TRENTON — Democrats who control New Jersey's legislative agenda will try to override Gov. Chris Christie's vetoes of 11 bills designed to create jobs and spur economic growth. Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver have scheduled override votes for Thursday. Christie vetoed the bills Feb. 18. He proposed some of the same measures in his budget...
TRENTON — Democrats who control New Jersey's legislative agenda will try to override Gov. Chris Christie's vetoes of 11 bills designed to create jobs and spur economic growth.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver have scheduled override votes for Thursday.
Christie vetoed the bills Feb. 18. He proposed some of the same measures in his budget four days later, saying tax breaks and other revenue losses must be considered within the framework of a balanced budget, not supplemental spending.
Christie estimated that the bills would have cost $600 million the first year. Democrats said reinvigorating New Jersey's economy is a priority and Christie could have budgeted to make up the losses but chose not to.
"We have no problem moving the vital tax cuts that governor plucked from our plan, but this was a comprehensive plan to create jobs," Oliver said in a statement today. "We will not give up the fight, especially for working-class residents."
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak criticized the proposals as "a big-government plan with no comprehensive way to pay for it. There are elements of their plan and ours that can be put into action, but we cannot support other expensive programs that come with no funding source that are not being considered in the context of a balanced budget," he said.
Christie's action sparked a war of words with Assembly Democratic Leader Joseph Cryan, who called the vetoes "disgusting." Christie said that was high praise coming from his political nemesis.
Many of the bills have Democrats and Republicans as co-sponsors. But the veto overrides are long shots because it's unlikely that any Republicans — even those who sponsored the original bills — will cross the governor.
Three Senate Republicans and seven Assembly Republicans would have to join Democrats for the overrides to be successful.
Democrats who lead the Legislature hailed the bill package as an accelerant for New Jersey's stagnant economy and named the package "Back to Work NJ." Some Republicans criticized the effort as an attempt by the majority party to take back the agenda from Christie, who had been hounding them to enact his toolkit proposals to help cap property tax increases.
The bills attempt to spur hiring and job retention by providing tax breaks and incentives to businesses. Christie vetoed 14 bills in all, saying the sponsors offered no way to pay for them. Both houses will consider vetoes of two bills:
— A bill that would revise corporate tax laws to make them more favorable to businesses was first proposed in the Senate by Republicans Joe Kyrillos and Steve Oroho in 2008. The most recent version is sponsored by two Senate Democrats: Jim Whelan and Fred Madden.
— A bill revising the gross income tax code to allow businesses to carry forward some net losses for 20 years was sponsored by Democratic Sens. Barbara Buono and Linda Greenstein. An earlier version was sponsored by Republican Sens. Kyrillos and Gerald Cardinale.
The Senate will move to override five other bills. The Assembly will move to override four.
One bill encourages investment in companies specializing in emerging technology. Another provided tax credits for film and digital media production, while other measures in the package encourage students to enter fields with labor shortages and made it easier for women- and minority-owned businesses to qualify for Economic Development Authority loans.
Some of the measures have been floating around for years, unable to muster the support to bring them to a vote.