Campaign Promises
Christie came to office in 2010, the first Republican elected governor in Democratic-leaning New Jersey in a dozen years. He promised to boost jobs, end out-of-control spending and shore up a pension fund heading for insolvency.
Though he forged first-term agreements to slice government workers’ benefits, Democrats have resisted his calls for a second round even as the health costs alone consume more than 10 percent of the 2017 budget, more than double the 2001 figure. On Nov. 14, S&P Global Ratings downgraded New Jersey debt, citing pension funding, trailing revenue and a budget hole opened by Christie’s sales- and estate-tax cuts.
New Jersey, with $135.7 billion less than it needs to pay retired workers, has surpassed Illinois for the worst-funded U.S. public pension system. Tax cuts approved by Christie in October, part of a transportation funding trade-off, will trigger an annual budget shortfall of at least $1 billion.
In November, Christie said he expected no further changes to health and retirement costs while he is governor.
“I’m confident now that it won’t get done,” Christie said on his monthly “Ask The Governor” radio call-in program.
Strained Finances
In December, he signed legislation to require quarterly pension payments, a move heralded by both parties. Fitch Ratings, though, said the law will “have little positive impact on the state’s very strained pension systems,” and can be ignored should an unexpected revenue shortfall appear.
Still, one Christie ally says the governor on Tuesday may tout the measure, along with an October agreement to raise the gasoline tax to support $16 billion in transportation spending over eight years, as examples of what can be accomplished with Democrats in his remaining time.
“Let’s get back to the table and negotiate some other things,” Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, 63, a Westfield Republican, said in an interview. “Let’s keep going. That’s the message I would hope for.”