Politics & Government

Gov. Says N.J. Comeback Has Begun [VIDEO]

Christie answered questions on taxes, education and flooding Tuesday.

Gov. Chris Christie held a town hall meeting at the in Bridgewater Tuesday, and hundreds of residents from the town and beyond listened as he stated that New Jersey is beginning to thrive again.

"I am talking about New Jersey's comeback," he said in front of local dignitaries, state officials and residents. "I didn't say it has arrived, and I certainly didn't say that it's over. I said it has begun."

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In his second town hall forum of 2012, Christie spoke about cutting taxes, and avoiding what he called the scare tactics of Democrats who say his administration is ruining the state. He spoke about returning money to the people of the state through his spending caps and other measures to be taken over the next two years.

"Democrats are concerned with fiscal responsibility, but these are the people who left me a deficit," he said. "I plan to get your money back if I have to pry it from [the Democrats'] cold dead hands."

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"They have your money in their hands, and they believe they can spend it better than you can," he added.

Christie spoke about his plan to cut income taxes for all residents by 10 percent over the course of three years. He said phasing it in over three years would allow it to be paid for with current revenues.

On the other side, Christie said, Democrats in the legislature are saying that it's not fair to cut everyone by 10 percent because some will get more than others.

"Well of course," he said. "If somebody's making $100,000 and you cut the taxes by 10 percent, they're going to get more than someone making $50,000 when you cut the taxes by 10 percent."

"But that's because they're paying more in taxes to begin with," he added.

And in addition, Christie said, there is a program called Earned Income Tax Credit for those who have jobs but are struggling to make ends meet. So for all people who have a job, he said, they will see taxes reduced by 10 percent.

In terms of the job situation, Christie said, he has also been pleased to see an increase in jobs available to New Jersey residents, after seeing a loss of about 100,000 private sector jobs in 2009.

"We have recovered 60,000," he said.

Christie said companies, like pharmaceuticals, have begun to return to New Jersey, and are employing residents of the state.

"If we make it affordable here, businesses will come back because they want to employ you," he said. "And that's why we need to cut taxes."

Aside from his initial speech, Christie took questions from the audience that ranged from the need for lowering taxes to protecting local towns like Manville from future flood devastations.

One woman asked about Christie's plans for job initiatives concerning small and medium-sized businesses, and making them stronger throughout the state.

Christie said that by reducing taxes and regulations for businesses, they have become stronger while having to pay fewer costs to move forward. On the program side, he said, the administration has set up the Business Action Center to field phone calls concerning issues on programs, business loans, grant programs and other issues that might arise in dealing with small and medium-sized businesses.

"They will act as your concierge," he said.

"We know, to get our unemployment rate to where we want it to be, now to get it down another point or two, it's got to be small businesses that do it," he added. "Small businesses employ a certain number of people and remain relatively static. What we need to do is get small businesses to feel comfortable enough again to start hiring people."

Moving on from businesses, a Franklin man questioned whether Christie would consider allowing towns to choose on their own whether they would want to bring charter schools into their district, emphasizing that he had believed they would be implemented in the hardest hit areas, not places like Cherry Hill, where it was approved in September.

Christie's answer was a blatant, "no."

"I've said my focus on charter schools is going to be on urban areas," he said, citing that a recent approval in the last few weeks set up plans for charter schools in eight urban areas around the state. "Generally speaking, in successful school districts, there's not a need for charter schools as greatly as there is a need in failing urban districts."

But, Christie said, there will be times when the schools will be approved in districts that are more successful.

"[But] I do not want to turn education reform into another voter issue because what's going to happen is the education establishment will fight against any pull away from the traditional public school system," he said.

Christie said he does not want to turn this into a political issue because it will pull focus from the children themselves. And, he said, it is becoming about money rather than the education as residents of towns like Cherry Hill are focusing on the burden of having to pay for the charter school.

"I don't want this to come down to a money question, what I want it to come down to is an educational opportunity question," he said.

But concerns over taxes were the driving force behind many questions, including one woman from North Carolina, who is looking to move back to New Jersey with her husband, who is currently in the Army. But, she said, the high taxes are a problem.

Where she lives in North Carolina, she said, there is a countywide shared services fire department, and she questioned whether this had ever been considered in New Jersey.

Christie said shared services has always been a focus of his administration, and residents will be seeing a broad shared services bill to be introduced in this legislative session. The bill, he said, will lower barriers for shared services to ensure, among other things, that they actually help lower taxes in communities.

And in some cases, Christie said, the bill may mandate certain shared services, and make some amounts of state aid contingent on abiding by those requirements.

But Christie said when it comes to the idea of merging municipalities themselves, that would be purely up to the individual communities with decisions made by the residents and officials of those towns.

"We need to save some money, we need to try to be more efficient in what we do," he said of pushing for shared services among communities, including shared police departments and other opportunities.

Christie said the face of the concerns over the need for lowering taxes comes in part from people who want to move to New Jersey but can't because they cannot afford to live in the state.

"If we want to lower property taxes, there is only one way to do it, and that is to spend less," he said.

As for property taxes for residents, Christie said the first step is stabilizing spending.

"We have to reexamine the entire way we do that," he said. "I don't think we're ready to examine that because we haven't clamped down on spending yet."

But school taxes are a good chunk of that bill, Christie said, and it is difficult to reduce taxes overall without bringing those costs down as well.

Christie cited the fact that he cut millions of dollars in aid for school districts, and residents were up in arms about the cuts.

So for balancing reasons, Christie said, the property tax cuts need to be done over three years.

"If I tried to do it all in one year, I'd have to be cutting a lot later," he said. "But phased in over three years, I'm able to let people pay for this new budget system we have now."

"Then we have to have a conversation as a state as to how we are going to pay for education," he said. "Do we pay for it through property taxes, or does it have to be from some other broad-based tax?"

Christie said the state spends billions of dollars on education between property taxes and state aid, and the situation has to be worked out to continue to lower taxes.

But, Christie said, he does not believe a conversation on that is appropriate at this time because the state has not yet gotten a handle on its spending.

"That's going to be a vigorous conversation," he said. "And I want to have that conversation. But I only want to have that conversation when I can look you in the eye and say, 'I've done everything I can on the state level to clamp down on the spending, the excessive spending.'"

"Once I've done that, then I say we need to have a conversation about the taxes," he added.

Christie also addressed a question on the new bill to allow municipalities or school boards to move school elections to November, instead of continuing to hold them in April. For him, it is about getting more people to participate in the elections.

"I want to move them to November so that more people can take part in electing their school board members," he said.

As for the voting on the budget—which, if the elections are moved to November, would only be required if it exceeds the 2 percent cap—Christie said that the budgets are usually voted down when they go above that limit.

"When the budget is voted down, and I've heard this frustration from people all over the state, nothing happens," he said. "It goes to the municipal governing body, they cut a little bit, they send it back to the school board and it's all done."

"There is almost nothing that comes in terms of significant savings to the people," he added.

But now with that cap, Christie said, there is that safety net with November elections for people to decide whether they want the budget to be higher than the cap. And with the elections in November, he said, far more people will be taking part and voicing their opinions.

"[The board of education] will be accountable to a greater number of people than it might otherwise be with only 10 to 12 percent of people voting," he said.

Christie also addressed environmental concerns, saying that he has to balance getting people back to work with environmental agendas.

"I don't want this state to be environmentally damaged," he said. "We are doing things to make the environment better, safer, cleaner."

But, Christie said, he is not going to turn over to the Department of Environmental Protection or others who might be trying to stifle business growth through concerns about the environment.

Christie concluded the town forum with a more lighthearted question from a young Bridgewater resident who asked the governor whether he would encourage the New York Giants to have a parade in New Jersey if they win the Super Bowl.

"The Giants are going to win the Super Bowl," he said. "And when they beat the Patriots and when they come home ... I'm going to tell [them] that if they really want to be loyal to where their real fans are, the rally to celebrate the Giants Super Bowl victory will be right in Met Life stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey."


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