NUTLEY — Gov. Chris Christie is occasionally critical at his town hall meetings. The teacher’s union is often a target. The commissioners of the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority have been the object of verbal barrage. Sometimes he rails against the Legislature. On Thursday, the governor didn’t take aim at a person or a union. His target was an inanimate...
A state panel will advise Gov. Chris Christie on his best options for the future of Xanadu, the long-stalled Meadowlands project.NUTLEY — Gov. Chris Christie is occasionally critical at his town hall meetings. The teacher’s union is often a target. The commissioners of the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority have been the object of verbal barrage. Sometimes he rails against the Legislature.
On Thursday, the governor didn’t take aim at a person or a union. His target was an inanimate object: Xanadu.
"It’s by far the ugliest damn building in New Jersey and maybe America," Christie said, eliciting applause from a receptive audience in Nutley. "I can’t take it anymore."
The governor disclosed that if any more state money goes into the stalled project at the Meadowlands, the state must have some ownership of the project, a $2 billion entertainment and retail mall alongside the New Jersey Turnpike.
And he stressed one of the priorities must be to change Xanadu’s exterior, a design checkered with green, blue and orange squares that critics say makes it look like something built with Lego blocks.
Christie said the state will reach an agreement with the developer, Triple Five, within months, and that it may mirror the agreement with Revel Casino in Atlantic City. Christie announced last month the state would be a 20 percent partner in the casino, in return for a $261 million boost.
"If they want state investment, we have to get a piece of the action," Christie said of Xanadu.
A spokesman for Triple Five would not comment on partial state ownership of the project, but said the developer agrees with Christie that the exterior of the building needs to change.
The town hall meeting also featured a sobering exchange between Christie and a former educator, who started off his question by praising the governor. But John DeFilippis’ remarks took a different turn when he brought up the $174 million cut to higher education in Christie’s budget last year.
"We’re broke, I get it," said DeFilippis, former director of academic affairs at New Jersey City University. "Still, I want you to know, those cuts cost me my job."
DeFilippis has lived in New Jersey his entire life, but has been unemployed since the cuts. "For the first time in my life I’m facing the grim reality that I might have to leave the state that I have always called home," he said.
Christie said he felt badly De Filippis lost his job, but the cuts were the result of "decades of irresponsibility."
"This is the tough medicine that we have to take down," Christie said. "If we don’t there’s going to be scores more people just like you who are going to face the reality of leaving our state."
When more prosperous times come, "We’re going to make reinvestments," he said.
Christie also renewed his call for pension, benefit and tenure changes. In response to a question, he said he is waiting for lawmakers to act on legislation that would ban those who still hold dual offices, and employees who have two public salaries.
"Even in New Jersey, one public salary should be enough," he said. "We wonder why our taxes are so high. We have more government per capita than any state in America and we have people who have two, three jobs within the government."
Previous coverage:
• Gov. Christie: State investment in Xanadu must also mean state ownership
• Wall surrounding Xanadu snow dome buckles as a result of ice buildup
• Under new owner, Xanadu to get major makeover, name change
• Mall of America owner to acquire unfinished Xanadu project at the Meadowlands
• Public pensions that invested in Xanadu project at N.J. Meadowlands have lost millions
• Panel will advise Gov. Christie on four potential suitors in Xanadu redevelopment