CAMDEN - Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald's phone rang.

The name on the face of the phone meant one thing:

Budget talk.

Greenwald excused himself from the horde of reporters, partiers and revelers that lurched alongside Governor Mikie Sherrill.

A few moments later he was back in the scrum, but one got the idea the phone would likely pull him out again as the Legislature sorts through critical details related to the FY2027 Budget. Even Governor Sherrill admitted to being concerned about the time crunch. 

Greenwald, for his part, made a case for the budget.

"Perfection should never be the objective or the goal," the Assembly Majority Leader told InsiderNJ. "It should be to lay the foundation. I've always said this is a living, breathing document. During the course of the year it gives you flexibility to adapt. ...In this budget, we are protective of a $7 billion surplus to prepare us against unknown surprises coming from Washington, environmental disaster, God forbid, another super storm or pandemic, while investing in core principals."

Major initiatives in the budget include investments in medical and educational infrastructure, Greenwald said.

"We are very close to being finished," he added. "It is an always evolving process."

He acknowledgements that key investments are about 60% of "what we have done in the past because of Medicaid cuts and the uncertainty of what is coming, because of the President's attack on Medicaid. It is important for your readers to know that last month, 30K of our neighbors lost their SNAP benefits and 69k neighbors lost their health benefits - a direct impact of HR-1."

Greenwald said he is hopeful of change in the upcoming midterm elections.

"The midterms will have this pendulum back," he said. "We have to level this playing field. We have to survive until another admin of any president. The red states are getting crushed [too]. It's amazing to me that Republicans are not standing up and saying 'This is a disaster. In New Jersey, that's Jeff Van Drew and Tom Kean, Jr. that have allowed this to happen."

Watch (the FULL!) InsiderNJ interview on the Camden Waterfront with the Assembly Majority Leader HERE: