'We've seen great progress, and why would we want to stop?' Christie said
Gov. Chris Christie addresses the Senate and Assembly at the Statehouse in July.TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie, who was full of surprises in his rookie year, insists he won’t have any in his State of the State address on Tuesday.
Instead of rolling out a list of new goals, Christie said he is sticking with the ones that have already turned Trenton upside down: Revamping education, reforming benefits for public employees, getting tough on state finances.
The Republican governor said his speech will have no "laundry lists" of programs, no "pandering" to every constituency. He wants his second year to build on the first.
"We’ve seen great progress, and why would we want to stop?" Christie said in an interview with The Star-Ledger on Friday. "I’m for accomplishing big things, and the only way you can accomplish big things is to strive for them and to talk about them constantly, and even then it’s a difficult task."
The governor said the state probably can’t afford any tax cuts because of the tough economy, and the pending loss of about $900 million in Medicaid funding could pose big problems. He wants concessions from state workers in what is expected to be tough contract negotiations.
Christie, who gained national attention with his unconventional town hall exchanges, will participate in one of the most conventional requirements of a governor: Delivering his first State of the State address before a joint session of the Legislature at the Statehouse.
In preparing for his speech, he read the first addresses delivered by ex-governors back to Tom Kean in 1983.
"They’re laundry list speeches," Christie said. "They want to get something for every department mentioned. They want to touch on every potential issues. That’s not the way I’ve governed, and that’s not the way I’m going to give the State of the State."
Christie said his biggest mistake of his first year was his inability to understand the pace of the legislative process. Aware the Legislature will break in the fall for elections, leaving less time for working in Trenton, Christie said he will keep the pressure on lawmakers to finish his agenda.
"I have an idea and a plan for where I want to lead the state. If I’m not the person who keeps it on course, no one will," Christie said. "That’s my job, to keep it on course."
Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Union) said that with government in crisis, Christie is smart to stay the course.
"The main problem with state government is we’re out of money," he said. "If he doesn’t push along these lines, the state won’t survive the economic crisis."
Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) said Christie is sacrificing other important issues with his focus on pension reform. Instead, she said, the governor should be pushing job growth.
"I don’t agree that by revamping the pension system for state employees, that improves the economy," she said.
While governors try to set the agenda in their State of the State address, some things are out of their control.
"It snows," Christie said, acknowledging the fallout after the December blizzard that blanketed the state while he was in Florida on a family vacation to Disney World.
One of the biggest issues will be state employee contract negotiations. Christie signaled that he’ll seek concessions, pointing to this year’s 7 percent raise.
Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey area director for the Communication Workers of America, the largest state worker union, said she hopes negotiations will proceed professionally. However, attempts by the CWA to have an informal meeting with the governor have been refused, she said.
"We have a very respectable and remarkable record of collective bargaining and reaching these good creative approaches," Rosenstein said.
Medicaid programs will become a new focus, Christie said, especially because the state is losing $900 million in federal funding for the program. Many of the current Medicaid services are federally mandated as a result of the state accepting stimulus money in 2009.
Christie said he’ll be working with a bipartisan group of governors to seek a repeal of those mandates.
"It’s just crippling states’ abilities to innovate and manage their own budgets," he said.
Christie said he will renew his call for an overhaul of the teacher tenure system, a merit-based pay scale and the expansion of charter schools. Christie said he hopes to combat the notion that more money equals better schools.
"The system we have now has failed," Christie said. "Every day we’re wasting (by) not acting, we’re wasting kids’ lives, which to me is just obscene."
He said pension negotiations between his office and the Democrat-controlled Legislature will start this month. He has called for a raising the retirement age, increasing employee pension contributions and a structural change in funding health plans. Currently, employees in the state health system pay a portion of their salary for insurance. Under Christie’s proposal, employees would pay a portion of the cost of the plan, boosting their contributions.
Mirroring the federal system, he said, this would make employees choose between the expensive plans and moderate offerings that save the state money.
When it comes to the overarching issue — making the state more fiscally responsible — Christie said he will remain diligent in keeping the state’s budget in order.
Christie said he will take a new approach to budgeting, moving toward a "zero-base budget" that requires agencies to justify every expense. He will deliver a budget address in February.
While he promised cutting taxes as a candidate, Christie said he won’t approve any unless the state can afford less revenue.
"We cannot have a dual-track system any more where you say, ‘Okay, here’s what we’re doing on the spending side’ and you say, ‘Okay, we’re going to pursue these tax cuts as well,’ pretending those two tracks don’t intersect," Christie said. "You have to pay for things."
By Ginger Gibson and Chris Megerian/The Star-Ledger