New Jersey Governor Christie outlines 2017 ‘fiscal restraint’ budget

Gov. Chris Christie is set to unveil his seventh budget as New Jersey’s governor, turning his focus back on the state less than a week after he ended his presidential bid.

In a statement, the New Jersey Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state, accused Mr. Christie of not coming up “with any new ideas for the problems he left behind”, and said workers had already made concessions on their health-care benefits.

His proposed budget increases funding for the pension to $1.9 billion, but leaves for later a solution on the state’s troubled transportation fund.

Christie presented his budget hours after the release of a Rutgers-Eagleton poll that showed his favorability among registered New Jersey voters at a low of 29 percent. New Jersey’s exemption threshold at $675,000 is also the lowest in the country.

Christie said that, since taking office, his administration has worked to keep taxes flat through the 2 percent property tax cap as well as through vetoes to proposals for a millionaire’s tax and a corporate business tax increase.

Gov. Chris Christie says he thought that his governing experience in New Jersey prepared him to run for president and the experience of the failed campaign has made him a better governor and person. Christie dedicated a portion of his State of the State address last month to criticizing the plan, which Democrats hope to have on the November ballot.

As he has previously done, Christie railed against a proposal put forth by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) that would mandate future pension payments through a constitutional amendment, saying it would place pensioners “ahead of every other citizen of the state”.

Christie said the Democrat-led Legislature wants to deal with the diminishing transportation trust fund “solely on the back of taxpayers”, but that’s not the full picture.

The governor, who became a national Republican figure by tackling the pension crisis and taming unions, has called for more givebacks to reduce the state’s obligations to a retirement system with an $83 billion unfunded liability.

-$250 million: Amount in savings from public employee and retiree health costs Christie is seeking to help make that pension payment. Since Christie took office in January 2010, they have punished the state with nine downgrades in part because of Christie’s history of overly optimistic revenue projections and the use of non-recurring revenue sources.

“We did all of this together in the last 2,220 days”, Christie said.

Christie, did however, begin his speech by quickly thanking residents for allowing him the “great privilege” of running for the White House. Prieto says Democrats have been ready to work with Christie and are ready to work with him after he’s returned from the Republican presidential campaign trial.

It’s a $34.8 billion spending package with no new tax hikes.