TRENTON — With Senate and Assembly Democrats set to attempt an override of Gov. Chris Christie’s vetoes of bills intended to spur job growth, Assembly Republicans this morning said they would back the governor. Although one of the four bills the Assembly will attempt to override passed in January with Democrat and Republican support, GOP members of the lower...
Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce says there will be "no drama" in the Assembly today when Democrats attempt to override Gov. Chris Christie's veto of a job creation bill.TRENTON — With Senate and Assembly Democrats set to attempt an override of Gov. Chris Christie’s vetoes of bills intended to spur job growth, Assembly Republicans this morning said they would back the governor.
Although one of the four bills the Assembly will attempt to override passed in January with Democrat and Republican support, GOP members of the lower house will reverse their votes so Democrats can’t achieve the two-thirds majority necessary to overturn any of the vetoes.
“We’re here this morning to remove any suspense there might be about the outcome of these votes,” said Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce (R-Morris), who stood with 25 members other members his caucus and said not a single Republican in the lower house would buck the Republican governor.
Last month, Christie vetoed 14 bills Democrats had pushed, most of which would have provided financial incentives for business development. The governor said they would have cost the state $600 million in lost revenue. Instead, he pared down two of the ideas and introduced them in his proposed budget.
Today, the Democrats in both houses will try to override the vetoes on nine of those bills -- four in the Assembly and five in the Senate — and have modified another two vetoed bills to match what Christie laid out in his budget.
The override attempt includes bills establishing a program allowing unemployed workers to get on-the-job training while staying on the unemployment rolls, and low-interest loans for developers of “green” buildings. That bill passed both houses with wide bipartisan support.
The Republicans said they would rather deal with business development bills during the budget process.
“Their transparent effort to embarrass and weaken the governor will not only fail but will show taxpayers what the Democratic Party has come to symbolize,” said DeCroce. “There will be no drama in the Assembly today. New Jersey’s taxpayers would be better served if the Democrats in the Legislature focused their efforts on working with the governor and reforming government in areas such as pension and benefit reform.”
DeCroce said his members would vote for two bills that were part of the jobs package that Christie vetoed, but have since been modified by Democrats to reflect the versions Christie included in his budget proposal.
Senate Republicans have not said whether any of their members will buck the party in the five bills Democrats are attempting to override in the upper house.
“We do not speculate on vote counts,” said Senate Republican spokesman Adam Bauer.
Democrats have attempted and failed to override Christie’s vetoes last year on restoring funding to women's health centers and attempting to reinstate a “millionaires tax” on households earning more than $1 million a year.