneath the pandemic, okay, is that it propels higher ed far out into the future.

It will take us years to get here.

And that future, okay, is this digital revolution that is occurring.

So, institution that make full use of this digital revolution that's going on, that embrace digital technology into everything that we do.

Teaching, learning, research, engagement with industry.

If you incorporate that, okay, into our day-to-day operations here, our strategic plan, I think we would flourish.

So what that means, okay, is traditionally we think of the way you engage a university.

You have to be here 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday, right?

- Right.

- But with digital technology, it remove this constraint of space and time.

We need to be like the Amazon of the higher ed, in the sense that you go to Amazon and buy something, you don't think about where Amazon is.

And we want people from east coast, west coast, around the world, to engage NJIT any time, any place.

That's the critical role of, in my mind, higher ed.

- Dr. Lim, let me follow up on this.

And I've taught at the higher ed level in several places, one of them being NJIT.

I taught a leadership course several years ago.

That was all in person because it was pre-pandemic.

I've also taught in hybrid situations, and all fully remote.

Question, it's not about my teaching, but Professor- Dr. Lim, you've taught, you understand teaching, the massive difference between in-person and remote.

But are we saying now, "Listen, you've got to be able to engage people regardless of the platform."

I know it's a loaded question.

Go ahead Teik.

- To a degree, that is correct.

We need to use the best platform to engage students and people.

In some instances, it has to be in person.

In some instances is online, like what we're doing now.

You know, we're doing it online, and it works effective.

So it depends on the scope, it depends on the area of discipline, and it depends on what we're trying to do.

So, I think we need to embrace all modality, all modality.

That includes in-person, converge.

Converge means that we're bringing, you know, folks from anywhere around the world into the classroom, physically, digitally, with physical presence of students here and then also online.

So we need to embrace all this modality to be able to effectively deliver the education that we provide.

Make it available, accessible to as many people as possible.

- I'm glad you raised that.

In the minute we have left, Mr. President, affordability, accessibility of higher education, with costs being what they are, there's no one solution.

But your thoughts on that moving forward.

Got about a minute left.

- Well, you know, we need to be a institution, okay, that is both affordable and attractable.

Those two goes hand-in-hand.

And clearly, you know, we cannot continue to increase tuition and put on the backs of students, okay.

For the support of this institution we need to diversify our revenue sources.

And one way to do that, okay, is to create external engagement with industry, corporations and whatnot, so that we are able to partner, create mutually beneficial partnership that would allow us to continue our mission which is to educate students, get 'em out there, become the best version of themselves when they leave here, and be an impactful, productive citizen of society.

- That is Dr. Teik Lim, president, the ninth president of the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Dr. Lim, to you and the NJIT family, we wish you all the best.

Thank you so much for joining us.

- Well, thank you, Steve.

It's been great to have a conversation with you.

- It will not be the last.

I'm Steve Adubato, that's Teik Lim.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Choose New Jersey.

NJ Best, IBEW Local 102.

Veolia, New Jersey Sharing Network.

New Brunswick Development Corporation.

Englewood Health.

And by these public spirited organizations, individuals and associations committed to informing New Jersey citizens about the important issues facing the Garden State.

And by Employers Association of New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by Insider NJ.

♪ It only gets better ♪ ♪ When we stand together ♪ ♪ To tough through ♪ ♪ And get by ♪ ♪ Even though it's harder than ever ♪ ♪ 'Cause we're gonna make it ♪ ♪ Long as we don't break it ♪ ♪ Just do right ♪ ♪ There's no sights ♪ ♪ We must know it's part of forever ♪