Governor says non-partisan Office of Legislative Services owes him an “apology” for putting out inflated revenue projections to help Democrats score political points
Gov. Chris Christie today lashed out at the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services, saying they owe him an apology for putting out inflated revenue projections to help Democrats score political points.TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie lashed out at the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services today, saying they owe him an "apology" for putting out inflated revenue projections to help Democrats score political points.
"They are the handmaiden of the majority," Christie said in a news conference today after being asked about sluggish revenue collections that have put the state in a $210 million hole after the first four months of the fiscal year.
Democrats relied on the more optimistic revenue projections provided in part by the Office of Legislative Services to help add roughly $1 billion in spending to the 2012 budget, but most of the additional spending was vetoed by Christie. At the time, Christie said the numbers were fictitious.
Democrats spent the campaign season blasting Christie for the cuts, painting him as a person out of touch with the state's middle and working class residents.
Last week, the state released revenue figures that seemed to justify the more conservative budget forecasts. They showed revenue collections were short about $210 million, or 3 percent, than anticipated during the first four months of the fiscal year.
“I hope this puts the issue to rest,” said Christie. “I think the Office of Legislative Services owes us an apology.”
However, the revenue projections by OLS for 2012 were only about $200 million higher than the governor’s, records show. That’s less than 1 percent of the state 's $29 billion budget.
In addition, the Christie administration blamed the current revenue shortfall on unexpected bad weather, not faulty forecasting.
Democrats relied largely on their own independent projections and a millionaire’s tax to justify the increase in spending, records show.
OLS budget officer David Rosen declined to comment.
Senate Democratic spokesman Derek Roseman criticized the Christie administration for failing to take any responsibility for the budget deficit.
"The way things go in the governor's office, which never, ever takes responsibility for anything, we're pretty sure Eli Manning's next in line to be at fault for the latest revenue numbers," Roseman said.