Former Senate President Steve Sweeney released proposals for his “New Jersey Builders Agenda” on Thursday, plans that he hopes will ramp up infrastructure development in the state.
In a Thursday release, Sweeney said he would create a Public Works Program, inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Public Works Administration and Tennessee Valley Authority from the Great Depression. He said the program would act as a strategic “market shaper” on electricity, housing, and infrastructure to improve the quality of life for New Jerseyans.
“I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of policies that don’t work for us,” Sweeney said in a release. “My opponents represent more of the same, and behind them are the same money people who’ve been pushing Democratic politicians to govern for Wall Street tycoons for decades. That ends here.”
Sweeney, a union ironworker, said he would revamp the state’s energy production with modular nuclear reactors, gas-powered plants, and “state-of-the-art” hydrogen technology.
The former Democratic legislator said he would create a program to give down-payment assistance to first-time homebuyers,
Sweeney said he would also ask voters to approve a bond measure that would create construction job training programs that would prepare residents for jobs within two years. He said those programs could be run through unions and community colleges.
He said his administration would also kickstart a major bond program to invest in clean-water projects, sewer system improvement, and climate resilience.
“The New Jersey Builders Agenda is more than a policy platform – it’s a declaration of independence from the status quo that has failed working people for too long,” the platform reads. “We are done mimicking the economic playbooks of those who prioritize profit over people.”