Event with a decidedly Jersey attitude
Gov. Chris Christie spoke with New Jersey residents about Cap 2.5. The proposed constitutional amendment would cap increases in the property tax levy and state spending. The event was held at the First Presbyterian Church in Rutherford.
RUTHERFORD — Gov. Chris Christie began a town hall meeting in Bergen County today by introducing his friend, Vincent Curatola — Johnny Sack from the "The Sopranos" — who was sitting in the front row.
What followed was an event with a decidedly Jersey attitude.
Four months into his tenure, the governor got an earful from supporters and detractors — and gave it right back, getting into heated arguments with some residents who challenged him.
"I don’t want to lose touch," Christie said after fielding questions on topics from his own $175,000 salary to housing for the developmentally disabled to his veto of a tax increase on millionaires.
The Republican governor spoke to about 100 people at a church hall in Rutherford, in the third of his town-hall meetings to push for a 2.5-percent annual limit on property tax increases, as well as a "tool kit" to hold down public employee costs. The 33 proposals face an uncertain path in the Democrat-controlled Legislature, and opponents say the changes would force drastic cutbacks in essential local services.
"It’s a travesty," said Christine Beidel, a Rutherford resident who berated the governor over his $820 million in school aid cuts.
Christie said voters deserve the chance to decide, through a constitutional amendment that could be on the ballot this fall, to cap their taxes after politicians of both parties have failed to control them. Local voters could then choose whether to override the cap in a given year, but there would be no automatic exceptions for essentials like health care or energy costs.
"These same know-it-alls say, ‘You can’t turn over New Jersey’s property tax system to the citizens, for goodness sake. They don’t know enough. ... It’ll be terrible, it’ll be Armageddon, it’ll be awful,’" Christie said. "You have left the property tax problem in the hands of Trenton politicians for 30 years, and your prize for that is the highest property taxes in America. ...You couldn’t possibly do any worse."
Christie dismissed a record-breaking Statehouse protest on Saturday as a "special-interest, me-first rally." The crowd of 30,000 to 35,000 people — most from public employee unions — criticized his "tool kit," as well as his budget cuts to schools, towns, libraries, property tax rebates and other areas.
"You are God outside of New Jersey," Clara Nibot, a 65-year-old retiree from Bergenfield, told Christie. "Let New Jersey be affordable. ... We are the silent majority that’s learning to speak out."
She was followed at the microphone by Rita Wilson, an English teacher who lives in Kearny. Wilson told the governor she was one of the educators he criticized as having a "me, first" attitude, but she’s making a smaller salary than she would as a baby-sitter.
"I’m not a rabble-rouser. I’m a simple English teacher," whose students perform well, Wilson said. "I work really hard."
Wilson said she used the babysitter example to make a point, as Christie has pressured teachers to take a one-year wage freeze and contribute at least 1.5 percent of their salary toward health benefits to help the state through its fiscal crisis. She and Christie then testily talked over each other for several questions and answers.
"You know what, you don’t have to do it," Christie said.
"Teachers do it because they love it," Wilson told him.
"Teachers go into it knowing what the pay scale is," Christie said.