Last Tuesday was President Trump’s first State of the Union address and there was a lot to analyze.  I’ll do my best to tie together a few streams around the SOTU, Governor Murphy’s upcoming budget address, and how all of this affects Camden.

Trump’s address had interesting and dichotomous tones.  Some CNN correspondence directly after the SOTU mentioned that the way the address was delivered had a sense of both closed-fisted and open-handed.  Mentioning that his major concern was America’s children, President Trump still touched on the fact that he has worked across the aisle to find a feasible option in providing stability to the 800,000 DREAMers in the country. I think that this provides Governor Murphy the opportunity to make clear what exactly the state’s intentions are in protecting and providing for New Jersey’s immigrant population, especially the 22,000 DREAMers in the state.  I’ve been seeing and hearing a lot from across the state concerning the protection of the state’s immigrant community – Murphy even stopped by a sanctuary church a few weeks ago after a man was threatened with deportation upstate – and even Rutgers University has sent out consistent emails to the student body about what they can do to support their fellow classmates.  This issue is even more urgent for Camden – with the Latino community compromising almost 48% of the city’s population, immigrant community protection is one that needs clarity and decisiveness both from Trenton and Washington; at least we’ve got that from one of the two.

Economics and employment was an issue Trump planned to use to his advantage touting numbers and statistics though they may not be accurately attributed to his administration.  There was an extremely awkward moment that rung throughout the chamber when Trump made mention of a certain statistic, “African American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded…” – this was met with somber looks across many faces of African American lawmakers sitting in the audience.  I will say that employment has obviously been a major point of concern both in the state and even more so here in Camden.  With policies in place creating very few sustainable jobs, not to mention the amount that is being paid to create those jobs, Murphy and Mayor Frank Moran have some collaborative opportunities coming up.  Murphy’s move to audit the Economic Development Authority’s tax credit/incentive programs (Grow NJ and the ERG program) is a good start to digging deeper into the effectiveness of creating jobs.  Mayor Moran also has an opportunity as well as an obligation to do better in working with both the state and local neighborhoods in Camden to understand how real and sustainable jobs can be created across the city, not just downtown or for the large corporations “investing” in the city.

I only wanted to touch on a few issues to focus on a larger point that I think all of us need to take more seriously in this increasingly divisive political climate.  It’s so important for all of us to begin thinking constantly about how national, state, and local issues affect each other in all facets.  When President Trump talks about pushing through a tax bill that creates harmful to minimally helpful conditions for everyday taxpayers, that includes you.  When Governor Murphy says that he is strongly considering legalizing recreational marijuana, that affects all the friends you know who have smoked weed and faced criminal charges for it.  When Mayor Moran chooses to cooperate with the federal government’s immigration enforcement, that has influence on your Latino neighbor.  All of these things are happening whether you like it or not – so why not make the connection and do something about it?