TRENTON — Senate Democrats Thursday challenged their Republican colleagues to buck Gov. Chris Christie and join them to override his budget veto of several social welfare programs. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said he would schedule the override votes for Monday, and hold at least one more session over the summer. "This is a vote of conscience," said Sweeney,...
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Senate President Stephen Sweeney gave a short press conference June 30, following Gov. Chris Christie's press conference, about line-item vetoing the Democrat-supported N.J. budget. TRENTON — Senate Democrats Thursday challenged their Republican colleagues to buck Gov. Chris Christie and join them to override his budget veto of several social welfare programs.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said he would schedule the override votes for Monday, and hold at least one more session over the summer.
"This is a vote of conscience," said Sweeney, who has been bitterly critical of the governor’s vetoes. "And we’re going to ask our colleagues in the Senate to for once at least do the right thing and vote their consciences."
The effort stands little chance of succeeding. Democrats have 24 votes in the Senate, but not the 27 they would need to successfully cancel out Christie’s vetoes. They have tried to override his vetoes in the past, but failed when Republicans refused to join them.
"Our chances are slim, but I think that we have a responsibility," said Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex), who called Monday a "day of reckoning" for Republicans.
The move would put Republicans on record supporting the cuts four months in advance of November, when all 120 legislative seats are at stake.
Last week, Christie took his pen to the $30.6 billion budget Democrats handed him and made about $1 billion in cuts, including AIDS drug distribution programs, nursing home financing, and a half-million dollars for a center for sexually abused children, among other things. Democrats responded by calling the cuts inhumane.
Republicans insisted that the Democrats wouldn’t be in this situation if they had negotiated a budget with Christie rather than sending him a spending plan they knew he would not sign.
"Overriding a governor’s veto should be a thoughtful decision that is used sparingly by the Legislature," Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. said in a prepared statement, adding that "the majority’s never-ending use of this extraordinary tool shows that they are more concerned about political theater than the actual outcome,"
Since legislative leaders and the governor found common ground on pension and health benefit reform last month, Kean said, "there was no reason it couldn’t have been found on the budget without anyone abandoning their principles."
An override vote would have to be successful in the state Senate, where the budget originated, to make it to the Assembly.
Assembly Democrats said on Wednesday they would hold committee hearings over the summer to examine the effects of the cuts and then decide what to do.
Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for Christie, said the Democrats have no way to pay for their original budget, calling it an "election-year spending spree."
Previous coverage:
• Senate President Sweeney, Democrats plan to override Gov. Christie's vetoes early next week
• Assembly Democrats plan hearings to examine Christie budget cuts
• N.J. Assembly Democrats to hold hearings on effects of Gov. Christie's budget cuts