Lawmakers break for Christmas with progress made, but still plenty of work to do
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie during a press conference on 12/17/10.TRENTON — In September, Gov. Chris Christie threw down the gauntlet to the Democratic-controlled Legislature: pass his sweeping reform proposals before leaving for Christmas break.
He even introduced a calendar counting down the days the Legislature had left to act, which became a staple of his traveling town hall meetings.
But Monday, the Legislature broke for holiday break with most of the business unfinished.
The deadline was blown. And nothing happened.
"We’re making progress," said Christie. "We have a property tax cap. We have an interest arbitration cap. We’re close on civil service reform."
But the countdown calendar is not going away. Christie said he’ll still have it at his town hall meetings, but now it will count in negative numbers to remind New Jersey residents the Legislature’s "homework is overdue."
"It’s important for them to know that the Assembly wanted to take another two weeks of vacation and not come back here and finish the work they’re paid to finish," said Christie.
It was an ambitious deadline. Christie gave the Legislature just over 100 days to pass major changes to public workers’ pension and health benefits, the state’s ethics laws, the education system and the state’s business climate — all on top of his 33-measure "tool kit" package to help towns curtail property taxes in advance of the 2 percent limit on property tax growth set to take effect January 1.
So far, Christie has hammered out a deal with Democrats on arbitration reform for police and firefighters, which he plans to sign today. Democrats have passed their own version of reform to the state’s civil service system, though Christie said he is not satisfied because it would not allow towns to opt out of it by referendum, as he originally proposed.
But Christie’s other proposals, including merit pay for teachers, banning workers from taking more than one public salary, raising the retirement age and cutting pensions have so far not been addressed in the Legislature.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) have said they plan to take up pension and health benefit reform early next year.
Some Democrats are annoyed at the countdown clock and consider the deadline Christie set arbitrary.
"It’s theatrics," said State Sen. Fred Madden (D-Gloucester). "It’s his own self-imposed time... The shame of it is that people are being misled. You’re getting the impression that no work is being done here and we’ve been working steadily."
Sweeney said the Senate acted on the most important pieces of the "tool kit," though he insisted it would not help towns save enough to significantly slow the growth of property taxes.
"The calendar doesn’t mean anything to me. The calendar never meant anything to me," he said. "(Christie) doesn’t have a better partner in trying to reform New Jersey than me. The things that he’s proposing I first proposed back in 2006."
Oliver said the Assembly "has advanced more than 20 property tax reform bills this year" and suggested Christie’s cuts to schools and towns prompted property taxes to rise.