bateman basically initially served the sixteen foot slipped district since january of one nine hundred ninety four when he was elected to the assembly and he served seven consecutive terms which ended in two thousand and seven and then he was elected as a state senator in two thousand and eight he currently serves on the stage as sherry committee of the senate law and public safety committee and the senate environment and energy committee he has served on a joint committee on public schools and the joint committee on housing affordability in addition some of the batem has been appointed to the joint committee on affordable housing the pro advisory board and the new jersey historical commission he has received numerous awards he spoke at many places he has sponsored laws which reduced what do insurance premium costs for policyholders also allowing tax filers to contribute a portion of their income tax refunds sport the dare program and he also has sponsored legislation with helps create a grant program for thermal imaging cameras to fire departments and companies throughout the state  he's a local of new jersey in having been gone through the public schools in somerset and graduating from ithaca college with a bachelor's degree in history in political science and also earning his j d from another local school seton hall university school of  and it's great having you on the show i know you're you're been very busy these days but also been very busy with a lot of legislation yes very much so so i some some good deals you know i enjoy being a senator  when i first came down here we were in majority now and i did the minority so i may friends on both sides of the are which is very important because really to getting significantly done in new jersey it's got to be a bipartisan matter it does have to be bipartisan and why you think it's important for elected officials to put party politics aside and to work together to solve the problems that we face because people elect us to represent them in trenton and you know new jersey a great place to live and raise a family but it's becoming on affordable and the only way we can get a handle on the taxes and the cost of living in new jersey is to work in a bipartisan manner he got to put politics aside because you know trying is good washington you know it's terrible i mean they can't get a thing done because so partisan in washington they think it's going to give the what the other side let's talk about some of the things that you've worked on a lot of your legislation has been bipartisan and let's start locally first right here in princeton where we had recently the bog turtle was doesn't need a new jersey state reptile maybe you can tell us a little about that absolutely schools and then i go another politician fourth graders really are fun to speak to and i want to riverside here in princeton and they said oh center baby we have an idea we we want to see the bottle become a state reptile and so they had you know posters set up the and what we did was we brought some of the students down when the bill was up in committee and they asked testify and they were good they did their homework there they were sharp and so we got through committee we got the senate we got to the sadly and then governor murphy was you know very kind to come to princeton to sign the actual bill at riverside let me tell you the kids were so excited they had safad turtles i mean it was really it was really a great lesson for fourth graders and civics and say that you know they do have a say in what happens and a lot of  our a lot of our state symbols come about because fourth graders learn about state government right jersey in fourth grade and so you know it's teachers have a very valuable lesson that they too can have input well you know for us having input you also have to build housing on part of the princeton battlefield princeton about feel it's important because it was really the turning point in the american revolution it was really the first time that george washington and actually they had actually  british troops right here in princeton and you know most a feel has been preserved but there's a section that basically were the were george washington the troops out for counter attack that was a section of the field that they wanted to develop into  housing and so we worked with civil war trust obviously the that a field trust to try to come up with a solution and sure enough you know they stepped up and at the end of the day i did the right thing and they said you know what ok we can pull back our development to preserve that land because really i mean you know american blood was spilled in that field the first marine was killed in that field i mean it has historic significance you know once it's gone it's gone and i think it's so important for the next generations to realize how important jersey was in the american revolution that could be sa important to get the civil war trust involved you know that it was important to them to just switching gears for a second i know a lot of times when folks go to restaurants there's a lot of leftover everywhere though is there something like that and i know is that there recently th demonstration of how all this food one is going to waste when it could be going to people who really could afford you know the food and to it takes up so much space in our landfills that they came up with some ideas on how we can reduce food now and schools but restaurants and also learn how to recycle food and learn how to distribute where you can so i was able to pass legislation which governor christie saw and which really will reduce the volume of food now in schools but also allow them to reuse it where possible into recycling ok and restarting is the biggest right now and the environment's a big issue and i know you've been a big proponent you've been in the forefront of environmental advocacy i know you've done a lot but since two thousand seven hundred senate vironment committee i've been able to do several major bills with senator smith in a bipartisan manner and he and i after three tries are finally in two thousand fourteen we were able to get the issue on the ballot to  have funding into perpetuity for open space farmland preservation blue acres and historic preservation so every year millions of dollars goes into that fund for that purpose because the environment so important and we see it and you see it this week with the hurricane  where the storms are getting stronger becoming more frequent you know it's a real concern climate change is a real concern and so i've been environmentalist so i've tried to pass legislation to make new jersey greener and i think most people realize accountability act but also more more over your efforts to promote clean water and in leading the efforts to remediate and safeguard drinking supplies for new jersey films because that was just a big issue with flint michigan not too long ago  issue in schools and making sure water is safe to drink no question about and i was just on a bipartisan commission looking at the water in new jersey you know unfortunately as you indicate a lot of our urban areas in particular there's a great deal lead there were so we came up with some proposals i have a bill out there for twenty million dollars appropriation to try to get some of the lead out of the water because a lot of the infrastructure a lot of pipes are causing problems in the urban areas and it's a real concern and so you saw what happened in michigan we're trying to get ahead of that for and i also as part of the water countability act to try to make certain that the water that is being provided to the jersey residents is clean and hopefully without unlimited so you know it's a monumental task is not going to happen overnight sister she says new jersey water your fear is always better is that true is actually true i mean no i don't that's true because you know let me let me tell you what a new jersey has some of the best pizza and some of the best branded world and that's because of the water the biggest of bagels to yeah and that's because the water so we have great water but it's not perfect and certain areas that need to be remediated need to be cleaned up and you know i have well what are my water a home is great i love it but you know that's not everywhere and so we have to be heard about the ones who are getting clean water do we have to worry about the supply of water in the years to come it seems like with all the huge growth in the you know one change and things warming up are we going to have enough supply of what i think one of the issues that our children and grandchildren face is clean water and fortunately this year you know i guess it's a double edge sword we've had a lot of great deal rates are reservoirs are a capacity this year but we have run into problems in the past as you know we've had droughts and you know to keep to have a clean adequate clean water supply in the future a next generation is going to take a lot of action on our part because you know what is such and such a resource everybody has to have clean water and you look around parts of the world like south africa they're almost out of water a couple years ago when it was almost out of water i mean it's really it's a concern so we have to make certain that we do everything we can now to safeguard for the future ok let's talk a little about the trend and what's going on in trenton the new governor  thoughts about the new governor of the budget what's going on with taxes you know personally i like governor murphy i you know i worked with on a couple issues he was very very kind on the block to legislation he's reached out for me a few times on some together they're all democrats but still really need help from the republicans so you know i think he's still feeling you know and this and he's new to job but you know his his his polling is pretty good for you know first year governor i think his polls are you know one the highest right now  but we've got to get a handle on taxes we can't keep going back to the russians and keep raising taxes they just raise a gas tax you know his budget raised a lot of taxes i mean people like new jersey but it's becoming on affordable and we're going to keep people in the state and you know we have the highest property taxes in the country and you know now we have with the highest gas taxes and you know enough so enough and so you know i think senate president sweeney has taken the bull by the horns and i think he realizes that we can't really see what taxes they're going to buy left you know that's upon the money he's leaving new jersey and that's not good and that's not good people live in new jersey and with the property taxes people who are are saying you know i can get more for my money to live somewhere else so i have plenty of friends who have gone to south carolina and they have a big house a large property in the pain you know system you know it's costly and educational so we have some the best schools in it in the world it's definitely a country about the world that costs money and you know the jury is a great place to live and raise a family educate your children now a lot of things have been legal as lately has been legalized gambling in new jersey pulled revenue there's been discussion often on mostly off and some on about the legalization of marijuana and your thoughts on those who have thought you know i think legalized you know i mean i you know we had an opportunity and a christian woman which we did opt in at that point and i'm glad you know i'm glad senator lesniak and governor christie a lot of credit because everyone's really forces issue to united states supreme court because you know why only two states allow why why can't we do it and already you're seeing incredible revenues coming in which is help for those people people going to gamble whether it's through the black market through the bookies or you know legalized we might as well you know get our share of it legal so that's good it's interesting because couple years ago to study the issue i'm also mr prosecutor so i see it from the law enforcement aspect through so you know it it's a difficult issue do i think it's going to happen at some point yes do i think is going to happen immediately i don't know i mean i don't know if they have the votes because there are more questions a value in a plus they need your for blood well if they legalize it is maybe a lot more people out there driving under the influence so you know right but you know these issues will be worked out and hopefully it's you know it a lot of states are doing it we just wan seven hundred parts of mercer well they want to have a new pipeline to go under the delaware river from basically pennsylvania where they're doing the fracking and go on the delaware river and go through parts of hundred in and mercer county and  hundred merks are primarily and the problem is and i'm not against pipelines percent but this is the route for this pipeline is just going through some of the most environmentally sensitive areas whole state wetlands beautiful streams  for the most part get the benefit of the gas to go elsewhere so you're right they have not made i don't think they've made an argument justifiable argument for us to approve it and you know i've been against this and it's bipartisan again we have been watching coleman all read was against it i mean republicans democrats both because you know first of all they haven't done their due diligence they have even contacted half the homeowners on where they're going through some of these farms and open space are beautiful and so they have to demonstrate one that we needed and two that they're not going to have a severe impact on the environment also when solar and wind wind generate more jobs and one absolutely and the green industry you know especially solar is you know has produced a lot of jobs in a jersey and you know now we're getting closer to having disappointed in the way new jersey transit has been run and also the condition the roads too well the start of the jersey transit i mean that that's an embarrassing situation and it hasn't happened overnight i mean i think it's been neglected for for years and years and years because one kept cutting back the funding to they want replacing employees and i heard argument yesterday you know they need more engineers but to get an engineer it's twenty months out i mean it's twenty months of training and you know it could happen overnight so you know every day they're canceling six seven eight train speak because they don't have the personnel to run and so you know new jersey transit i mean it's an embarrassing situation and i know that the new governor is trying to get his arms around it but it's not going to happen overnight but it's not fair because you know at least notified the public in advance of the trains would be canceled as people commute and people depend on i think they show up there's no train the train was canceled i mean it's a real problem for the roads you know for too many years we neglected our roads for too many years we took money out of where it was supposed to be the trust fund to rehabilitate the bridges in the roads and you know now we're paying a price you know we're paying for since the passengers have been for too many years you know they just raise a gas twenty three cents and last week four cents you know a lot of that money is going to the debt because the debt wasn't being paid off so you know there's nobody innocent in this republican democrat both are guilty and you know we've neglected it for years and you know it's going to take a while to get back as one point especially under governor kaine with the best roads around bridges you know but since that time both republican and democrat governors in particular have neglected the responsibility when it comes to the infrastructure in new jersey well as long term jersey guy not only as a longtime prosecutor you've been at the forefront of pushing a lot of public safety issues and you've been a big supporter of you know the police in the far and our first responders and all those who put you know health and safety first you talk about a little bit about some of the bills that you sponsored and you know one of those that you're proud of yeah one of the ones i'm really proud of the early on i was able to convince  govern ministration to put money in for what they call his throwing imaging cameras which would allow every fire department in the state who applied for one to receive one and what they are is basically it's a camera that nike's see the dark of the us now and it's very popular now for rescue missions everything but when you go into a burning building you can see you hold all these cameras up and you see right through the smoke so if there's a body there or if there's a person in there asleep or under the better something you see right away and you can rescue and it actually has saved many many lives since we instituted and most fire companies around the state has taken advantage of it in the past and they've applied for and have and they're pretty impressive i've i've used them over the middlesex fire tower where they put there's a number of the bills through my prosecute position i've been able to to get through the process to help people but one of the things i'm most new jersey is that there's just as many pets as individuals in the state and the mill you want to talk a little bit which i love but we had a situation in my district so we took their dog to a groomer and you know the groomers warner i don't think adequately trained in the end up killing the dog and then you know they said oh they called the next day so  dog unfortunately died what so you know we're trying to get some training and make sure that you know it is a member your family that they're there doing the best job they can properly he said they're going to give them the adequate service aid so that that builds in the process i know my guess is basically to talk about role models who's been a role model in your life well i've been very fortunate you know my dad was in the lead search for twenty years he ran for governor you know when he ran for governor i took semester off from college i travel with they turned the whole issue to income tax around so lots of people start to get checks or maybe it wasn't so bad you know they just went out in droves and you know voted against them but it was a great experience and you know my dad you know he he was fine i mean you know he wanted to do great other things but years any thought to completing what your father was a member of the that's a big decision we have to see how it goes you know run for governor when you need a lot of money and a lot of time you know it's just and right now i'm very active in my wall from  prosecutor into courts every week you know and again i'm lucky to have four beautiful kids but you know it's a big time commitment i have to figure it out and so you know and i know some people who are already started to jockey to run for governor so it's something you got to start early and really got to give up your to your life and travel the state so i will say well you never rule it out of politics but i was and i'm very fortunate to be the senate i've been blessed with a career i've met a lot of wonderful people so it's always i can make a difference expenses i mean between the pensions and the health care benefits we can't take them away we never take them away but we have to change it going forward because they become such an anchor on the state budget you know right now they have the platen plan we could do a whole plan and it was still big but in the most plans as far as health care and pensions and then we take away the change of going forward i mean defined contribution for a one k because those two areas every year in a budget they take so much money away from so many other good organizations good other programs you know it really kind of strapped every time we do a budget and you know education you know i think a third of our budget spent on education which you know and this that's wonderful blue we've got to get a handle on that  because we want new jersey be competitive i mean new jersey a great place i said to raise a family but if you come in too expensive you know people working you know paycheck to paycheck it should be that way so you know if we can cut down our expenses and cut down the size of government  think the senate president is heading that direction and i think that you know that's what i'd like to see because i would like to be we able to every year we do the budget not like say you have to cut here cut here we should be you know putting money out into other areas started putting money into the three  thank you for watching open source have a good night stay focused the health is the active and i'll see you next week