NJ Gov. Chris Christie Enrages NJ State Senate President Stephen Sweeney With Budget Cuts

But Christie Still Has $200 million for a Rich Private Developer

New Jersey has a line item veto whereby the Governor can strike any spending he wants from the state budget after it is approved by the legislature.  New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie did just that, enraging the Democratic State Senate President Stephen Sweeney.  Here is a report on what Mr. Sweeney had to say.

As for the vindictive cuts, Sweeney’s list of suspects is a long one.

The governor cut the Senate and Assembly budgets, but not his own, a move that is unprecedented. He cut money from the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services, the outfit that sided with Democrats on this year’s revenue estimates.

He cut a fellowship program run by Alan Rosenthal, the Rutgers University professor who served as referee in this year’s legislative redistricting fight, and sided with Democrats.

When Democrats tried to restore money to a few favorite programs – including college scholarships for poor students, and legal aid for the needy – the governor not only rejected the additions, he added new cuts on top of that.


He mowed down a series of Democratic add-ons, including $45 million in tax credits for the working poor, $9 million in health care for the working poor, $8 million for women’s health care, another $8 million in AIDS funding and $9 million in mental-health services.

But the governor added $150 million in school aid for the suburbs, including the wealthiest towns in the state. That is enough to restore all the cuts just listed.

Christie’s office has disputed the charges, and quite frankly The Dismal Political Economist does not have enough information about the details of New Jersey’s fiscal and budget situation to make a judgment.  He does know that Mr. Christie does have hundreds of millions of dollars of state money to help a very wealthy developer with a project in New Jersey.

The state will provide about $200 million in financing to Triple Five, and Mr. Christie has said that in return for such aid, the state must share in the benefits if the project succeeds.

The governor declined to say on Tuesday what financial arrangements would be made, but said, “we will get our investment back, and then some.”

So Mr. Christie would not say why taxpayers were not entitled to know what the details were or  why that if the aid was such a good financial deal  the private sector would not be able to furnish the money.  Of course, this is similar to Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry who made massive cuts in education and other programs in his state, yet has $250 million to support the wealthy developers of a Formula 1 race track.

The Dismal Political Economist can only assume that somewhere there is a rulebook for Republican Governors that has rule XXX which says proper governance is cutting education and diverting the money to wealthy private developers. 

Well Governors Christie and Perry, not to worry, you are in compliance.