TRENTON — Former Gov. Jon Corzine’s transition is scheduled to close up shop Monday after spending far less than originally budgeted. Corzine spokesman Josh Zeitz said the final tally appears to total about $135,000, compared with the $250,000 set aside for salary and the collection and cataloging of official records from Corzine’s four years in office. A total sum...
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Former Gov. Jon S. Corzine, pictured above in a file photo, is finishing his transition from governor on time and under budget.TRENTON — Former Gov. Jon Corzine’s transition is scheduled to close up shop Monday after spending far less than originally budgeted.
Corzine spokesman Josh Zeitz said the final tally appears to total about $135,000, compared with the $250,000 set aside for salary and the collection and cataloging of official records from Corzine’s four years in office. A total sum will be available after a final accounting later this summer.
Zeitz said the transition operation will officially close as scheduled Monday, six months to the day that Democrat Corzine was replaced by Republican Chris Christie. At that point, the office Corzine maintained at Gateway Center in Newark will be shuttered. Corzine plans to open a small office for personal business, probably in Hoboken where he resides, Zeitz said.
"He has spent less than any elected governor in the last 20 years," Zeitz said of the final budget for Corzine’s transition.
During that period, Tom Kean spent $144,553; Jim Florio $294,893; Christie Whitman $367,245; and James E. McGreevey $186,376. Richard Codey and Donald DiFrancesco, who became governor following resignations but were never elected, spent far less after leaving office.
Corzine’s transition will cover the $17,000 for his official portrait, but the former governor will pay for the unveiling ceremony out of his own funds. The official rendering that will hang in the governor’s outer office in the Statehouse is being painted by Loren Dunlap, a renowned artist and husband of Corzine’s longtime personal business manager, Nancy Dunlap.
The cost of Corzine’s official portrait is less than his two immediate predecessors, Codey and McGreevey, whose tabs were $24,500 and $25,000, respectively.
Even as Corzine’s transition office was functioning full-time, the ex-governor had largely removed himself from the process, opting to immerse himself in his new position as CEO at Manhattan-based finance firm MF Global. As soon as Corzine entered into serious negotiations for his new job during the winter, he discontinued his State Police security and driving detail, Zeitz said. Former governors are typically accompanied by troopers for six months after they leave office.
Corzine’s new job marked a return to Wall Street for the ex-governor, who had led fabled investment bank Goldman Sachs in the 1990s. Since leaving office, he has also announced he will be married to longtime companion Sharon Elghanayan. Zeitz said the couple is still trying to coordinate their family’s schedules to set a wedding date.
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