In fewer than six years, water companies across New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware have acquired more than two dozen water and sewer systems, as officials in small cities and towns struggle to fund the cost of repairing aging infrastructure and removing toxic PFAS chemicals.

McDonough said New Jersey American Water’s top priority in Salem is to address PFAS by installing a filtration system within 18 months. In 2023, the so-called “forever chemicals” were detected above state standards in one of Salem’s wells, which has since been shut down.

However, some Salem residents fear their water bills may increase in a city where the median annual household income is $26,000. Several states allow investor-owned utilities to consider the future value of a utility, pay above that price and then pass along those costs to consumers.

McDonough said there will be a two-year freeze on rate increases in Salem, and the company offers assistance to people struggling to pay their bills.

“Because we’re a large water operator statewide, we share the costs of capital across our entire footprint, and then, of course, our commercial customers on top of that,” he said. “So, we socialize those costs so that everybody’s bills are more affordable.”

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With less than a week before the end of the fiscal year, legislative committees were in Trenton on Wednesday to advance a budget bill.

The Assembly Budget Committee was scheduled to start at 2 p.m. – though it was later updated to 4:30 p.m. − and the Senate at 4 p.m., both were hours late to start as they considered the state’s spending plan for fiscal year 2025 – which runs from July 1 through June 30, 2025.

The bill language was not posted online but documents were obtained by reporters around 8 p.m. The bill was introduced as a $56.6 billion budget, an increase of about $728 million over the governor’s proposal and $2.3 billion more than the fiscal year 2024 budget.

Revenue projects indicate that the state will earn about $54.5 billion in the new fiscal year, meaning the budget functions at a deficit of $2.1 billion. Projects show a surplus of about $6.1 billion.

Not everyone was on board with the plan and the business lobbyists was among the most vocal.

Chris Emigholz of the New Jersey Business and Industry Associate called it a “bad budget,” pointing to the structural deficit in the bill.

“It’s bad for our taxpayers. It’s bad for our job creators. It’s bad for our fiscal responsibility,” he said.

Tom Bracken of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce said that the “business community has run out of patience.”

But advocates like Peter Chen of the New Jersey Policy Perspective spoke in support of the bill.

“This is a budget that leads us on a path towards a better New Jersey, towards a New Jersey where the mighty and powerful are forced to pay what they owe to support the investments that help everyday New Jerseyans,” he said.

State Sen. Declan O’Scanlan, the Republican budget officer, said the “already bloated” budget is worse than it had been with the addition of discretionary spending items.

“The fact that we are massively increasing spending at a time when we have already done so over the last six years of this administration, is in many ways a runaway freight train,” he said. “In just the last week, we’ve added almost $700 million.”

State Sen. Paul Sarlo, the committee chair said that “no budget is ever perfect this is not either quite frankly” but that the process of creating a budget with two branches of government and two houses of the Legislature requires a lot of give and take.

He said there is supplemental spending but that many are “spending priorities” and “one time infrastructure” items and that they are a “very, very small components to this budget.”

Sarlo also candidly announced that he wished the corporate transit fee wasn’t included but he understands the “transit issue is looming and in order to stay competitive and get people to work you need a vibrant transit system.”

“No transit agency across this entire country is solely dependent on ridership,” he said. “Can we do better? We have to do better with transit.”

The bill was ultimately cleared in the Senate along party lines.

Gov. Phil Murphy proposed a $55.9 billion spending plan in February and then handed it off to the Legislature to figure out the details and after months of testimony and negotiations the budget appeared before committee.

Among the other bills to clear committee was a 2.5% corporate transit fee for businesses in the state earning more than $10 million. Details on that bill, sponsored by Senate President Nick Scutari, were scarce as well but the idea was first proposed by Murphy in his budget address in February.

Another bill geared toward providing medical debt relief also cleared committee despite testimony against it. Sarlo said that the bill would pass because it was a non-negotiable priority for the administration.

After clearing both committees, the budget is set to be voted on in full chambers on Friday. The governor has until midnight Sunday to sign the bill.

Citing his willingness to create “good union jobs,” New Jersey State Building & Construction Trades Council has endorsed Republican Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) for re-election to a second term in the 7th district.

The endorsement follows the New Jersey AFL-CIO’s decision not to take sides in the race between Kean and Democrat Sue Altman, which is widely viewed as one of the most competitive House races in the nation and one that could determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives next year.  The building trades played a major role in stopping Altman from receiving that endorsement.

In 2022, the building trades and the AFL-CIO endorsed Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) for re-election against Kean.

The building trades will also not get involved in the July 17 special Democratic primary for Congress in the 10th district, where twelve candidates want to fill the unexpired term of Donald Payne, Jr. (D-Newark), who died in April.

The umbrella group for the state’s building trades unions is backing Democrat Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) for the U.S. Senate. Kim is running against Republican Curtis Bashaw and incumbent Bob Menendez, who is seeking re-election as an independent.

In addition to Kean, the labor group is supporting nine incumbents seeking re-election: Democrats Donald Norcross (D-Camden), Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), Frank Pallone, Jr.  (D-Long Branch), Robert J. Menendez (D-Jersey City), Bill Pascrell, Jr.  (D-Paterson), Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) ; and two Republicans, Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) and Christopher Smith (R-Manchester).

For Kim’s open 3rd district House seat, the building trades group is supporting Assemblyman Herb Conaway, Jr. (D-Delran), a Democrat.

“This year the election campaigns of U.S. Senate and Congressional candidates promise to be like few others our country have ever experienced, and the outcomes may never be more consequential,” said Mullen.  “But, despite the enormous political and ideological divides that are infecting our country, this year also presents a unique opportunity to begin the process of restoring the sense of unity our country seems to have lost.”

Mullen said that building trades unions “can play a pivotal role in encouraging a return to normalcy by helping to elect men and women to high office who will reject blind partisanship and seek cooperation and compromise within our national dialogue.”

He pledged to work in a “unified manner” to register his members to vote and “deliver victories to all its endorsed candidates.”