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

- Hello and welcome to a special edition of NJ Spotlight News.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

We are bringing you a live conversation with Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill from here in Atlantic City at the annual League of Municipalities Conference at the AC Convention Center.

You can see behind me where we're going to talk about the fact that she's taking the helm of the state at a time of enormous challenge and opportunity.

Madam Governor-elect, thank you for sitting down with us.

We really appreciate it.

And congratulations on a very hard-fought win.

As of today, you will officially be resigning from your seat in the House.

I wonder what you will take from your time in Congress that will help inform how you're going to govern, because earlier this week, I spoke with your colleague, Bonnie Watson-Coleman, about her decision to step down after this term, which she put very bluntly was because she was disgusted and frustrated with the political climate and with the lack of bipartisanship.

How does the fact that you've been in Congress during such a tumultuous period affect you think how you'll govern?

- Well, you're exactly right.

It has been an incredibly tumultuous period.

In fact, in my acceptance speech, as I was talking a little bit about my husband and what we've been through, not just the dogs and the goldfish and the hamster and the four kids, it was also two impeachments and insurrection.

You know, times that I think both of us who've served this country for a lot of our lives did not anticipate.

But I will also take away from Congress that skill that you develop in negotiating things for your community and fighting hard to develop the broad coalition.

So I have been really proud of the resources I brought back for Picatinny Arsenal, the ability to impact change when it comes to the PACT Act, for example, or delivering on flooding.

There are a lot of things, as I say, flooding doesn't impact just Democratic communities or Republican communities.

Unfortunately, Trump in his second term has really kind of skewed that system and consolidated power in such a way that my colleagues across the aisle don't seem willing or able to stand against them.

So it does feel as if, in large part, as you're trying to negotiate for the American people, they're trying to read the tea leaves of what Trump wants.

Our Speaker of the House, for example, was adamant that he wasn't releasing the Epstein files, wouldn't even open Congress, wouldn't seat a member of Congress because of it.

And then the minute Trump turned, suddenly he says, yes, I'm willing to do it now.

So that's kind of what we're facing down in Washington.

But what I have learned is there are these pathways forward, especially here in New Jersey.

The district I served had a lot of Republican officials on the ground that I worked with on those key things like flooding, like auto theft, et cetera, to deliver for people.

And I intend to build the broad coalitions in Trenton.

But then also, my mandate is to fight for the people of New Jersey.

So that's who I'll be focused on.

- Yeah, I wonder if you've heard from anyone in the White House and where you think a piece of policy is that you might be able to get some buy-in from them, bipartisan win, maybe even in your first 100 days.

- So I've spoken to some people in the administration about key needs here in New Jersey, and I'm really hoping we can continue those conversations on what it's gonna take to deliver for people.

The really huge win that I had a couple weeks ago, I think sent a message to Washington that the policies that they have been enacting are not working for people on the ground, that the commitments, for example, that Trump made to driving down costs have not been effectuated.

to work on is how are you going to fulfill that?

How are you going to drive down health care costs?

Because right now they've pretty much blown up the system.

And as governor, I am going to be pushing in to taking care of people, to making sure we don't go back to those bad old days of just emergency room care.

And we see with the hits they've had on the Affordable Care Act, premiums have built by about 175% here.

That's unacceptable.

So I want to work with the federal government to drive down those costs, because if they are going to blow up our healthcare system, they need to figure out what's coming next.

- Well, and it's interesting, right, because the one big, beautiful bill, which you voted against, a lot of the cuts that are coming now that have already happened or are coming down the line are now things that you're going to have to deal with as the chief executive.

The first thing that you'll have to tackle is the budget here.

I wonder when you stare down the fiscal reality of that, the fact that there is a structural deficit, a billion and a half, depending on who you ask, maybe closer towards four billion, if you weigh in some of the one shots and other expenditures and revenues, where are you already seeing that you're gonna have to make some tough cuts?

- So that's why I ran for governor, because we are staring down these hits from the federal government, but we're also facing a state government that has to run more efficiently if we are going to help families navigate the future.

So I'm talking about the fact that the federal government's blowing up our healthcare system, that they're threatening energy and utility costs, that they're threatening infrastructure costs.

So at every turn, we're seeing a federal government attacking a lot of the economy here.

And yet, we've also, for a long time, seen a trend that's response to any fiscal problem is to raise costs on the people of New Jersey.

And so that's why, as I look at how we are going to handle this, I'm going to make sure that, first of all, we're doing an online report card so people know where their money's going and they can make assessments, that we're going to look at more accountability in the budget.

There are a lot of items that sort of, you know, as you run this, as you plan for the budget and you have fiscal responsibility, then at the end of the day, all these new items kind of come on in a not accountable way.

But we also have to run the state structurally better.

You talk to any mayor and they'll tell you that about 70 percent of their taxes go towards school funding and they don't have a lot of control over that.

We have more municipalities than California and we have more school systems than municipalities.

We have some that are running a full administrative system without any children.

So if we are going to really drive down costs for people across the state so they can afford to keep living here, as in Trenton, we work to make sure people have access to quality and affordable health care, that they can afford their utility costs, we have got to start to run the state better.

Are efficiencies enough though?

Because I mean, you look at the biggest cost drivers, right?

I mean, the pensions, health benefits, Medicaid, all of that.

Efficiencies, whether you see it or not, it's not going to be enough.

Are tax increases on the table?

Is everything at this point on the table?

I'm working to lower costs for people.

I have a mandate to lower costs for families.

And it's not simply that old line of I'm going to find efficiencies in the budget and we're going to cut 30%.

It's a structural change that we are facing if we are actually going to run this state in a way that makes economic sense for people.

So, for example, looking at where the money to our school system is going.

And right now, too much of it is going to a bloated administrative system.

We want it to go to school children, to making sure that we can invest.

Third grade reading, ensuring that our teachers get phonics education so they can do the best type of teaching.

We also, though, are going to have to combat the hits coming from the federal government.

So that's why I'm sitting with members of the Trump administration to say, look, you know, we are seeing really bad economic numbers going into this holiday season.

The Northeast is responsible for 20 percent of the nation's economy.

I want to be a partner in developing the economy of New Jersey so that we can see better outcomes.

And sitting down with them so that we can figure out the pathway forward.

Because you're right.

With a state that gives $70 billion more to the federal government than we get back, if they're going to whole-scale destroy the medical system of New Jersey, we're going to have to make really broad, systematic changes.

But I'd like to see them sending money back to us to do it.

- Well, I mean, if you take that alone, right, even under the most optimistic scenarios, the forecast estimates a reoccurring shortfall of more than $2 billion.

So you're sitting at a table with your administration.

Who's at that table with you and how are you going through it so that you're not derailing programs that you campaigned on.

- So, you know, everybody is at the table, right?

Because we have a lot of partners that we want to get good results from.

There are gonna be people that I disagree with.

It's always, it's been how I've worked in Congress for years.

People have pathways into discussing with us all of the ideas that are really important to the state.

For example, we had a rash of auto thefts in my district.

We worked with all the mayors, all the police chiefs to figure out what the pathway was that the federal government could deliver.

We couldn't deliver on everything, but we could certainly get license plate readers throughout our counties to make sure that we address that.

People are gonna be at the table because there's expertise on the ground.

I think when government makes a mistake, when leaders make a mistake, is when they sort of do these top-down policies, where they impose stuff on the community that doesn't actually work in the way you think it will.

So building from the bottom up and then determining, and then being very clear and transparent.

Look, you're a partner.

I've loved working with you.

I'm going to continue working with you on this, but that direction is not going to get the state where it needs to go.

And I think the other part of the leadership problem we've seen everywhere across the country is people not making hard decisions.

And there are hard decisions coming.

And the people of New Jersey elected me to make sure I'm making them with the idea that first and foremost I am taking care of families.

So realistically there's one priority that you see to get done in the first 100 days.

What is it.

Well the one priority I'm there are quite a few priorities I'm doing in the first 100 days.

But I will be declaring a state of emergency on utility costs on day one and freezing rate hikes.

That was a commitment I made to both drive down costs but to also show people the sense of urgency that I understand is going on in this crisis and to show like, hey, I'm going to do this.

You're going to see this right away.

And you're going to feel that change.

So it'll freeze rates for a year.

Is that right?

That's still the plan?

Well, we're declaring a state of emergency.

And as we do that, it's not just freezing rate hikes.

That's step a so that we don't keep dumping this on top on ratepayers and so that homeowners, people paying rent, you know, in their rental properties, business owners, etc.

don't constantly see this skyrocketing.

At the same time, though, to really defray costs long term, it's pushing in solar and battery storage power right away.

So as we're declaring the state of emergency, it doesn't just involve freezing rate hikes, it involves cutting through red tape and permitting delays to get solar and battery power in the ground.

And I want to ask you about that.

How confident are you that through executive order that you have the authority to do that, and that it'll have the legal legs to stand up, if in fact it faces challenges, which it very well may allow?

You know, we have charted out a pathway forward that is totally within the governor's authority to do.

We've already also been talking to all the stakeholders to come to the table.

As you may realize, a lot of our utilities have made over a billion dollars in profit, so they're willing to come to the table to find how in the system we can drive down those costs, as well as understanding that we are going to have to defrace some of the costs coming in through the BPU for this so we don't have a, you know, there's no kicking the can down the road in my administration.

We're not doing kind of fuzzy math because we know what that's gotten us in New Jersey.

It's gotten us a ballooning pension payment.

So that's why we're going to run a very effective, I'm going to run a very effective government while we're having realistic assessments.

will defray the cost with money coming in through the BPU.

And at the same time, for the long-term plan, this isn't just a quick fix for a minute.

This is a long-term get solar and battery power into the grid in the first budget, a budget for improving the gas generation across the state, driving down carbon emissions, driving up-- - How realistic is it though, Governor-elect, to do that quickly enough, to bring them back online, to bring more online, which is something that has been talked about now for many years and the rate with which it needs to happen in order to really see a shift, because it's really a long-term change that rate payers can see, right?

I mean, they're not going to see this immediately.

So there's a couple things involved here.

So first of all, the market has been totally screwed up.

PJM runs our regional market, which we've moved to, which over time, we're looking at keeping costs steady as different people developed power generation.

Unfortunately, because of the new types of data centers and AI, because Virginia, for example, has put in tons of data centers, they're sucking all this power out of the market and driving up costs.

So every electron we produce here in New Jersey will help to drive down costs in our state.

And that's why very, very quickly, we can put solar and battery storage online.

That's the fastest way to drive down costs, the easiest, cheapest, fastest way.

However, it's not where we stop.

It's not going to be enough.

That's not a fix-all for our problems.

We need to make sure our gas generation, which is about 40% of our production right now, is modernized so we can drive down carbon emissions while driving up much of the generation from gas generation.

And then the long-term plan is nuclear.

- So I want to move on to a couple of other affordability items.

Affordable housing, it's a perennial issue that has haunted just about every gubernatorial administration.

Advocates you know say that we need something like 200,000 affordable homes but we really don't know how many homes we're going to get from this new law because towns have been able to push it off based off of the fact that they don't have the infrastructure, the water, the sewer capacity.

Would you support something like Senator Singleton's bill that the governor in fact called for allowing housing in business zones, even if local zoning doesn't allow for it?

Or is there a model elsewhere that you think we should be replicating?

So there are some interesting things that Senator Singleton's proposed that could help us with some of our housing ADUs, for example, on your property for your parents or your kids.

But it's again, it feels, you know, that is a piece of how we get there.

But it certainly doesn't feel like building the whole scale development that we need.

And we need really smart development here in our state.

We're not, you know, we don't have prairies or tracks of where we could just say, "Oh, let's just build a neighborhood here."

We have the most densely populated state in the nation.

We have some of the most environmentally sensitive areas, meaning our shoreline, for example, is more sensitive to a rise in sea level than anywhere else in the world.

So we really have to make sure we're developing in a smart way and a way that preserves our open spaces, our watersheds.

So conservation is a really key component of all of this.

And that involves really a statewide plan of where the transportation of the future is going to be.

Things like the Gloucester-Camden line and how we're going to develop out neighborhoods, how we're going to do transit-oriented development, but it also involves getting buy-in from the communities.

And isn't that an argument, though, that they've made, especially towns that are really concerned about preserving the little bit of open space that they have, about not bringing more over development?

I mean, how are you really going to balance the two, the need versus the reality on the ground, as you say?

Yeah, there's a lot of areas, first of all, that have traditionally had more dense development, that have the sewering, that have the facilities to handle it.

Trenton, I think in its heyday, had maybe about 190,000 people and now is down by the census to 80,000, but I think probably a few community members not captured there.

But that's going to evolve.

If people are going to live in Trenton, they need access to good jobs.

They need access to good transportation.

And so while you have that great transit hub in Trenton, it doesn't always go to the job.

So it's a microtransit to get people to the jobs they want to see.

Making sure that the money available for development is actually working.

So as I did a block walk, this woman who's in Trent, Shanique, said, "You know, you need to do a block walk.

You need to see Trent."

So I went and walked with her with many community members.

And the mayor was there and he said, "You know, there's this money for upgrading Trenton, but I can't do it on that building because it shares a wall.

I can't do it on that building because this, you know."

So they're fencing off these buildings, even though they have millions of dollars that are supposed to go to this.

So making sure that is working, that we're developing in places like Trenton, like Atlantic City here, which have historically had a bigger population that want to see great development for homeowners.

But then also looking at transit-oriented development, which is often the more dense part of towns, which makes sense and not saying, okay, we're going to go, you know, an area of conservation and where, you know, I've traditionally served has been Drew Forest.

We don't want to like clear cut Drew Forest.

I want to ask you a couple of other things, because this is related when it comes to finding the money to be able to do all of this.

There's a proposal, as I'm sure you know, kicking through the State House that would transfer the investigatory power of the State Comptroller's Office to the State Commission of Investigation.

Both heads of those agencies have said they don't think it's a good idea.

There's plenty of corruption to go around the state for them to each tackle it.

The SCI has about a fraction of the staff and the funding.

Where do you stand on that consolidation?

Good idea, bad idea?

- So as you said, different ideas about how we're gonna root out corruption in the state have been kicking around for years.

And so I'm not gonna comment on proposals that haven't come to legislation and that a bill hasn't been proposed.

But I have run on accountability.

I have run on making sure that people know that their government is serving them, that we are ensuring that in a state that is sadly known for corruption, that we are not enabling more corruption.

So that is where I'll start with this.

If you want an independent watchdog, I mean, you look at the state comptroller's office, on average, it's brought something like $100 million in fraud and abuse from Medicaid money that it's identified.

The office has identified waste and fraud at the municipal level when it comes to pensions, sick pay, benefits.

Isn't that the type of watchdog that your administration would want to have on your side?

Or are you comfortable if that role is taken on under another authority?

I think we need to have independent watchdogs across different organizations.

So if something came to my desk or if there was a bill that was proposed, that's what I would be looking for.

Is there oversight?

Is there accountability?

In too many cases, there simply is not.

And we've seen across the state what that looks like.

Sometimes it's corruption and wrongdoing.

Sometimes it's just, town's not having the resources to make sure that they're handling money well.

But again, we are gonna have accountability here.

I'm gonna have an online report card so people see where their money is going.

We're not gonna be doing all of this in the dark and we're gonna be moving towards updating.

- Which is something that exists.

I believe Chris Christie started that where you could see the funding, but I wanna-- - But I think also there needs to be an understanding of who's holding the contracts, if they're performing as they're required to do.

So something people can use to really hold government accountable.

- As we sit here today, ICE activity has been ramping up throughout the state over the last couple of weeks.

There was another operation in Newark just yesterday.

I wanna clear up where you stand on the Immigrant Trust Directive.

Would you retain the policy?

- So the Immigrant Trust Directive, as written, I've been supportive of.

I just wanna make sure on the ground it's functioning and we're still understanding how it's being implemented across the state and we have had several meetings, we'll continue to have those, to make sure it's functioning as I want it to function.

And as I've said, what's important to me is people can go to church, they can go to school, they can go to healthcare, they can go report crimes safely.

Are there changes you would make, amendments you would make to that policy?

That's why we're talking to people on the ground to see if it's necessary to clarify something.

Because as written, I agree with it.

I think it's largely what's going on on the ground to make sure it's functioning well.

The Immigrant Trust Act, if that lands on your desk, would you sign it?

I've been opposed to that because I'm very concerned about trying to put that through the courts.

We know a Republican judge has already approved the immigrant trust directive.

It's set a law that has better standing right now.

And the idea of opening this up in courts right now when I don't think the courts seem to be very suggestible to the Trump administration's suggestions, I don't think that's a good idea.

This, of course, all stemmed from former Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

You have said that you would not keep Attorney General Matt Platkin on the job.

Why is that?

What kind of qualities are you looking for someone in your attorney general?

He's been very aggressive with the Trump administration, a few dozen lawsuits by my count against the administration.

Do you want someone at that level with that amount of teeth, or are you looking for someone who is going to be more conciliatory?

We need somebody who's willing to take on the Trump administration, and Matt's done a great job at that, and that is really going to be key, because I think, as you know, this is my second Trump administration where I've been in office, and I think there's this false assumption, and you certainly see it, you know, my colleagues across the aisle, that if you just duck your head, and if you just go along, that you can kind of get through this.

And that's not the case.

The hits are gonna be coming.

The attacks on our economy are coming.

The attacks on our rights and freedoms are here.

- How soon can we see you name other members of your cabinet?

- Within the next couple of weeks, we'll be rolling out various members of the cabinet weekly, so that we can start to build the government and people can see what that's gonna look like.

A couple of quick viewer questions.

A lot of folks wanted to know where you stand on the Climate Superfund Act.

In favor, support it?

Where do you stand?

- So that, I'm gonna see what they do in the lame duck and then what we have to do going forward.

I certainly wanna get as much money as possible into supporting redevelopment of our state.

I have been very active in superfund sites and we are closing one in my district that we've gotten a lot of money for and we'll continue to fight for that.

You've proposed warning labels on social media, a new design code to protect kids online.

In the 30 seconds we have left, do you have the power and authority to do that?

How quickly might we see that happen?

Very quickly.

That'll be something we're moving forward on in the first hundred days and in the first budget.

It won't be complete, but we're going to take on age-appropriate online design code set up as Center of Excellence so we understand what's going on online better.

The tech companies have most of the information now and then start holding companies liable for the harm they're doing to our kids.

One year from now, one word that you hope residents feel about your administration a year into your tenure.

Effective.

- Governor Mikie, Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill, we thank you for your time.

Thank you for sitting down with us.

Hopefully the first of many conversations to come in the future.

That's it for us here at the Atlantic City Convention Center at the annual League of Municipalities Conference.

I'm Briana Vannozzi for the entire team at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks so much for watching.

(upbeat music) - New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

And RWJBarnabas Health.

Let's be healthy together.

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