From NJ PBS studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzi.

Hello and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagis in for Briana Vannozzi.

A few stories we'll get into later in the broadcast.

Gateway Tunnel Funding.

A judge temporarily blocks the Trump administration's funding freeze.

We'll talk with one union leader about the impact of the work stoppage still in place.

And Analilia Mejia joins us to discuss the race results and her narrow margin in the special Democratic primary race for Congressional District 11.

And later, budget woes.

Mayor James Solomon breaks down Jersey City's fiscal problems.

But first, late Friday night, New Jersey and New York were handed a win when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on President Trump's gateway tunnel funding freeze.

The Trump administration froze the funds in October, and the states filed suit last week in a last-ditch effort to free up the Capitol.

While Judge Jeanette Vargas' ruling signaled hope for the Gateway Tunnel project, whose future has been uncertain.

But it wasn't enough to get workers back on the job.

As of Friday, roughly 1,000 workers have been laid off.

After the Gateway Development Commission announced last week it had run out of options to continue paying for the work without the federal funds.

Governor Mikey Sherrill joined with U.S.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and union leaders for a rally this morning at one of the four sites where work has stopped.

It was the Tunnelle Avenue East project site where they called on the president to comply with the court's ruling.

Here's more from Governor Sherrill.

I took the president to court on Friday and I won.

The court demanded release that money and he has yet to do so.

Yet to do so.

And so here we are, all this equipment waiting to be put to work.

All of you not on the job because the president of the United States cares more about politics than he does about working men and women in this country.

Let's talk more about the latest status of the project with union leader Brent Booker who is the general president of the Laborers International Union of North America and who was at the rally today with Governor Sherrill.

Brent, so great to have you on the show.

Obviously you were with the governor today.

You were with Senator Chuck Schumer.

We know that the judge ordered these funds to be unfrozen.

Why then did your workers receive layoff notices?

Look, they received the layoff notices last week for one simple reason.

It's because the president of the United States have withheld the funding of this critical infrastructure project.

And you know, we shouldn't have to be in court.

We shouldn't have to be filing temporary restraining orders to pay New Jersey residents to go build infrastructure that's going to benefit the entire East Coast of the United States.

Well, let me ask you this.

A judge issued a temporary restraining order to unblock the frozen funds.

What needs to happen to literally turn that spigot on I guess figuratively turn that spigot of money back on and get your workers back on the job.

We literally just need the federal government to release the funds that has been appropriated by Congress has been flowing for the last year.

Almost a billion dollars have already been spent on this project.

We just need the president of states to say continue funding this project because that's what Congress has ordered him to do.

And now that's what a judge has ordered him to do.

How are your workers feeling.

And let me add to that question.

When you talk about union workers right we are not just talking about members of one political party right.

Absolutely.

I mean look we are our membership is representative of the country.

And there's certainly been.

I am confident there are plenty of people on this job site who have voted for Donald Trump who are now sitting at home wondering if they're going to get another paycheck to build this gateway tunnel.

What does that mean for them for their families.

Just explain the feeling.

I would imagine it's a feeling that's been building as the uncertainty around this project and knowing that this deadline was approaching as it's been as it's been coming closer and closer to the end.

But what is the impact.

How are they feeling.

Look they literally will not get a paycheck this week.

They are sitting at home.

Their last day of work was on Friday because the federal government hasn't released the funds that's been allocated by Congress and ordered by a judge for them to do that.

So they won't be making contributions into their health and welfare funds.

They won't be making contributions into their pension funds.

And most importantly they won't get a paycheck.

So they can't contribute to their community.

They can't contribute to the local economy.

They're now at the unemployment line and hoping that they're going to receive unemployment benefits.

They shouldn't have to be doing this.

The uncertainty of this job the uncertainty of the funding.

It's certainly not fair to the men and women who we represent.

And it's certainly not fair to people who just want to build our country.

Brent put this in perspective for us before the funds were frozen announced by the Trump administration to be frozen in October.

What would have been the timeline for these workers.

What was the job they were counting on.

They were hired for.

Some I met with many of them today that have been here since April.

And this is a 10 or 15 infrastructure project.

These folks would be out here battling the cold battling the weather and applying the skills that they've been trained safely to do their whole life.

So all they want to do is just go to work.

They want to pour the concrete.

They want to bore the tunnel and they want to make sure that this critical infrastructure is put together and they would be out here for you know not months for years to come to build this project.

What is your call to action right now for the federal administration.

What what do you believe they need to do next.

This is this is not hard and this is not complicated.

It is simply up to one man.

It's up to the president United States to deliver the promises that he made to put America first to put America workers first not to put his own name and put his own ego first.

And that's what's happened here.

If holding this project hostage you know allegedly over renaming a train station or renaming an airport while he's worried about his ego while he's worried about you know the name of a train station or or or an airport.

You know we have hundreds of our members who are worried about when their next paycheck is when when their next when they get their next paycheck and how they're going to put food on the table and pay their rents and pay their mortgages.

Obviously your work is focused on building this new rail tunnel.

But I'm sure you can speak to the impact on the region if not only this tunnel doesn't move forward but if something happens to cripple one of our other tunnels.

And again looking at the fact that regionally this is not just Democrats who we're talking about.

This isn't red or blue.

This tunnel is going to service the entire eastern region and it's going to be a major thoroughfare from New Jersey to New York.

Moving goods moving services and moving people.

And it's critical.

And we've been debating this this tunnel for 10 15 even 20 years and finally have it funded.

Finally have concrete being poured in the shoring put down and the tunnel boring machines on order one of which is already here.

And now we're playing politics with jobs.

Clearly you're critical of the president.

I know you said today that he's playing politics but I'm curious if you've been in touch with him.

I know you've tried to engage any Republican members of Congress to try to see if they can have conversations with the president himself.

Look we're asking our members we're asking anybody here call.

You know yes call members of Congress.

But there's really only one person that can do this.

And if you've got a relationship with your Republican member of Congress call them and ask them to call the president.

If you've got a relationship with your Democratic member of Congress call them ask to call the president that this decision doesn't lie with Congress.

This is Congress has already done their job.

Congress has already passed the infrastructure bill a couple of years ago.

Congress has already allocated this money.

We really just need the president United States to do what he campaigned on do what he promised on and release the gateway funding now.

And now I guess do what the courts have ordered him to do at least temporarily in this temporary restraining order.

Brent Booker general president of the Laborers International Union of North America.

Thanks so much for talking with us tonight.

Thanks for having us on.

All right.

Well later in the show we'll talk with Analia Mejia one of the top two contenders in the razor thin race for New Jersey's 11th congressional district.

That's next.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group serving the A few more of today's top headlines.

Miranda Vargas was just 10 years old when the bus driver for her school field trip made an illegal turn on a highway that caused her bus to crash, killing Miranda and her teacher Jennifer Williams.

Today, in Miranda's memory, U.S.

Senator Cory Booker and Congressman Josh Gottheimer announced two pieces of bipartisan legislation they introduced in both houses of Congress to prevent accidents like that from happening again.

The first bill, called the SECURES Act, would require three-point lap and shoulder harnesses on every bus in America, no different than the seatbelts required in every car and truck on the road.

But as Gottheimer pointed out, only eight states require that on their large school buses.

The second bill, called Miranda's Law, ensures that school districts and school bus companies will be notified within 24 hours if one of their bus drivers is penalized for any type of unsafe driving.

They say this could have made all the difference for the Vargas and Williams families because their bus driver has a license to drive.

They say this could have made all the difference for the Vargas and Williams families because their bus driver had 14 suspensions, including one just six months before the fatal crash.

And Gottheimer pointed out there are more than 26,000 school bus accidents a year nationally.

And in 2023, 128 people died as a result of school bus related crashes and 11,600 were injured.

Now, New Jersey has already passed both of these laws.

Today, Miranda's father, Giovanni Vargas, pleaded emotionally for this legislation to pass nationally as he remembered his daughter.

She should be living her life, growing, laughing, helping others, because that is who she was.

We should not tolerate in our country, the greatest nation on the planet Earth, this level of children getting injured every single year because they don't have proper low cost safety equipment because there is no way to measure the incalculable cost of losing a child, having a child injured or permanently disabled because we fail to act.

Well the iconic timer and sharp criticism from local elected leaders.

Madison Marquette says it plans to reopen the breezeway once it's repaired.

This is just the latest chapter in a tense relationship between the developer and locals who've repeatedly voiced frustrations with the pace and scope of the boardwalk restoration work.

Well, there's still no winner in the 11th Congressional District's special Democratic primary The race ended Thursday night with results that were too close to call.

But as the night went on, the most progressive candidate in the race, Analilia Mejia, had to come from behind Surge to take the lead over the previous frontrunner, former Congressman Tom Malinowski.

Mejia has maintained that lead since by less than a thousand votes, even as mail-in ballots continue to be counted.

More than 90 percent of the votes have been tallied, but the few thousand left could cement Mejia's lead or turn the tide for Malinowski.

Mejia joins us now to discuss the results so far and why she believes her message resonated with so many voters across the district.

Analilia, great to have you with us.

Thanks so much for taking a few minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me on.

It's a pleasure.

Clearly, your message has resonated with enough voters to get you into this position that you're in right now.

We don't know what the results will be finally, but what do you think it was about your message that did resonate?

I think, you know, we were honest.

We were bold.

We made a point to connect with people where they were at.

I spent the last nine weeks, 10 weeks hitting the ground across this district, connecting with people.

We held trainings and town halls.

You would find me often in the morning at a train station, talking to voters and commuters about the problems that they face on a daily basis.

And then I was incorporating that message into, into my own narrative, into my own messaging.

And I think that's what ultimately brought home the day.

I'll also share that the truth is, I jumped into this race later than most candidates.

I didn't have the backing of a political party or machinery.

And so while vote by mail, for viewers who understand, vote by mail is a very intensive process and chasing vote by mail is a very intensive process and I was ready to start the night with maybe a little less than I would have desired on vote by mail but I knew that we would come in strong on election night and we did well what's interesting you raise a couple points there yes the early voting was the vote by mail voting and that is where Malinowski surged but as the the day of votes came in that's where you were able to pull ahead um you say you didn't have the backing of the county machines uh you know the political machines of political parties you also didn't have the fundraising and I'm curious how you overcame that because Malinowski was able to significantly fundraise more than you so when i jumped into this race by actually by an internal poll that was circulated by i believe the Malinowski team i only had five percent name recognition so i understood that i had to increase my name recognition and define myself to the voters which which when it's people power that actually delivers the day in my opinion that's why we were at every town hall that we could put together that's why I was at train stations every morning that's why you would find my volunteers across this district knocking on doors making phone calls because I had to define myself to the voters once they understood what what what I was about once they understood that I was unafraid to speak truth in this moment we are in the middle of what feels like you know a political or a democratic backslide in our nation we are very concerned about what we are seeing in terms of ice overreach across the country and we do feel that our economy is stacked against middle-class working-class people I think that message resonated with Democratic voters in this primary and I believe it will resonate with the electorate come the general.

You've aligned yourself with some of the most progressive Democrats in the country.

You got the endorsements of Bernie Sanders Senator Bernie Sanders AOC Elizabeth Warren.

Do you believe that that is the the voice of District 11 that that is the the desire of District 11 to be a very progressive district?

It, by the way, previously was very purple.

Yeah, well, the district was was redistricted after Mikey Sherrill won it.

I was proud to work on on with many organizers and community groups to make sure that happened in 2017.

I would say that here's the bottom line.

The folks that endorsed me actually have been growing the Democratic Party, have been bringing in younger voters, more diverse voters, engaging the electorate.

So you know while we speak of left-right or progressive, centrist, what I'm actually trying to center in this moment is how do we address the needs of working class, middle class, working poor people?

How do we name the things that are keeping our families up at night?

And how do we propose solutions that make sense for our families?

Yeah, I've lived in this district for 13 years.

I'm a progressive, I have neighbors who are progressive.

But I also have neighbors who find themselves more at the center, but they still are drowning when it comes to credit card debt, child care costs, health care costs, housing costs, and I think that is what matters.

Let me ask you this.

AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, sunk millions of dollars into this campaign to really attack Malinowski, your chief opponent here.

In the end, maybe in a twist of irony, they may have supported and buoyed your campaign.

What do you say to that?

From the beginning from the moment I jumped into this race.

I had expressed my opposition to dark money spending in our electoral system I believe that the biggest problem we in fact face in our government is the outsized power of big money of lobbyists of corporate interests that place themselves before the electorate I think it was shameful what AIPAC did to Tom Malinowski, but they sent voters a clear message What they essentially told us was that if if you have the audacity to think for yourself To listen to your constituents to use your own your own you know connect with people and understand yes use your own judgment that you would find yourself in opposition if you're not lockstep if you're not following exactly what they want even at the expense of your own constituents they will sink millions of dollars to derail the voice and the will of the people I'm frankly I'm I'm saddened I'm angry I was against it from the beginning but but I don't think that that's what made the difference what made the difference for us was that we knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors and made hundreds of thousands of phone calls yeah we we made sure that we had volunteers we have to we have to stop it there but I want to thank you so much for taking a few minutes to talk to us no worries on a lily of may he will keep an eye on what happens in this race as they finish counting the votes thank you so much last week newly sworn in Jersey City Mayor James Solomon announced that his city's facing a 254 million dollar shortfall Solomon wasted no time in blaming his predecessor former mayor Steve Fulop for using one-shot gimmicks and draining the city's rainy day fund to balance his budgets all while he was campaigning to become the state's next governor while Solomon has now pledged to take a new approach to the budgeting process that he promises will be more transparent.

He joins us now to talk it all through.

Mayor, thank you so much for being with us tonight.

Thank you for having me.

You blame former Mayor Stephen Fulop, but he says you're playing politics and that you never raised these concerns during your eight years on the city council where you had a chance to approve or not approve the budgets.

What do you say to that?

Yeah.

You know first Jersey City faces one of the worst deficits in the country.

Two hundred and fifty four million dollar hole.

Twenty eight percent of our budget.

That's larger than the police.

And the entire police and fire departments combine six times the size of New York City's deficit.

So it is unfortunate that our deficit is so large.

Now my record is clear.

All eight years on this council I voted against the budgets Mayor Fuller presented.

And in fact I did raise these concerns.

I said he was using one time gimmicks such as selling our city land and using the proceeds to cover budget gaps that he was re rating or rainy day fund that he wasted our covid money.

All those are things that I raised.

But I do wish I I wish I had done more.

I wish I had been able to convince my colleagues to join me in voting down those budgets and coming up with more sustainable solutions.

But now we're tasked with a solution.

And the first thing was lay out the scope of the problem and lay out lay out what happened.

It was a mix of gimmicks.

It was a mix of deception and a mix of incompetence that got us to this place.

I do have to ask you how was it that you were not aware that the budget hole was so big.

We did hear this talked about on the campaign trail.

We heard your your candidate or excuse me the the other candidate who challenged you.

Former Governor McGreevey say that this is one hundred fifty million dollar shortfall.

But I do have to ask how did you not know that it was there and so big.

Sure.

Well let's be very clear.

I campaigned on cleaning up our budget department.

I campaigned on the fact that there were gimmicks that there was a big budget deficit.

I encourage everyone to go to my campaign Web site which is still open and read our budget report.

We put that out in June of twenty twenty five right.

Four months before the election.

So the narrative that I wasn't talking about it is completely false.

But what's important to know is there was deception here.

Right.

So when we got into office and we actually had a chance to open up the books we found fifty two million dollars in unpaid health bills from twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five.

We found that our health care costs had been systemically and intentionally under budgeted.

That was something nobody knew because it was hidden from the public.

That is the core reason of how this got from a large budget deficit to one of the biggest in the country.

Deception and the intentional hiding of those health care costs.

It is now your job and your responsibility to balance this budget.

You've said you're going to bring more transparency and that you're not going to balance it on the backs of taxpayers.

So how do you do it without raising taxes.

Yeah I mean we're going to build a whole coalition together to move ourselves forward.

And it starts with working with the state.

So we're going to work with Governor Sheryl our leaders in the state legislature in the state assembly and come up with a five year plan.

We have to do is end the gimmicks.

And I'm honest with people.

I say that every option is on the table.

We're not taking any option off the table at this point.

But if you talk to anybody in Jersey City you know how deeply unaffordable the city is.

Property taxes have gone up 50 percent in five years to fund our schools.

Rent is through the roof.

Health care and food is expensive for everyone.

So we know that the solution here can't be massive increases because people will simply not be able to afford Jersey City if that's the path we go down.

And we think that people across the state are going to understand that because Jersey City has been an economic engine for the entire state.

We need to maintain that not kill it.

Do you believe that a part of that plan will be a reduction in services.

So my job my commitment is to deliver services more effectively.

So we simply put we can't do worse on core city services.

Now some of that means doing those city services more efficiently.

We campaigned on what's called City Stat, a program by which we're going to use performance management to deliver, you know, pick up the trash more effectively, fill the potholes, remove the snow, all of the core city services that folks in Jersey City rely on us on.

We're going to have to do more effectively.

You know the cliche is do more with less.

But I don't believe that that's impossible.

In fact I believe we can achieve that.

And in four years folks in Jersey City are going to say their core city services are delivered more effectively.

While you are trying to balance a budget residents in your city are also I'll say on high alert after a lot of ice activity has happened over the last few weeks.

The DOJ has labeled your city a sanctuary city.

I just want to first ask do you accept that label.

Do you deny it.

No no.

We've made our policy clear which I believe is the label.

You know you never know what people would define our policy is clear.

If ICE has a signed criminal warrant by a judge we will cooperate with that.

But if they don't we are not using Jersey City money or personnel to cooperate with going after our residents.

Jersey City is America's golden door.

The home to Ellis Island.

We have seen generation after generation wave of immigrants make our city and our country better.

And we're going to have our neighbors backs if all they're doing is just living their lives sending their kids to school and going to work.

So with a signed warrant from a judge you believe that Jersey City police should cooperate with law enforcement federal immigration enforcement.

Yes.

If they have a criminal warrant.

Yes.

Jersey City PD will cooperate.

But outside of that we've made it very clear that they will not.

The Trump administration has said along with that sanctuary city label two things.

One there is a legal action against your city among three others.

And two there is a promise to withhold federal funds because of that sanctuary city label at a time when you're facing such a massive multimillion dollar budget shortfall.

Could it be very dangerous potentially for your city to lose federal funds.

And could that change your perception or your perspective on on how you move forward with cooperating or not with federal agents.

Absolutely.

We've heard the threats.

We simply believe they're illegal.

We we believe we will prevail in court every time that St.

Croix City laws have been challenged.

They have been upheld every time the idea that funding should be cut.

It has been denied.

So we think ultimately that we will win in court and we will be able to both maintain the clear laws that we have which is to say that we will not voluntarily cooperate and then we will be able to maintain that funding.

So we're quite confident of our ability to prevail in court.

But just on the funding point I think it's important.

We're spending billions of dollars to basically arrest people on their way to work.

We could be spending billions as a country on making health care more affordable making housing more affordable making transportation more affordable.

And I'd encourage President Trump.

He was elected on making life more affordable and getting the economy back on track.

And instead he's spending billions of dollars to go after people whose only crime is living in this country and trying to have their American dream.

I think we could all agree with much better if we spent that money on making life affordable for everyone.

All right.

That's all the time we have.

But Mayor James Solomon Jersey City's newly elected mayor I want to thank you so much for taking a few minutes to appreciate it.

All right.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagas for the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

We will see you right back here tomorrow.

New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child and RWJBarnabas Health.

Let's be healthy together.

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