Christie's Message To Cities & Towns
by Kevin McArdle
Friday, March 12, 2010
This coming Tuesday, Governor Chris Christie will deliver his first State Budget Address and he's not expected to paint a very pretty picture. The estimated deficit for Fiscal Year 2011 is $11.2 billion. Insiders say Christie is likely to propose cutting state aid to towns and school districts and could eliminate property tax rebates for many.
The Governor refuses to divulge specifics concerning his address, but yesterday he gave towns and school boards a sneak preview of what they can expect to hear. Christie says new statistics reveal that even as the state is striving to cut its workforce, municipalities and school boards have added over 11,000 public jobs.
"Part of what need to talk about on Tuesday is that all levels of government have to impose discipline. That government cannot continue to be made larger and more expensive" explains Christie.
Christie says expensive local governments can't be sustained especially with the high salaries and, "Especially when you're giving teachers free health benefits for life……….When you add more jobs at the local level with those labor costs imposed upon them, you'll never get property taxes under control."
It's going to be a very tough budget for Christie to sell, but he's actually counting on the public to help carry his message. He says, "Leadership, not just leadership on my part, but leadership on the part of every day citizens in this state is what's going to bring about the change."
The Governor is asking the public to tell their local leaders that it is time for change. He's also hoping that lobbyists and the Trenton hangers-on get a message too. Christie explains, "These entrenched interests that have been feeding off of the public for a very long time need to know that the public is tired of it."
Christie promises that he'll be sending the "entrenched interests" a message of his own and, "They'll be out there screaming and yelling about all kinds of unfairness and other kinds of things, but this will be shared sacrifice for everybody."
Fairleigh Dickinson University political science professor Peter Woolley says Christie's asking the people to be his allies, "Is a smart thing to do. I think the question is whether the public's attention will be sustained enough to be a strong enough ally to carry him through."
Woolley says if the people have not reached the tipping point they're very near that point. He explains, "If they're not near that point then I don't think that the Governor really has much of a prayer to succeed in keeping down taxes and cutting the budget."
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Governor Looks To Privatization
by Kevin McArdle
Friday, March 12, 2010
Facing state employee contracts entered into by the Corzine administration that include raises of between 7 percent and 11 percent for thousands of public employees in 2011, Governor Chris Christie says he must do all that is necessary to blunt what he calls, "poorly conceived and ill-timed contractual obligations that will now heavily burden budgets for Fiscal 2011 and Fiscal 2012."
Yesterday, Christie signed an Executive Order creating a New Jersey Privatization Task Force to develop recommendations for a comprehensive approach to converting certain areas of government operations to privately-run operations in an effort to cut the size and cost of state government.
"We are stuck with this problem, but that does not mean I am barred from finding a way to fix it," says Christie. "I don't think you will find private sector employees anywhere enjoying the luxury of an 11 percent raise next year. It was a promise that the state cannot afford and should never have been made in the first place."
The Governor says privatization could narrow the scope of public services provided by the state's nearly 75,000 workers and increase efficiency. He also says he would have ordered the audit even if New Jersey wasn't in dire economic need. Privatizing jobs could mean layoffs for state workers early next year, but Christie insists, "I have no number in my mind……..Whether I will do lay-offs in January or not is something that I will decide at the appropriate time."
"Because of the agreement Governor Corzine made I cannot lay-off one state worker, I cannot furlough a state worker until January 2011," explained Christie earlier this week. "That was the great election year deal he (Corzine) made for us. It is an exquisite pair of handcuffs that he put on his successor."
Asked to explain why, as a candidate he said he could alter the public employee contract, Christie said, "I was wrong. My lawyers have now told me that I am bound by that deal. That was during the campaign when it was what I thought should be true. Now I know what's true. I was wrong. Now I've got to figure out a way to try to work with it."
The agreement former Gov. Jon Corzine reached deferred for 18 months a 3.5 percent raise state workers were due July 1, 2009, and ordered 10 furlough days in exchange for no layoffs through December 2010. State workers are now due that raise on Jan. 1. They also are due a 3.5 percent raise July 1. The deal, which Christie has called "incredibly unfair," ends in January, halfway through Christie's budget year.
Bob Master, spokesman for the Communications Workers of America District 1, the largest state worker union, calls the move to privatize "a failed tactic from the past that's based on an ideological hostility to government……..The track record for privatization is very bad in New Jersey and elsewhere. You get a real deterioration of services and you don't save any money."
Christie says, "Just because previous administrations, in some people's measure have failed in this regard doesn't make me believe that we have to follow the same path or that we will be destined to the same conclusion." He claims the unions, "have shown no willingness to be engaged in shared sacrifice…….The labor unions' unwillingness to forego double-digit salary increases also is an impetus for us having to do this."
Former Governor Christie Whitman touted the privatization of some functions of the division of motor vehicles as a money saver. The state entered into a $300 million deal to privatize auto emissions testing, but the computerized tests, offered by a single-bid contractor with political ties, caused massive lines and delays at testing sites.
Christie has instructed the task force that almost every privatization idea is on the table, except for the obvious like the State Police. He also couldn't help but take a jab at Corzine's failed 800% toll hike plan. Christie said, "I don't them don't come back to me and tell you'd like to sell the Turnpike or the Parkway."
The five-member task force is comprised of lobbyists, including Dick Zimmer, a former congressman, and of others with business interests that could benefit from future public-private contracts with the state.
They members include, Todd Caliguire, a former Republican Bergen County freeholder and president of a Morris County-based paper products company; Kathleen Davis, the executive vice president for the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey; John Galandak, president of the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey; and P. Kelly Hatfield, a microbiologist and councilwoman in Summit.
Christie says their business connections are not a concern because he -- not the panel members -- will decide which, if any, services to privatize. He insists members would be able to separate their private interests from their public responsibility.
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