New Jersey may be second state to raise smoking age to 21

The spot comes ahead of the Tuesday afternoon speech, as Christie turns his attention from the Republican presidential campaign trail back to New Jersey. A spokesman for the governor declined to be more specific.

But Christie likely will not mention those thorny issues when he takes a short break from his campaign to return home and address the state legislature, unless it is to point the finger at the Democrats who lead it. The deal, when all the additional details have been finalized, needs to be formally approved by lawmakers in the legislative session beginning this week. The Christie era began with an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent, slightly better than the national 9.8 percent rate, and the Labor Department announced last week that the USA unemployment rate was unchanged at 5 percent in December – that’s 3/10ths under the New Jersey rate.

“It’s a rare day when the priorities of providers to services to vulnerable populations and government align to the extent that they did”, she said.

Christie has declared his support for gun rights as he seeks the Republican nomination for president.

Chris Christie lashed out at the president and Congress as full of hot air on Tuesday, portraying his own record as one of bipartisan bargains but also jabbing New Jersey Democrats as beholden to labor unions. “It does serve to illustrate, frankly, the difference in leadership styles”. “But you know something, if they’re not going to fix their house, then they might as well, the Governor has talked about bankruptcy in the past, then they might as well file bankruptcy”. It is expected to reopen in 2017.

In 2014, Gov. Chris Christie gave Atlantic City a five-year window to rebound from its long gaming revenue slump before considering casinos elsewhere in the state.

Christie focused part of his speech on the Democratic lawmakers’ efforts to constitutionally protect the public pension payment, saying that living up to the promise would require either unappealing spending cuts or tax hikes.

The new bill represents a compromise between the competing bills of State Senate President Steve Sweeney and New Jersey Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto.

But in New Jersey, the state constitution makes the governor extremely powerful. “$2.4 million dollars from the taxpayers”, said Christie.

Charter schools are popular among conservatives, and they typically aren’t unionized.

One of Christie’s loudest applause lines came when he touted a drop in homicides in Camden, “since with Mayor [Dana L.] Redd, we transformed the police force”. They also could introduce a bill Tuesday to have the state take over the city’s finances. “His audience was not the people of New Jersey”. According to the Senate President, the Governor’s remarks failed to address the most important issues plaguing the state and, instead, pushed a divisive rhetoric aimed at driving a wedge between those who support a constitutional amendment funding state pensions and those who do not.

Assembly Majority Leader Louis D. Greenwald (D., Camden) accused Christie of “demonizing hardworking men and women”.

New Jersey voters will decide whether the state must make quarterly payments to the state’s public pension system under a proposal that has advanced in the state Senate.

Christie, who spent 190 days out of state in 2015 not including travel to NY and Pennsylvania on 71 others, acknowledged his absence at the start of his speech with a quip: “Good to be home”. He cites Camden as a success story while ignoring the other troubled urban centers in New Jersey.