well its last dibs on the remaining Federal pandemic relief money for the state which has helped New Jersey significantly over the last three years the Murphy Administration and lawmakers are deciding how to spend about a billion dollars still on the table and there's no shortage of ideas on just where that money should go budget and finance writer John reitmeyer joins me now for the latest John hey it's good to see you um before we get to your story I want to just ask you about this news of the day that the economy slowed more than expected in the first quarter what does that mean for us here at home yeah good to see you as well today you know it's a kind of a mixed bag I think in one on one hand you see another quarter with gross growth so the third straight that we've seen with growth which is usually a good thing but we also see the rate of growth slowing for the third straight quarter and so I think you know bringing this back to New Jersey we're in the middle of uh analyzing a proposed budget the governor has put forward we could be on the verge of a recession if the trend continues and we we eventually get into negative territory and so that's something that the governor and lawmakers have to keep in mind as they craft the next state budget because what happens with the economy brings itself to revenues and revenues um provide the the money that ends up getting spent in the new fiscal year and so this is something to definitely keep an eye on but again it does represent growth and growth is usually a good thing which of course has been the looming discussion a potential recession on the horizon okay let me shift gears about a billion dollars left in federal pandemic Aid what are the proposals right now this money has been a big support for the state throughout the last few years for how to spend this yeah that that's right along with this new budget that the governor has proposed he also has some ideas about how the state should spend down its remaining covid-19 pandemic Aid that was received from the federal government we initially got more than 6 billion from the American Rescue plan act now there's a little over a billion left the governor has identified a few different things a boardwalk fund to help Jersey Shore boardwalks spending some of it to help local governments that have been kind of dealing with higher government employee health care costs somewhat triggered by the pandemic money for affordable housing the historic trust a whole bunch of ideas that Governors put forward and now as the budget process plays out we'll probably start to hear some ideas that lawmakers have as well and the governor has said this money should be spent down during the new fiscal year so that starts on July 1. and so New Jersey has a long time to spend this money but also you know we are still seeing some issues as we move through the pandemic and hopefully it's fun ones and and the impacts on the economy as well we also heard in particular from GOP lawmakers who were frustrated about the pace with which this money has been spent what are some of the criticisms they've given generally that the administration is not showing a sense of urgency with the this this money from the American Rescue plan act however the Administration has pushed back on on that criticism saying it was the prior uh federal aid packages that were really to address short-term needs the the American Rescue plan money is really looking at longer term uh big picture Investments to to improve resiliency and the the strength of the economy and so that's sort of the the tension Point playing out in the political Arena on this topic John reitmeyer for us John thanks as always you're welcome [Music]