Kim Guadagno Talks Reasons for Running for Governor of NJ

Republican candidate for Governor, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, describes how she would fix the “insolvent” pension budget, how she would balance school aid, and tells us why she’s running for Governor of New Jersey.

4/22/17 #106

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"State of Affairs is pleased to welcome New Jersey's first Lieutenant Governor, the 33rd Secretary of State, elected 2013, but first time, 2010. I was gonna say. It was... Yeah don't worry, I'll get it right. We've interviewed... I've interviewed you too many times. That's where were too familiar. Yeah, but not in this context. People... everybody knows who you are. Kim Guadagno's in the house. There you go. State of Affairs. How do you...? How do you like this? This is beautiful. Nice, right? This is beautiful. NJTV. Very very nice. Absolutely. And convenient. Right? It's beautiful. Right. You're running for Governor? I am. Because? I am running for Governor because I think I can do better. I think we need lower taxes. We need to make New Jersey affordable again. And we need to fight for the middle class. And that's me. I'm a working mom. I'm a military mom. I'm a person who's worked in this administration for eight years, and talked to thousands of people over those eight years. And I know they can't make ends meet. And I think I can help them do that. Let's get down into some issues that you and I have not talked about before. One of things we talk about a lot is business. Mm hmm. We'll get to that in just a little bit. This pension crisis that you think about a lot, you've been part of this administration for a long time. The Governor's made... is part of this 35 billion dollar...? 35 billion and change. 35 billion? Okay, so there's a 2.5 billion dollar...? Big change. Millions in change. Yeah. Not small change. So the Governor's proposed a 2.5 billion dollar commitment to pay into this pension... Right. ...fund. That's a big number by anyone's standard. However, this hole in the pension crisis for public employees is huge. Right. What would you do right now to close that gap so that New Jersey's fiscal underpinnings would be a lot stronger than it is, and that pension fund is better than it is right now? Because it's horrible. Well, you know what it is. It's insolvent. So we all know it's insolvent. Not because of a Republican problem, not because of a Democrat. Or you could say it's because of all of our fault. Yup. But it was in that shape when we came in. This administration has made the largest number of payments to the pension. I think it's double whatever the last five Governors have done. But it's still insolvent. So we need to fix it. So you're right. I'll tell you what I did when I was in the Sheriff's office. I'll give you the same conversation to you... In your previous job? In my..."