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

>> Hello and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

>> Good morning.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

I'm joined by the world cup corner.

Is New Jersey ready?

We talk with congresswoman Nellie Poe.

And Newark superintendent of schools, Roger Leon, joins us to answer critics about the district's spending.

And later, will retired public workers get a cost of living adjustment?

We'll take a look at the state's plan.

But first, New Jersey residents are still reeling from two recent shootings that have left at least two people dead and seven injured.

The first shooting happened at a Chick-fil-A restaurant on Route 22 in Union around 9 p.m.

on Saturday night.

According to the Union Township Prosecutor's Office, police who arrived on the scene found one person who'd been fatally shot, six others who suffered from non-life-threatening injuries.

So far, no arrests have been made.

According to their preliminary investigation, this was not a random act of violence, and they've said there's no immediate or ongoing threat to the public.

New Jersey's Attorney General Jen Davenport called it a senseless act of violence.

Governor Sherrill said in a statement, quote, "Our hearts go out to the victims' loved ones, and we're hoping for the full recovery of those who were injured."

Meanwhile, investigators are actively searching for the shooter and have offered up to $10,000 for any information that leads to a conviction.

And in South Jersey's Egg Harbor Township this morning, another deadly shooting at a nursing and rehab facility.

This incident left one person dead and another in critical condition.

According to the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office, this shooting was also not random and the two involved knew each other.

That investigation also remains active and ongoing.

Coming up we hear from Congresswoman Nellie Poe on New Jersey's World Cup prep and whether she believes we'll be ready.

That's next.

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Making public schools great for every child.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup games are less than 60 days away.

And with only about two months to go there's still lots of prep work to be done from shoring up security to transportation.

The games will be played at what we know as MetLife Stadium but will be renamed as the New York New Jersey Stadium for the games.

The arena is in East Rutherford which is part of Congresswoman Nellie Poe's district.

Poe is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and she's the ranking member on the task force overseeing the World Cup preparation.

She joins us now to talk about all of it.

Welcome to the show Congresswoman.

Thanks for taking time to talk to us today.

Thank you so very much.

Happy to be here.

So where are we right now as a state in terms of what's been done to prepare for the games and what still needs to happen.

I know that's a big question.

Well, as you pointed out, we're really less than 60 days.

It's actually 59 days.

But who's counting, right?

And I am obviously very excited, but at the same time concerned.

You know, as the ranking member of the Congress Special Task Force in charge of World Cup oversight, it is one of the biggest events in the world and we only have one chance to get it right.

So in just, you know, just last week, I was in front of MetLife with the Bergen County Sheriff Office, actually, to celebrate the office receiving or being able to deliver more than $2 million to help our law enforcement deal with the games.

Our law enforcement needs every bit of support to meet this challenge.

One of my concerns was the fact that a lot of this funding that was held up for such a long time by DHS was finally, finally released.

Let me jump in there, Congresswoman, because you're talking about $625 million that was to be allocated to, I believe, the 10 different states that are hosting games, if I have that correct.

There were delays because the Trump administration said because of the partial government shutdown and DHS not being funded.

Of course, DHS is the agency delivering those funds.

How much did New Jersey get?

Have we received everything we needed to?

Well, let me just thank you for that.

And yes, you're right.

$625 million is what I'm talking about.

But if we go back to taking a look at what DHS had actually submitted last year, in fact, it was in, I believe it was in April, when they announced that the information or the applications for that was going to be submitted and that these particular programs, in terms of those dollars, would be released by September 31st, pardon me, September 30th of last year.

So they definitely knew that Congress had passed it, had absolutely nothing to do with the shutdown.

They had already announced it.

They've already had submitted that information.

And it's the delays actually, once again, talked about that they would release it in January.

They failed to do that.

Only only recently, finally, did they do that.

In terms of what our district is going to be receiving, it's been reported that at the present time, what we're anticipating is $66 million, just shy of what was the expectation.

The expectation was about $70 million.

That has to be split between New York and New Jersey.

Even though New Jersey is taking on the bulk of the responsibility, the MetLife Stadium is in New Jersey, and we're going to be dealing with the majority of the concerns that I keep talking about.

We've covered for quite a while how NJ Transit is in plans to, with the Governor's Office, of course, and the host committee, to figure out what it looks like in terms of how NJ Transit operates.

Of course, transportation a huge piece here, but security, as you mentioned as well.

Just very quickly on this, do you believe that the delays have had any type of impact on the security that we will see or the transportation that we will see in and around the games?

Well, let's just put this in perspective.

Obviously, the World Cup is like having 104 separate Super Bowl events.

It's going to be huge and we must be ready.

So, of course, I was concerned as to whether or not we were going to have sufficient time to ensure that our law enforcement officials would be able to obtain what is the number of supplies, the scheduling, the payment of the covering of overtime pay for that.

So many things were serious, you know, was very important for me to make sure that we were able to do and do it in time.

Do I think we're going to be successful?

Absolutely.

I have complete total support and confidence in our law enforcement personnel, but it should not have waited and should not have come to the last minute.

You have asked ICE, also part of DHS, for assurance that there will not be increased or even the regular amount of ICE activity that we've seen here in New Jersey during the games.

What response have you gotten?

Are you satisfied by the response?

Yes, it is true that I actually spoke directly and questioned directly the head of ICE, asking that what was their actual plan.

That was the question.

What was their plan with respect to the use of ICE during any one of these games?

And the response was very limited in terms of what his response was.

His response was that they will have some involvement.

I want to make sure that we have our games are safe and that everyone is kept safe during each of the games that are involved, both the spectators as well as the athletes as well as any and all officials that are coming from all over the world to attend these events.

I want to make sure that they're safe.

But in order for us to do that, the last thing I want to see is chaos.

If if we have anything to look in terms of what ICE does overall in terms of their unbelievable response to these types of you know, identifying people, I would not want to see that happen.

It would only create chaos at these games.

They should be safe.

They should feel welcome.

And we should have nothing but short of a spectacular event for you know the United States of America is is really going to be on display for the entire world to see.

Yeah.

We want to make sure that these games are nothing short of what is expected of all of us.

All right.

It's a time for us to be great.

We've got to leave it there.

Congresswoman Nellie Poe appreciate you coming on the show today.

Thank you.

Thank you so very much.

The Newark public schools have dominated the headlines as of late with several Republicans criticizing how school administrators have spent state and federal dollars and local community members raising concerns about a 500 million dollar deal to lease an elementary school.

Newark superintendent Roger Leon created his own headlines recently by responding to much of that criticism in an op ed.

He joins us now to talk about all of it.

Superintendent thanks so much for being with us today.

Thank you for having me.

Appreciate you.

So we've seen state leaders on the Republican side raising a lot of questions about how your district spent $287 million in COVID relief funds.

They actually sent a letter to the U.S.

Department of Education asking for some oversight possibly an investigation into how you spent those funds.

Number one would you welcome an investigation there.

Well you don't have to go too far because in 2023 the federal government actually did an audit I believe across the country and I know definitely in New Jersey and we were one of the two school districts that were in fact audited from months of reviews from the inception of the receiving of dollars to their expenditure and everything that's required in between.

Not only was it completed, one accommodation and then 18 acknowledgments for being consistent with the federal guidelines for allowable uses.

So that request has actually come and gone.

And we're excited about that.

I want to point out a couple things.

So there were $33,000 in funds that needed to be returned to the state because of a staff fund day in 2023.

And some have pointed to that, the money was returned, but some have pointed to that as evidence that there is misuse of funds in the district.

And Republicans asked for an investigation into one specific fact, which is that 15,803 students were recommended for tutoring, they say, through the COVID relief funds, and only 1938 actually received it.

They say only 12% of students received the tutoring that they needed.

Is that true?

>> Well, you're mentioning two obviously different topics.

On the first one, with regards to recognizing the incredible work of the staff in the district and the district fund day that we did, in fact, for them, was a matter where we are in clear disagreement and complied with actually what the requests were as outlined by that review that came and also went.

As it relates to the number of students that actually attended tutoring, so we have a formula that we looked at based on the work out of Harvard that was extremely important.

That was three days of tutoring.

That dosage was determined to be the most effective.

And we have clear evidence that the students that underwent three days of tutoring during the course of a week were the most outperformed counterparts based on different factors and categories.

The idea that there were more than the 1938 students that you referenced that received tutoring is clearly undeniable.

There are more than that.

We're talking about the strict number of students that actually adhered to the three days of tutoring.

We had other students that were in our extended day program that also received tutoring in that opportunity.

There are wraparound services that are provided way into the evening in that program.

There are other students that were actually there funds that were allocated for students to be tutored that were not used accordingly.

No.

The allocation of dollars as it relates to the students that receive tutoring.

Those dollars were allocated accordingly.

I'm just sharing with you that there were a number of other opportunities that the students and their families wound up taking advantage of.

When we submitted that report in the public was to strictly adhere to the idea of high dosage tutoring and the number of students that we were seeing that received that and how they performed well or better definitely than their counterparts on the state test.

But the idea that students were engaged in other activities is the ultimate point of that.

And so the extended day program has a tutoring component that is there.

There were clubs that students participated in depending on the grade.

There were athletics opportunities that the students obviously engaged in as opposed to the specific tutoring that that report referenced.

So I want to switch gears because there's an issue that has some local pushback right now because the district has the board, not you unilaterally, the Board of Education has moved forward on approving a deal that would be a $500 million lease for a new elementary school.

Now, some say look, to build a new school would cost about one-fourth of that, about $134 million to build a new high school, which we know is more expensive than an elementary school.

Why spend $500 million on a lease when the district has no guarantee of even owning it at the end and could potentially build multiple schools for that amount?

Yes, so I obviously want to do what you already did, which was acknowledge the Newark Board of Education for their incredible leadership as well as their guidance through a lot of what we are implementing in the district that has resulted in the New Jersey Department of Education recognizing us as a high-performing district.

As it relates to the specific point with regards to Riverfront Elementary School, unfortunately, because the district is one of the 31 SDA districts, the Schools Development Authority is the only organization that actually can purchase land and build a brand new school for the district.

The law would only allow one of the 31 districts, like Newark, to actually get into a lease agreement.

And that is what is actually occurring here.

The idea that the school is to build it is $500 million is obviously incorrect.

The idea that it's being financed and that the law allows us to lease it is where is the scenario that we're in right now.

The law does not allow us this way for the district to put pressure on the school's development authority to say look you're not building a school.

We're going to use taxpayer dollars to lease it.

And at four times the amount.

>> Well one second.

The whole idea that because it's a lease, we have the option to purchase it and the lease would say an option to purchase it at $1,000 later.

The idea that the schools development authority, the school construction corporation previously promised during state operation, the city of Newark, 40 new buildings and has only complied with nine of them, speaks volumes with regards to where the issues ultimately are.

The Newark public schools and the city of Newark, given the increasing enrollment.

We have thousands more students today than in 2015.

Almost 7,000 more students.

The idea that the city is growing and that enrollment is increasing is an issue that is before us right now.

The leadership of the schools development authority has been incredible with assisting us with particular properties as well as new buildings.

They have clearly outlined in their strategic plan that the city of Newark will actually get 13 new buildings.

It's important to know that 14 of the 13 new buildings is because we're replacing buildings that were built in the 1800s.

So let me just ask you 13 of those schools students are attending them today.

So is 500 million dollars the best use of taxpayer dollars to lease a building.

You stand by that.

Well the idea that the building doesn't cost 500 million dollars and that we would pay about one point four million dollars per year to lease it is a great strategy for us to implement given the realities of where we are right now.

And just very quickly you did write an op ed where you looked at some of the success that the district is having 90 percent graduation rate.

I do have to ask does that include charter schools.

The graduation rate that I reported out was strictly the Newark public schools and absenteeism down.

Where are you right now with that point 4 percent.

This is something that we're constantly monitoring.

It's a third year in a row the lowest chronic absenteeism in the history of the district and well below the state average all three years in a row as well.

And of course some of these numbers since local control was returned in 2020.

Superintendent Roger Leone I appreciate you coming on to talk about all of this with us.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me.

One of the biggest pressure points facing Governor Sherrill as she laid out her budget proposal for the next fiscal year is the state's public worker pension fund at a whopping seven billion dollars.

It makes up about a tenth of her entire spending plan.

Our budget and finance writer John Reitmeyer has been covering the budget proceedings and he has more on what those pension payments could look like this year.

He joins us now as part of our under the dome series.

John good to talk to you.

We know the pension has been underfunded for decades.

What I want to know from you is when we look at that seven billion dollars how much of that is actually the penalty that the state is paying.

Yeah it's great to be with you today.

And that's a really good question because I think it gets lost on a lot of taxpayers because there were those years where the state made no pension contribution as an employer or made very little of the obligation that was calculated by the state's actuaries.

And so if you think about it it's more than seven billion is now being contributed annually.

A slice of that comes directly from the lottery but a lot of it comes right out of the state budget and six billion of that, more than seven billion, is estimated to be paying off or paying down what's called the unfunded liability, which is all of the obligations that were just skipped by prior governors from both political parties in prior years and building up this huge unfunded liability.

So really, six out of every seven dollars today that are going into the pension fund are really making up for sins of the past when we had different governors in office.

In the simplest of terms, it's kind of like if you have a credit card and you don't pay it in full and you're gathering that interest, right?

Of course, it's much more complicated than that, but just for the average person to kind of understand that.

It's a lot like that.

In fact, because there is a pension fund, it assumes money that deposited earns interest income through a lot of different types of very complicated investments.

And so not only does not making pension contributions mess up the long-term math by those dollars not going into the fund, but it compounds the problem, because the assumption is that those dollars would then earn interest income, and they do not.

So you create that unfunded liability, that hole, not only by not depositing money, but also because you then lose out on those assumed investment returns.

So Governor Sherrill, so far it looks like she's following in the footsteps of her predecessor, and to be fair, kind of the path that Governor Christie put in place, which is fully funding the pension payment, but at issue right now for her is whether or not to make cost of living adjustment payments.

Can you just explain, we call that COLA, can you explain what those COLA payments are?

Sure, and it might be easy to think about something like Social Security benefits that get regularly adjusted to keep pace with inflation, and as we know, especially coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, there's been a major uptick in inflation.

It's been a big political issue, but it's a real issue for seniors living on fixed incomes, including retired government workers who held government jobs in New Jersey.

So we're talking about maybe police officers, firefighters, teachers, even judges and office workers who have, since 2011, been living on a fixed pension benefit because cost of living adjustments were suspended at that time.

That was when Chris Christie was in office, but he worked with Democrats in the legislature to make a number of changes to worker benefits, and this included freezing retiree cost of living adjustments to their pension benefits.

So for those retirees, they've been paying 2026 prices this year, but still earning a 2011 pension benefit.

I don't know what that interest compounded looks like, but I know that just in the last year according to your reporting, interest rates rose by about 3.3%.

Do I have that right?

That's the annual cost of living, so price inflation, CPI.

Yes.

So does the state have the ability to completely pass on these COLA payments, or do they compound in the same way that the punted pension payments compounded?

Well, we should be clear that current law requires the COLAs to remain suspended, and they have to for quite a while under current law to allow the pension fund to get in much better fiscal shape after all that damage that we discussed right at the beginning of our discussion.

So under current law, they have to be suspended because adding back COLAs creates more of a liability for the pension fund.

However, from the perspective of the retiree, they're sitting here year after year after year talking about the type of annual inflation of 3%, which is more than 3%, which is what we just saw last month annually.

And that's compounding for them, annual increase on top of annual increase on top of annual increase, creating a lot of financial strain, especially for those living on more modest pensions, which is a number of retired workers in New Jersey.

So it's a real public policy question for New Jersey.

It's a challenge, again, that was created by this long-term underfunding of the pension system that happened for more than two decades prior to, say, the last five years.

John, when will we -- we imagine somewhere in the future there must be a point where the state gets out of this liability, you know, paying for this liability, this unfunded liability.

When will we see the pension payment become a payment that is simply paying the pensions?

It's a good lesson for paying your bills if you can, because it will take decades.

The state's actuaries have calculated it will take literally decades until the pension fund would be considered 100% funded.

So everything goes back to normal.

All right, we have to And that's going to do it for us tonight.

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

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

♪ ♪ And that's going to do it for us tonight.

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

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

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