State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff and his wife reported earning at least $1.65 million from salaries, selling a home and a stock portfolio
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The Christie family, shown here in a file photo, earned more than $500,000 last year, a new report says. Many members of the governor's cabinet made even more.TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie and his wife earned more than $500,000 over the past year, but some members of the governor’s cabinet made far more, according to financial disclosure reports the State Ethics Commission released Thursday.
Christie’s wife, Mary Pat, was the main breadwinner in the family, bringing in more than $500,000 from her job as a vice president at the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald. Christie’s salary as governor is $175,000 a year.
The report also quietly marked the conclusion of the governor’s biggest campaign crisis last year — an undisclosed $46,000 loan to Michele Brown, a former top aide to Christie at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and now a senior staff member in the governor’s office.
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said Brown paid off the loan in October. The amount of income the Christies derived from the loan — less than $1,000 — was too small to require disclosure in Thursday’s report.
The revelation last August of the loan, which the governor failed to disclose on federal reports and tax statements, opened Christie to attacks that it was a conflict of interest for him to have an ongoing financial relationship with a federal prosecutor. Brown resigned shortly afterward.
According to the filing released Thursday, the Christies hold more than $500,000 in stocks and bonds that include Disney, Dell Inc. and two Goldman Sachs funds. They reported between $5,000 and $25,000 in royalties from investing in Listerine products, and they own a home in Mendham valued at more than $500,000.
By contrast, state Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff and his wife, Catherine Baxter, reported earning at least $1.65 million from salaries and selling a home in Manhattan, as well as income generated by a trust fund and a portfolio of stocks, bonds and mutual funds. They also hold at least $3.5 million in stocks and bonds.
Banking and Insurance Commissioner Thomas Considine earned at least $500,000 as a lobbyist and vice president for MetLife in the months leading up to his job as the state’s chief insurance regulator.
"The commissioner has recused himself from any regulatory matters involving MetLife," Banking and Insurance spokesman Marshall McKnight said.
Christie’s chief of staff, Richard Bagger, earned more than $500,000 as an executive at Pfizer before leaving the drugmaker to work for Christie in January. He and his wife, Barbara Laird, also have more than $1 million in stocks and bonds.
Lieutenant Gov. Kim Guadagno, the state’s second-highest ranking official, and her husband, Superior Court Judge Michael Guadagno, reported at least $230,000 in combined income and having at least $51,000 in two stock market funds.
The reports do not offer a complete financial picture because they only list ranges of income, from between $1,000 to $5,000 to the highest category at "greater than $500,000."
Ron Miskoff, president of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government, said the reports should include ranges above $500,000.
"You can’t differentiate between a thousandaire and a billionaire," he said
Christie criticized the reports when running for office, saying he wanted to revamp them to include more detail. But he issued an executive order in May that left them largely unchanged and delayed this year’s disclosure deadline from May to August. The governor also filed an extension for his 2009 taxes and did not disclose an income estimate.
Christie’s deputy chief counsel, Kevin O’Dowd, said the taxes will be disclosed as soon as they’re filed, and to stay tuned for plans for more detailed reporting requirements.
"We can expect the governor to announce an ethics reform package in the coming weeks," he said.
Those reforms will likely include stricter disclosure for state lawmakers, Drewniak said.
Lawmakers’ disclosures — submitted in May for last year’s income — currently have significantly less detail than the other reports, with the highest category of income at "more than $50,000."
Sixty-two state lawmakers reported they or their spouses made money from various government agencies, authorities, public schools or state pensions.
The state’s top two Democrats have other public jobs. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) donates his $18,000 Gloucester County freeholder salary to three charities for the developmentally disabled. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) makes $83,000 a year as an administrator for Essex County.
By Matt Friedman and Susan K. Livio, Statehouse Bureau