Well, New Jersey voters say the affordability crisis is a top concern as they prepare to cast a ballot.

Prices at the grocery store, they're front and center remaining stubbornly high even as inflation slows and prices of other goods fall.

Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill today announced a new plan to tackle the high cost of groceries, staking her claim on a key issue as she also considers running for governor next year.

Senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports.

Quite frankly, I hear too many stories from people throughout the state about how grocery prices are really impacting affordability here in new Jersey.

Outside of a small, independently owned grocery store in Hamilton called Compare Fresh Market, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill today explained that grocery prices have risen by more than 25% between January 2020 and July 2024.

Our working class families are not able to afford food that impacts their children and the elderly.

That means families are constantly making decisions about whether they pay their bills or whether they buy food.

The price of groceries is a little bit ridiculous.

I would say like 30% of my budget is groceries.

So today, Sherrill unveiled a bill called reduce, which stands for Restoring Establishment Deductions and Uplifting Competition to Ease Food Prices.

Long name, but simple concept the bill would give tax incentives for small grocery stores to open up in neighborhoods, creating competition to drive down prices.

A key cause of the rising prices is corporate concentration and market power in the grocery industry, which has pushed small businesses out of communities like ours.

While the four largest food retail companies accounted for about 25% of national grocery sales in 1990, the four largest companies today account for 53% of sales.

This dramatic expansion in grocery store consolidation has had significant consequences for the prices that families face at the supermarket.

This grocery store is an example of what Sherrill’s bill would hope to duplicate.

Now, this one wasn't started with county or federal support, but it is expanding with the help of the county.

And that's the model that the bill would hope to expand upon.

This would give some tax credits for employees as well as for some of the infrastructure investments.

If you're turning a new building over to develop a grocery store, if you're purchasing some of the things you need for that grocery store, this would offer you tax credits.

Mercer County is a place that has high concentration, of kind of the big food stores, which means they focus on the most profitable areas, oftentimes leaving food deserts in other parts of the county.

And Mercer, like many new Jersey counties, has several areas where residents earn between 38 to $48,000 a year, according to Benson.

Between housing and food, there's little left for anything else.

So making sure that we have more jobs that are high, paying to help that median income up.

And again, that's where bills like this help, because grocery stores, as you can see how busy they are, really creates really good local jobs for folks.

But how impactful will it really be?

Stockton University economist and public policy analyst Michael Busler says it's not actually supermarkets driving costs up.

He says we need to look at the macro level decisions contributing to inflation.

It's not so much the grocers and what they're selling is.

As I mentioned, they work on 1 to 2% profit margins.

So how do we get rid of inflation.

The federal government needs to, get closer to balancing their budget, and they're not getting any closer to the current fiscal year, which ended in September, the deficit was nearly $2 trillion.

Secondly, we need to get energy prices down.

Whatever we decide is the best way to provide energy.

The bill was just introduced today, and Sherrill plans to seek support for it.

But one might also wonder if she, too, is focused on the macro level, at least in New Jersey, pushing for this program in Mercer County, well outside of her district 11.

It begs the question any thoughts about a run for governor?

Well, right now, with 21 days till the election, I'm totally focused on 24.

So, that's, that's what's sort of on the table now is we're fighting hard for New Jersey.

But what's on the table now might not be all that she's cooking up behind the scenes in Hamilton.

I'm Joanna Guy, NJ Spotlight News.