Christie's budget victory

NY Post ^ | July 02, 2010 | Editorial

[Scanian]

In sharp contrast to Albany's ongoing budget fiasco, New Jersey's new GOP governor, Chris Christie, this week signed his first budget -- the lowest in five years for the Garden State.

The $29.4 billion plan -- which passed the Democratic-controlled Legislature without compromises on Christie's part -- rejected major tax hikes and cut state spending by 2.2 percent from former Gov. Jon Corzine's last budget.

Then, not resting on his laurels, Christie summoned the Legislature back into special session on the eve of the Independence Day weekend to enact a cap on property-tax hikes.

Telling legislators their job was "only half-done," Christie added: "When it comes to the property-tax crisis in New Jersey, the evidence is overwhelming. The fear and frustration of the property taxpayers is real."

Indeed, it is -- New Jersey has the nation's highest property taxes.

Christie came into the session demanding a constitutional amendment that would cap increases at 2.5 percent, except for debt service or when approved by 60 percent of local voters.

Though Jersey governors are inherently among the nations' most powerful, Christie couldn't win over Trenton Democrats as he did on the budget.

So he compromised yesterday, requesting instead a statutory cap, rather than a constitutional amendment

[ObamaMustGo2012]

President Christie?

[MrMarbles]

yes, someone with balls

[ripley]

“Christie couldn’t win over Trenton Democrats as he did on the budget.”

Those insane hordes of Democrats in New Jersey government are representative of the population in New Jersey.

(One wonders how this governor was elected in a state so filled with brilliant-genius Democrats who know everything and who consider people like Mr. Christie to be a member of the herd, so low on the evolutionary scale.)

IMHO

[Alberta's Child]

(One wonders how this governor was elected in a state so filled with brilliant-genius Democrats who know everything and who consider people like Mr. Christie to be a member of the herd, so low on the evolutionary scale.)

It's pretty simple, in fact. Christie signed a budget that was passed by the Democratic-controlled state legislature. A lot of news articles about this story make it seem as if Christie enacted a budget all on his own, but even in a state like New Jersey where the governor wields a lot of power he can't do that. This wasn't his budget (even if his administration laid out very clearly what they wanted in it) -- it was THEIR budget.

[Fletcher J]

And sadly, this is considered a “big win” for those of us interested in some financial sanity these days. Chrisite has cut spending back to - wait for it - levels not seen since 2005!

Oh, how can the people of New Jersey manage to live with a level of state government ‘services” last seen when Hannah Montana was a just a young entertainer... lol

The last time my state went thru an “austerity” budget, our pig of a governor cut the budget for fire protection, police, state parks and other items that taxpayers actually appreciate. When taxes are rolling in, government hires lots of useless beaurocrats, but when spending has to be reduced again, the spending that ends up on the chopping block are the things that people want most - you know, to put the screws to the common folk and sway them to support more taxes and government.