Christie defends his school funding “Fairness Formula”

By Chris Christie For 61/2 years, I have been able to effectively ignore the liberal, fact-twisting rantings of The Star-Ledger editorial board. But the stakes of this debate on property taxes and urban education are too great to ignore the newspaper’s latest emotional screed against my Fairness Formula. On property taxes, our residents pay the highest… Read the rest of this entry »

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Christie Shuts Down Road Construction

Arnone in talks to keep Monmouth County projects going uninterupted

Governor Chris Christie issued an Executive Order last night shutting down all projects funded by the state’s Transportation Trust Fund.  The fund’s authorization expired at midnight though published reports indicated that there is enough money in the fund to continue work through mid-August.

Christie’s dramatics came as a result of the Legislature failing to reauthorize the fund.  The Senate was considering a bi-partisan plan to reauthorize the fund with a $.23 per gallon gas tax increase while also phasing out the estate tax and income tax on retirement income.  The Assembly passed legislation negotiated by Christie and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto in the wee hours of Tuesday morning that would increase the gas tax $.23 and phase in a reduction in the state sales tax from 7% to 6%.  Christie said the last minute sales tax reduction was his idea.

The Christie/Prieto plan was widely panned from both the left an right and had little support in the Senate.

No plan under consideration addressed New Jersey’s highest in the nation cost of road construction: an estimated $2 million per mile on average.

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Christie signs $34.5B budget, cuts Democratic spending

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday signed a $34.5 billion budget, but not before slicing into the $300 million Democrats added to the spending plan earlier in the week. Christie handed down his line-item vetoes Thursday evening amid a stalemate over transportation funding and hours before the start of the new fiscal year. The Legislature… Read the rest of this entry »

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Christie’s off to Wall with education fairness plan

photo via Governor’s office

By Art Gallagher

Governor Chris Christie is back on the Town Hall circuit…now he is calling them forums…as he meets New Jersey voters on Tuesday in Wall Township to promote the school funding formula that he announced last week.

The “Fairness Formula Forum” will take place in the Wall branch of the Monmouth County Library, 2700 Allaire Rd., Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.  The doors open at 2:15 p.m and seating his first come first served.  RSVPs are encouraged for planning purposes to  [email protected].

Christie is saying that he wants a referendum in 2017 to amend the State Constitution so that State education funding is distributed equally to all school age children throughout the New Jersey.  He says that the State would contribute $6,500 per student.  Currently roughly 75% of State funding goes to 31 school districts, formerly referred to Abbott districts for the landmark Abbott vs Burke NJ Supreme Court decision that mandated that the State subsidize poor and urban districts.

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Bridgegate Defendants Demand Chris Christie’s Phone Be Turned Over

Bridget Ann Kelly, texting, with Governor Chris Christie and Michelle Brown at Seaside Park fire, September 12, 2013, photo by Phil Stilton

Lawyers representing indicted Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Executive Bill Baroni and staffer Bridget Kelly are asking for the cell phone embattled Christie was using at the time of Bridgegate. Baroni and Kelly’s attorneys cited Supreme Court precedent during the Watergate scandal, where it compelled President Richard Nixon to produce his audio tapes,… Read the rest of this entry »

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Christie takes aim at gas taxes, pensions, property taxes and teachers union

WHIPPANY — With the state’s Transportation Trust Fund less than three weeks away from running out of money for new road, bridge and rail projects, Gov. Chris Christie said the fix being pushed by the Democratic-controlled legislature lacked sufficient tax breaks to be signed into law. Speaking to the Morris County Chamber of Commerce on Monday,… Read the rest of this entry »

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Trump touts Christie at rally, says ‘there’s nothing like New Jersey’

LAWRENCE TWP. — For at least a bit, the focus of Donald Trump’s first campaign visit to New Jersey wasn’t on Donald Trump. Unlike his usual free rallies, admission to Trump’s event Thursday night at the Lawrenceville National Guard Armory was $200 (and $25 for students). Proceeds went to help Gov. Chris Christie, pay off the… Read the rest of this entry »

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Christie’s approval ratings sink to stink

TRENTON — Another poll, another bad sign for Gov. Chris Christie’s standing among New Jersey residents. The governor’s approval rating slipped to another all-time low, according to a new Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday. The survey found 64 percent of voters disapprove of the job Christie is doing, compared to only 29 percent who approve. The… Read the rest of this entry »

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Christie nominates Judge Escandon for tenure

Judge Paul X. Escandon

Governor Chris Christie announced yesterday that he has nominated Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Paul X. Escandon for reappointment to the bench.  Should Escandon be be confirmed by the State Senate, he will be a tenured Judge eligible to serve until the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Escandon was appointed to the Superior Court in 2009 by Governor Jon Corzine.  His service on the bench became a matter of public controversy when Governor Chris Christie lent a sympathetic ear to Rachel Alintoff, whose divorce was being presided over by Escandon, during a Town Hall Meeting in Garfield, Bergen County, on May 2, 2012.  Alintoff complained to Christie that Escandon stripped her of her parental rights as a punishment for seeking an Order of Protection against her estranged husband in New York and that the Judge ordered her estranged husband, who she said makes over $500,000 per year on Wall Street, to provide only $1000 per month in support for her and her son.

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What happened to Christie’s Bridgegate cell phone?

TRENTON — What happened to the cell phone Gov. Chris Christie was using during the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge is becoming a crucial part of the criminal defense of a key Bridgegate defendant. During a Monday afternoon Statehouse press conference, the governor told reporters it “doesn’t matter to me” if defense attorneys for… Read the rest of this entry »

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