An attitude of status quo

Governor Chris Christie came charging into Trenton pledging to turn it upside down in 2010. He made a left turn onto the Boulevard of Compromise in 2011, cruised the boulevard through 2012 and rode the waves of Sandy through 2013.   Now he’s hit a dead end on the bridgegate to nowhere.

The message of the FY 2015 Budget Address is ‘No Change.”   Christie warned of the looming crisis we sent him to Trenton to fix and offered no solutions. No reductions in government.  An increase in spending. Christie lamented that he couldn’t spend more because of commitments made to people who are no longer working and to repay money that has already been spent.

Christie meekly suggested that more pension and benefit reforms are necessary in order to grow the state government. State Senate President Steve Sweeney said, “We’re not doing it.”

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Governor Chris Christie’s FY 2015 Budget Address As Prepared For Delivery

Lt. Governor Guadagno, Speaker Prieto, President Sweeney, members of the Legislature, fellow New Jerseyans:

I am pleased to present to you my Budget for Fiscal Year 2015.

This is the fifth time I have come before this Legislature to deliver a budget message.

It is one of the most important obligations of any governor.

Today, I present to you a budget that is balanced, and, for the fifth year in a row, requires no new taxes on the people of New Jersey.

Total spending in this budget for the next fiscal year is $34.5 billion, with a responsible surplus of over $300 million.

Here is more important news.

This budget, when you take out pension and health care costs and debt service, is $2.2 billion smaller than Fiscal Year 2008.

Over the last five years we have cut discretionary spending by $2.2 billion.

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Governor Christie’s 2015 Budget Address

Governor Chris Christie will deliver his annual budget address to the legislature at 2pm this afternoon.  The address can be viewed via livestream provided by NJTV here:

“A Choice of Attitude” is the theme of Governor Chris Christie’s FY 2015 budget address.

Christie will argue that state government spending as proposed in his budget is $2.2 billion lower than the fiscal 2008 state budget, save for the $2.25 billion pension payment budget for this year.   He will call further pension reforms, arguing that the massive obligation to state employees prevents the government from spending on education, university research, energy, the environment and infrastructure.  He will argue that pensions and entitlements must be reformed in order to prevent a looming crisis.

Christie says new taxes are not an option.

Excerpts of Christie’s address as released by the Governor’s office is below:

A 5^th Balanced Budget Without Raising Taxes That Makes The Largest Pension Payment Ever

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Tax revenues indicate that New Jersey’s economy is on the upswing

New Jersey’s tax revenues exceeded projections for the seventh consecutive month and income tax collections were the highest ever in June, even without a “millionaires tax.”

The Treasury Department announced yesterday, that income tax collections in fiscal 2013 were 12.4% higher that in fiscal 2012 (the fiscal year ends on June 30) and sale tax collections increased 3.7%.

The State’s fiscal 2013 revenue collections through June totaled $25.6 billion, $1.58 billion higher than in fiscal 2012.

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Democrats Included Planned Parenthood Funding in NJ Supplemental Budget Proposal

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Christie: I am no fan of the Affordable Care Act….However it is now the law of the land…

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Christie: I believe New Jerseyans Are Overtaxed

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Governor Chris Christie’s Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Address

Lt. Governor Guadagno, Madam Speaker, Mr. President, members of the Legislature, fellow New Jerseyans:

I am pleased to present to you my budget for Fiscal Year 2014.

The budget continues a journey you began with me three years ago – to get New Jersey’s house in order; to turn Trenton upside down; to make hard but better choices so that we could put our state back on a path to growth.

For the fourth year in a row, the budget maintains the fiscal discipline we need to restore New Jersey. Fiscal sanity has indeed returned to Trenton.

For the fourth year in a row, this budget is balanced and imposes no tax increases on the people of New Jersey. I want every New Jersey citizen to remember just how different things were before we arrived. 115 tax and fee increases in eight years. Skyrocketing spending. $13 billion in deficits left on our doorstep by the irresponsibility of the past.

We must never take for granted what we have already achieved. Reduced spending. New jobs. Balanced budgets four years in a row. And lower taxes. It is truly a new day for New Jersey.

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Governor’s Budget Address

Governor Chris Chrisite is scheduled to deliver his annual budget address to the legislature this afternoon at 3PM

The address will be streamed live here at MoreMonmouthMusings:

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O’Scanlon Blasts Democratic Colleagues, Statehouse Press Corp Over S &P Outlook Spin

The three major credit rating agencies affirmed the credit ratings of New Jersey’s bonds within the last week.   Two of the three, Moody’s and Fitch affirmed the outlook for the State’s credit as stable.  However, while affirming their AA- rating today, Standard and Poor’s lowered their outlook for New Jersey from stable to negative.  S&P’s rationale for lowering their outlook is that they consider Governor Chris Christie’s revenue projections optimistic.

Democratic legislators, Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Vincent Prieto, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo and Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, a potential gubernatorial candidate next year, all jumped on the S&P outlook downgrade to score political points against Christie.  The Statehouse Press Corp was happy to advance the negative spin.

Monmouth County’s Declan O’Scanlon, the Assembly Republican Budget Officer, fired back against the Democrats and the media for “crowing” about the S&P report while falling mute over the Fitch and Moody’s reports is a scathing statement:

“My Democrat colleagues are like vultures seeking to pounce on potential prey despite the fact that their appetite will not be satisfied by one agency’s outlook,” said O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth. “They are always ready to jump on what they perceive to be negative news and many in the media buy into their political theatrics. Instead of working with the governor and Republicans in the Legislature, they continue to wait for gloom and doom predictions.

“The conduct and glee from our leading legislative Democrats is remarkable and disturbing. For days, they sat silent when two ratings agencies affirmed New Jersey’s credit rating in response to the Schools Development Corporation bond offering and today are dancing in the streets when a third rating agency – after also maintaining the state’s credit rating – gave an outlier’s opinion and lowered its outlook,” explained O’Scanlon. “To see this kind of political opportunism and rooting for failure from individuals entrusted with some of the highest leadership positions our government offers is disgraceful. Their Swiss cheese, fragmented perception of reality – with the holes miraculously lining up with anything positive about our state’s fiscal condition – is disturbing, but not surprising.”

“That our Statehouse press corps simply gobbles the partisan nonsense up so willingly is also a real disappointment, stated O’Scanlon. “That is especially so when you see them blindly quoting even those lawmakers who so vigorously fought bipartisan pension and benefits reforms in an effort that would have crippled New Jersey’s long-term efforts to fix our long-term economic health.

“Had we followed the path of the very people now attacking the Governor the outlook for the state’s future would be dramatically worse. They cannot, with a straight face, criticize this Governor with any credibility,” said O’Scanlon. “It was this governor that has started to turn our state around – and he had to fight the very people now attacking him in order to do that. The governor and Republicans know we are in a difficult economy and these are risky times. But we are also not afraid to make tough decisions. Previous Democrat administrations talked about tough times, but never took action. Without taking decisive action to fix many of our state’s problems,New Jerseywould be in a financial abyss.

“The Democrats’ are selling a bill of goods to the public and the media which conveniently ignores their eight-year record of expanding government spending and want us to believe their distorted view of reality,” commented O’Scanlon. “We have more work to do in turning our state around, but I am much more confident entrusting our state’s future with the Christie administration than its Democratic predecessors.”

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