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Egos, revenge & secret deals: The inside story of The Jersey Shutdown, 2017

(Editor’s note: This story was reported and written by Matt Arco, Brent Johnson, and Susan K. Livio of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com.) TRENTON — When Gov. Chris Christie signed the final state budget of his career shortly before 3 a.m. Tuesday, it ended the most contentious political drama New Jersey has seen in more than…

Posted: July 7th, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: New Jersey | Tags: , , , , | 3 Comments »

3 Comments on “Egos, revenge & secret deals: The inside story of The Jersey Shutdown, 2017”

  1. Barry said at 12:45 pm on July 7th, 2017:

    Christie just showed everyone how not to play a strong hand. His arrogance on the beach was enough to kill his chances of a Horizon deal. He could have stayed in the house only extreme partisans would have begrudged the family or friends to be on the beach. He could have shown that he was personally sacrificing in sympathy to those shut out by what he wanted to portray as Prieto’s shutdown. Instead it looked like he wanted his private time.

  2. Nothing more arrogant said at 7:58 am on July 8th, 2017:

    than a self- server who not only leaves a dubious record behind, but also takes the rest of his party and supporters down with him. The faster this unfortunate chapter in the not-so-illustrious history of the NJGOP closes, the quicker those who decide to try to re- build what’s left, and stay, can get going again. A sad,shameful, and very unproductive experience, for most of us!!

  3. Mike Harmon said at 10:27 am on July 10th, 2017:

    “Give them bread and circuses”

    It seems to me the joke is on us and I admit to falling for it again, particularly getting some help to our drug addled kids.

    Yet I am grateful that now at least I am off the Christie defense team – not that it mattered or anyone cares. I had faith in this man during his first term and thought he could and would do hard and great things for NJ.

    It seems to me the biggest and largely ignored fact is that Governor and Legislature sat back and allowed near monopoly and fake-non-profit Horizon BCBS to have $3 billion in surplus at the end of 2016 with another $1 million in current liabilities (12 months), or $4 billion reserved on $12 billion in revenues (premiums). The bogus justification is that this surplus represents just 75 days of claims. Well that may be so but doesn’t consider the $1 billion in current liabilities on the balance sheet for current claims and the fact that Horizon is still collecting inflated and unjustified premiums.
    I have been arguing that small businesses have lost the ability to shop for health insurance with only two carriers left in NJ , Horizon and Qualcare (correct me if I am wrong but this is what our broker told us).
    We were hit with new premium increases of 41% in 2017 by Horizon which would have brought our insurance and deductibles to $16,100 per person.
    So the Insurance Commissioner, Gov and Legislature have allowed Horizon to overcharge premiums and build up an influence buying surplus (profits) on our backs. Why, because they wanted to wack up the profits (surplus) themselves.