Digital ad featuring 9 sponsors of the Polluters Pay Act runs in leadership and swing districts ahead of the June 30 budget deadline

TRENTON, NJ — On behalf of the Make Polluters Pay campaign, Food & Water Watch launched a five-figure digital ad campaign urging the New Jersey Legislature to pass the Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey More Affordable Act (A3735/S2338) before the state budget is finalized on June 30. The buy targets Senate and Assembly leadership along with competitive districts, and it puts the bill's own sponsors on camera making the case.

The 30-second ad highlights how New Jersey families are already paying for worsening floods, storms, and extreme heat through their property taxes, insurance premiums, and utility bills. The ad asks lawmakers to shift some of that cost onto the largest fossil fuel polluters before signing off on a new budget, and it closes with sponsors pledging not to leave the State House without the bill’s passage.

The ad features bill sponsors Assemblywoman Alixon Collazos-Gill, Assemblywoman Shama Haider, Assemblyman Mike Venezia, Senator John McKeon, and Senator Raj Mukherji along with Assemblymembers Joe Danielsen, Chigozie Onyema, Lisa Swain, and Clinton Calabrese.

The bill currently has 19 Senate and 46 Assembly sponsors and co-sponsors.

"Taxpayers shouldn’t pay one more dollar for climate damages until the world’s biggest polluters do. That’s why we need the Polluters Pay Act passed before the next state budget," said Matt Smith, New Jersey State Director at Food & Water Watch. "This is about fairness, accountability, and keeping our state affordable. With climate damages costing us more every year, we can’t keep putting those costs on taxpayers and ratepayers. The bill has broad support behind it. The time to pass it is now.”

Make Polluters Pay is a coalition of over 130 groups including Taxpayers for Fairness, Empower NJ, 32BJ, Clean Water Action, Climate Revolution Action Network, Communication Workers of America, NJ Citizen Action, Environment NJ, HPAE, Latino Action Network, NJEA, NJ Working Families, and United Black Agenda.

Ad Transcript: "We’re Not Leaving Without This Bill" (0:30)

Assemblywoman Alixon Collazos-Gill: "This is an affordability issue. Working families should not have to be forced to pay for a crisis they did not commit."

Assemblyman Mike Venezia: "That's why we need to pass the Polluters Pay Act before the budget."

Senator John McKeon: "The need to be resilient is not an option. It just matters who is gonna pay for it. The taxpayer?”

Crowd: “No!”

Senator John McKeon: "Those who have profited billions and billions of dollars each quarter? The fossil fuel industry?"

Crowd: "YES!"

Assemblywoman Alixon Collazos-Gill: "We need to make sure that it happens before we sign on to this upcoming budget.

Senator John McKeon: "We're not leaving here by July 1 unless it's with this bill.”