New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pared $900 million from the state budget the Democrat-controlled Legislature sent him and enacted a $29.7 billion spending plan hours before the fiscal year was to expire.
His action Thursday averts a government shutdown of state parks and other “nonessential” government services ahead of the July 4th holiday weekend.
“An unconstitutional budget _ if signed in its current form _would step on the hard-won progress made over the last year and a half to right New Jersey's fiscal course over the long term and instead embraces Trenton's previous addiction to spending,” Christie said.
Democrats rejected the budget Christie proposed in February and drafted their own version, which added about $1 billion for school aid and a host of programs and services that benefit the poor and middle class.
The budget the Republican governor signed Thursday adds $150 million in public school aid on top of his original budget. It also keeps $447 million for the state's poorest schools, which was ordered by the state Supreme Court. But he redlined many of the Democratic add-ons, including additional property tax relief to seniors and the disabled, higher education aid and additional money for communities experiencing crime spikes.
Christie vetoed outright a separate bill that would have raised the income tax rate on the state's wealthiest 16,000 filers by nearly 2 percent.
Christie called the two-year “millionaires' tax” surcharge “a jobs killer.”
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Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who stood with the Republican governor on Monday to enact sweeping pension and health benefits reforms on public workers, said he was deeply disappointed with the governor's budget actions.
“This budget is cruel and mean-spirited to prove a point that he's in charge,” Sweeney said. “Well, guess what, we are going to fight back. We are going to make the arguments and prove a point that this is not right for the taxpayers of this state.”
The Democrats can attempt to override the governor's actions, but they will need help from some Republicans to succeed.
