New Jersey Democrats running for governor clash over key issues in debate

With less than a month left before the primaries, Democrats vying for New Jersey governor have been battling to prove they have the best plans to take on high property taxes and rising expenses — while handling transportation crises and federal cuts under the Trump administration.

On Monday night, five Democrats sat in a semicircle during an NJ PBS debate that was dubbed an hour-long “conversation.” Briana Vannozzi and Michael Hill hosted.

Candidates who took part were from left to right on stage:

Josh Gottheimer, congressman from North Jersey's 5th District

Ras Baraka, mayor of Newark

Steven Fulop, mayor of Jersey City

Mikie Sherrill, congresswoman from North Jersey's 11th District

Steve Sweeney, former state Senate president from Gloucester County

Not appearing was Sean Spiller, president of the New Jersey Education Association and former mayor of Montclair. Spiller did not qualify under Election Law Enforcement Commission parameters.

While there was a good deal of talking over each other and calling each other out, all five candidates easily agreed to support whoever wins the democratic primary on June 10, ahead of the November election.

Read More: NJ Republican gubernatorial candidates debate

NJ Transit strike, Newark Airport problems, road sinkholes

Essentially all five candidates agreed that the governor should be directly involved in negotiations involving the NJ Transit engineers' union, and that they do deserve to be paid fair relative to surrounding states.

Fulop and Baraka agreed that the state should not move forward with an $11 billion dollar Turnpike widening project and instead use that money for situations like settling the NJ Transit issue.  Fulop says he may not be the only person to support it, but he was the first one.

On the Newark Liberty International Airport chaos of the past week, with massive delays and grounded flights, Sherrill said there needs to be a surge of air traffic controllers into the area.

She said that as a pilot, 90 seconds without contact with planes, which has happened at least three times, is an "incredible amount" of time.

Sherrill was also asked about the sinkholes along Route 80, to which she said there needs to be a massive infrastructure plan to fix aging roads and bridges.

Baraka said there are too many flights in the air at once as it is, and that more space needs to be allowed for in-between arrivals and departures as  "safety has to be first."

Rising energy costs

Sherrill says "we have got to get more power and we’ve got to drive down costs and drive down carbon emissions." She called for holding energy grid operator PJM accountable, and for installing solar power panels on capped landfills and more state buildings — and a long-term vision for more nuclear power.

Baraka said the state needs to try and stay on track to pursue wind energy while also investing in more solar.

Fulop said the state needs to focus on only renewable energy sources. He said the BPU has become a dumping ground for politicians and that large corporations or data centers should not be paying the same flat rates as "mom and pop" operations.

 School funding

Sweeney said that school districts should have right-sized classrooms knowing that the state aid formula was being changed. He said it is an example that important legislation should be reviewed every five years, to make sure it is still being effective.

Fulop said that school funding should factor in which districts have high poverty rates, and the most need of English as a second language.

Both Fulop and Sweeney said that special education needs to be taken out of municipal school district costs and should instead be paid directly by the state.

Sherrill said there needs to be a better push toward county-level magnet and specialized schools to take some of the burden off of municipal-level expenses.

Baraka said more school consolidation has to be achieved, saying there are more districts than cities and more superintendents than there are mayors.

Property Taxes

When asked about recent pushback on the 2% property tax cap that became law while Sweeney was Senate president, he said, "Are you kidding me, we're gonna loosen it so they can tax more?"

Several candidates agreed that pushing for more municipal and school district consolidations was a necessary way to bring down expenses.

Gottheimer said his 40-page plan to attack property taxes involves shared services, “564 municipalities, and what happens, they all pay Wawa prices instead of Costco prices. No one negotiates separately for salt on the roads, for insurance for their town, so we keep paying more and more and taxes keep going up and up.”

Fulop said, in addition to consolidating services, you need to tax the wealthier people.

SEE ALSO: NJ Dems in race to replace Gov. Murphy face off at Rider debate

Government efficiency

Sweeney said he consolidated more state government than anyone else in the past and would be able to do it again, adding, "I did an S-load of that and was successful in it."

He also said he was the person who put the state back on track to fund state pensions.

Standing up to Trump administration

Baraka said New Jersey needs to join with other states and form a pact to push back collectively against federal changes.

Gottheimer said court battles will need to continue as the way to counteract moves by the Trump administration that "mess with" New Jersey.

Fulop said that there needs to be town halls so that the state is as transparent as possible about tough decisions that will need to be made if federal funding cuts continue.

Parental rights

Asked whether parents should be able to opt students out of LGBTQ content, similarly to sex education, Sherrill said "this is not an area where they should be opting out."

Sweeney said he believes in educating people but also believes parents have a right to make sure their children is getting the education they want.

Fulop said as a father of three, he wants to know what's going on with them, and that the history of vulnerable communities should be taught in schools, saying allowing too many opt-out on education lessons becomes a "slippery slope," to which Baraka agreed, adding even more groups of vulnerable communities.

Gottheimer said that "not every parent is going to be like we might be" - and pointed to the high rate of suicide among trans kids as a problem that needs to be addressed.

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